brownies

My daily routine is to wake up, use the bathroom, turn on the tv and then make my breakfast. I usually turn on the tv to channel 22 (the weather channel), then to channel 10 (the today show), and then to channel 42 (the food network).

This morning Nigella Lawson on the Food network inspired me to make brownies. I am a fan of box brownies (Ghirardelli) and have never been able to create a brownie from scratch that had the gooey, chocolaty, and fudgy characteristics that I enjoy. Since I wanted to rid my pantry of chocolate, I decided to test my luck at a homemade brownie. And boy was it yummy! I am a harsh critic of my cooking, but it had the fudgy characteristics that I love!

I also like to incorporate fiber into most of my food (because most Americans do not consume the recommended 25-30g of fiber a day), so I tossed it into this matrix.

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 T unsalted butter

2 T water

1.5 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips*

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla extract

2/3 c. flour (sifted)

1/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. Fibersure (optional)

1/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 8"x8" pan

2. Combine sugar, butter, and water. Heat on medium heat until boiling. Take off the burner and mix in the chocolate until smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.

3. Combine and sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the chocolate mixture.

4. Stir in the extra 1/4 c. of chocolate chips.

5. Pour and spread into the pan.

6. bake for 25-30 minutes, cool and then cut into squares.

*I used a mixture of dark chocolate hershey's kisses, ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chips, and nestle semi-sweet chocolates. If you really like dark chocolate, I'd recommend the ghiradelli. They are my favorite and you can buy a huge bag of this at Sam's Club.

no blogs for a while

my laptop crashed. it's dead. and i had taken pictures of my gluten-making, dorayaki, and orange chiffon cake. so no pictures for the next few weeks.

i'm really quite bummed about the whole thing. i think i should take better care of my computer. i decided that i will name my new computer. maybe that will help keep it alive. i even decided on a name. i think kirby is an appropriate name. yeah, it's random and it reminds me of that marshmallow nintendo character. but it's has a tech edge to it.

dorayaki

Dorayaki is a japanese pancake. It is commonly found sandwiching a little bit of azuki bean paste. It's one of my favorite desserts! I was lazy so I just made the outer cakes and ate them.
Recipe:
1 c. flour
1/c sugar
1 T honey
1/2 t. baking powder
2 eggs
oil for frying

caffeine and addiction

I had to write a paper about a Food Additive for my Food Safety class. While presenting information about caffeine to the class, a student asked me if caffeine was an addictive substance. I said, "no" and this led to the professor telling me I was wrong and I ended up looking like a dummy. This frustrated me because I had initially thought that caffeine was an addictive source while writing the paper, but then I changed my mind. In class I started doubting myself again (b/c the teacher and some of the students disagreed with me), so I went to check it out after class.
I will post more about this later, but for now, read this article: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=13971 Although the review was funded by the American Beverage Association.

Here's the American Beverage Association's view on caffeine. Of course, this might be a slightly biased point of view because the ABA wants to keep caffeine in beverages.

Even the FDA cannot figure it out. I guess what really needs to happen is to have a study conducted on caffeine and addiction that is funded by the government.

cupcakes

The other week I made cupcakes for one of my labmate's birthday. I only had vanilla cake mix and did not have the time to make a cake from scratch. So I improvised. I added red food coloring to the mix and some raspberry flavor to the batter. Topped with a cream cheese frosting (i made this), and sprinkles. It had a Spring vibe to it even though they were "birthday" cupcakes.

The rsbc challenge is over, but I guess once you have a routine, you stick to it. So today I ran 5 miles on the elliptical machine, I ran 5 miles on Sunday. Mondays and Wednesdays are bike and swim days. But this time workshops and research will trump going to the gym.