The item the first: brownies. We had company over for bagels after church, which was our traditional lunch growing up. I hadn't planned anything for dessert, so I just looked in the cupboards and decided to make the easiest thing. Only we didn't have enough chocolate squares, so I adapted the recipe to be 2/3 the usual amount, which also worked out well when I discovered that my 9 x 13 pan wasn't here. We ended up with thick brownies baked in an 8 x 8 pan. Here's the original recipe.
Source: a typewritten sheet in my mom's kitchen
Great for: dessert
Serves: 12 people, or 6 people over two days.
6 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup butter
5 eggs (yes, five)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and chocolate together. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Beat in, one ingredient at a time, the eggs, vanilla, and sugar, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Sift together flour and salt, and add to chocolate mixture, beating until just combined.
Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Note: we are fans of less-baked brownies, and my dad, while being the biggest chocolate fan in our household, has been known not to eat even slightly overbaked brownies.
The item the second: baby D has been getting terrible diaper rashes lately, and I can't tie it to any particular food. It seems to crop up most often when she wears her cloth diapers overnight, and then it takes days of copious diaper cream and wearing disposables to get rid of it. I was starting to think we would either have to stop using cloth, or get some special cream to use with her cloth, since you're not supposed to use creams that contain zinc oxide, petroleum, or anything else you'd find in the diaper creams we happen to have at home. These ingredients can apparently hinder absorption, which I personally would not want to do.
Anyway, it turned out that there was a simple solution, and we had it at home, too. A few weeks ago, a friend gave us some cloth diapers that her grandkids had outgrown, along with several rolls of biodegradable, flushable diaper liners. This would go between the actual cloth of the diaper and the bum. When I checked the website for our cloth diapers, this is what they suggest using if you want to also use regular diaper creams. Problem solved! Baby D is back in cloth diapers as of today. Speaking of which, she needs a change! As a joke, we're teaching her to hold her nose if she stinks, or to say "mouffette" (French for skunk).
It's great those liners work! I've been using them for the first morning change, after which Annika always 'goes'. More often and they irritate her skin.
ReplyDeleteI always find that zinc oxide recommendation interesting - Mom always used it with cloth and I do too, with no noticeable absorption issues at all. But others say they notice an issue.
There are so many variables with cloth!