Sunday, June 13, 2004

Recipe of the week--Crack Brownies Umm, not really. But a guest at our Kerry fundraiser last night thusly christened these brownies (heretofore modestly known as "World's Best Brownies"), and given their popularity, I thought it appropriate. These are immensely easy, very dense, very rich brownies, not at all cakey. So if that's not your brownie style, you may not like them. 6 oz best quality 70% dark chocolate (Scharrfenberger is my favorite) 1 - 1/2 sticks unsalted butter 1 - 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 t vanilla 1 cup flour 6 oz best quality chocolate chips Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a 13x9 inch baking pan (glass is best.) Microwave dark chocolate and butter together in a large bowl. How long depends upon your oven; I do 3 to 4 minutes at 70% power. You want to just melt the chocolate (the butter will melt easily; the chocolate is denser and takes longer.) If you nuke too long, the chocolate will burn, so check it a couple of times, and give it a stir before returning it to the microwave. Remove from oven, stir to make sure all the chocolate is melted and to blend the butter and chocolate together. Allow to cool completely to room temperature. (This is very important--if the chocolate mixture is too hot when you add the other ingredients, the texture of the brownies will be grainy.) Add sugar and mix thoroughly. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix fully. Stir the flour in 1/2 cup at a time, and stir (I use a plastic scraping spatula) until the texture is satiny. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Check with a cake tester. The brownies should be firmly set, the top shiny, and not overcooked around the edges. Cool in the pan on a rack. You can cut them while they're still warm, but they're likely to fall apart. But that's ok if you're eating them right away with vanilla ice cream. 10:33:57 PM     comment []

Onward This may be the greatest news in a long, long time. Kudos for the LA Times for putting it on the front page, and shame on the New York Times, for becoming the paper that reflects the lazy newgathering of all the other mainstream outlets, as opposed to the home of "All the news that's fit to print." I made the executive decision to finally subscribe to the LA Times about two months ago (after 13 years living here, reading only the NY Times daily--I know, I know) against H's wishes, and we're both glad we did. By the way, doesn't the past week of non-stop Reagan eulogizing by every friggin' media organization give the lie to the notion of a "liberal" media? Discuss amongst yourselves. Last night, the H and I, along with three other couples, hosted a Kerry fundraiser, a house party really, and much to our delighted self-congratulation, we raised around $22,000 for the Kerry campaign. One of the other co-hosts has a friend who had a connection to Arianna Huffington, so were able to have her as our featured speaker. I've been a fan of Arianna ever since she found religion and moved away from her previous conservatism (and, I must admit, thoroughly loathed her in her previous incarnation.) But she has always been extremely articulate and pithy about her positions, and clearly a big intellect. Last night, she was fantastic. I wasn't sure what to expect; the process of putting together this party has been something of a lesson in how undervalued small (i.e., under $25,000) donors are in California (where a Kerry victory is a foregone conclusion) and I worried about a "star" like Arianna feeling like she was slumming at our (very nice, $250/person suggested minimum) party. My worries were completely unfounded. Arianna was more than gracious, beyond that, totally engaged with everyone with whom she spoke, and her speech was fabulous. Among the highlights, no surprise to her fans, was her indictment of the laziness of the media in focusing on the Reagan circus when there is real, important news to be presented. But also fantastic was her exploration of what the Reagan hysteria means about the American zeitgeist. She spoke about our collective longing for a leader who can appeal to our best natures, who can inspire the kind of civic solidarity we found after the tragedy of September 11, and about why, for her, John Kerry can and will be that leader. Her point about the accusations of Kerry "changing his mind" on issues was particularly a propos: as someone who has famously changed her own mind, she knows that what it really means is to be open to learning from new information and ideas--a quality sorely lacking in the current President and his administration. So kudos and thanks to Arianna for inspiring and firing up us and our friends. There's a long road ahead, but I feel one small step closer thanks to her and the fellowship and generosity we experienced last night. 7:42:01 PM     comment []