SBD: chocolate works better
I was going to write about the reviewer who uses many!! exclamation marks, mixes your/you're, its/it's, their/they're and then expects her opinion on someone else's writing to be taken seriously. . .but really? Duh.
After that, I toyed with the idea of HEA vs the poignant and memorable tragic ending supplied by a bus and how that book is taken more seriously just because of the damn bus . . . but no, that was trite too.
What about the sprinkling of comedy in a mostly dark book? Why does it drive people nuts? I mean if Shakespeare can do it then why can't . . . oh, honestly. Yawn.
I have better luck with chocolate.
4 squares of baking chocolate (unsweetened)
1 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 or 1.5 cups semisweet chips.
Melt baking choc and butter
Mix everything together.
Bake in a 13x9 pan for about 30-35 minutes
Checking for doneness via the toothpick method doesn't work well because of the melty chocolate chips, but try it anyway.
Measurements Translated for Bron who is Upside-down.
1 square of chocolate= 1 oz = 28.349 gram
1 stick butter= 8 tablespoons= 1/2 cup= 4 ounces= 113.4 grams
TWO cups regular, granulated sugar= 16 ounces= 1 pound= 453.6 grams (this one I'm not sure of!! I think it's less than a pound because a five pound bag of sugar has more than ten cups in it. I think. But I am NOT going to open a bag and measure.)
3 eggs = 3 eggs, chicken= 3 ova from Gallus domesticus . Large.
1 cup flour [US] = 0.946 cup [metric]= 125 grams, I think.
1 - 1.5 cups chocolate chips = enough chips to make the brownies taste good but not so many they fall apart.
After that, I toyed with the idea of HEA vs the poignant and memorable tragic ending supplied by a bus and how that book is taken more seriously just because of the damn bus . . . but no, that was trite too.
What about the sprinkling of comedy in a mostly dark book? Why does it drive people nuts? I mean if Shakespeare can do it then why can't . . . oh, honestly. Yawn.
I have better luck with chocolate.
Simple but Effective Brownies
4 squares of baking chocolate (unsweetened)
1 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 or 1.5 cups semisweet chips.
Melt baking choc and butter
Mix everything together.
Bake in a 13x9 pan for about 30-35 minutes
Checking for doneness via the toothpick method doesn't work well because of the melty chocolate chips, but try it anyway.
*****
oven temp=medium= 350 degrees Fahrenheit=
176.66666666666668 Celsius = 449.81667 Kelvin
Measurements Translated for Bron who is Upside-down.
1 square of chocolate= 1 oz = 28.349 gram
1 stick butter= 8 tablespoons= 1/2 cup= 4 ounces= 113.4 grams
TWO cups regular, granulated sugar= 16 ounces= 1 pound= 453.6 grams (this one I'm not sure of!! I think it's less than a pound because a five pound bag of sugar has more than ten cups in it. I think. But I am NOT going to open a bag and measure.)
3 eggs = 3 eggs, chicken= 3 ova from Gallus domesticus . Large.
1 cup flour [US] = 0.946 cup [metric]= 125 grams, I think.
1 - 1.5 cups chocolate chips = enough chips to make the brownies taste good but not so many they fall apart.
If your country doesn't sell chocolate chips:
1. organize a protest to make sure grocers know that's just plain wrong
2. chop up some bars of semi-sweet dark chocolate to use in the meantime
Now, that's what I really hate 'bout American recipes. I can translate oz to grams etc, but how the heck much is 'a square', huh???? And what the flock is a 'stick' of butter???
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm anally retentive and measure everything (like someone else in my household), but *sniff* I need a little more information, here. Or a babelfish. Preferably one that knows cooking terms.
okay. There, I think I did it for you.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, the problem is the cup measure. A cup of flour weighs less than a cup of butter. I don't know what a cup of sugar weighs. . .
I'm reasonably sure the butter and the chocolate are the same approximate weight--although maybe the butter weighs less. But then you'd have too much chocolate and that's never really a problem.
Deer Kate.
ReplyDeleteIm sure their are reasons why you don't like reviewers who mess up they're grammer or spelling. But, really, aren't you just saying that your a snob? Cuz I right a lot for my friends, and the all know what I mean. I think that if you spend all you're time picking a part the spelling then youll forget to really understand the deeply felt emotions each reviewer has!! Just because Im not using a spell checker doesn't mean Im not worth listening 2!!
Think about it Kate.
By 4 now.
Damn, it didn't get it's or their in there once...
ReplyDeleteOkay, I want to know who is liable when I choke on my pistachios from laughing.
ReplyDeleteNienke--
ReplyDeleteThat's easy: Suisan.
I'm a reviewer with horrible-a$$ grammar and admit it freely. I've got the whole your/you're and their/they're thing down pat - but serious its/it's still confuses the h*ll out of me.
ReplyDeleteAnd can I just say that the semicolon is the tool of the devil?
Damn the diet, I think I'm going to do some cooking this weekend.
ReplyDeleteBut I won't show the DH the recipe. I'm planning on rounding the figures, but he'd measure 28 grams of choc, 113 of butter etc. Exactly.
Hmm, I wonder if we have the same types of chickens over here...
I will rewrite an entire sentence if it requires either 1---a semicolon or 2---the correct usage of lay/lie.
ReplyDeleteI could write a thousand books and not get lay/lie write.
And Bron's comment made me laugh, thinking about the first time I saw my husband make mac & cheese. He actually measured the milk, salt and butter. *g*
Shannon, not only does mine measure everything, but it is a scientific process - one has to work out the most exact way to measure.
ReplyDeleteHe makes a damn fine mac cheese though - *exactly* the same every time.
(Needless to say, he can't stand to be in the kitchen when I'm cooking, and won't let me anywhere near when he's cooking!)