Blog Posts by Brownies for Dinner

Be honest. When no one else is around, what do you eat? Though I ate that beautiful pasta for lunch yesterday, what I ate alone used to lie somewhere between chocolate and cake more often than not. Yeah, I ate a lot of dessert by myself. And while on some level I always knew that wasn't quite right, I realized recently how far from center I was.

Now for those of you who rarely get days alone, treating yourself to a decadent meal or dessert probably isn't a big deal. But now that I work from home, I spend most days eating alone for at least 2 meals a day. So desserts weren't really a treat for me so much as a way to fill a hole. I could ramble on for pages about the psychology behind this behavior and what brought me to this unhappy dependence on sweets, but that isn't really what I want to focus on right now.

The truth is it is easier to give in or give up than it is to change the things you know aren't right. And I have given in a lot. But I think my efforts to be healthier are

Here are a few more holiday treats to share with your friends...

Related Recipes:

• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

• Palmiers

• Marbled peppermint bark

• Praline cookies

• Jello spritz cookies

• Sugar cookies

Any one of these cookies is sure to win you a friend or two. But if you're like me, you might have a little trouble sharing them...

Related Recipes:

• deep well cookies

• chocolate crinkles

• chocolate chocolate mint chip cookies

• lemon butter cookies

• (mock) cranberry bliss bars

• coconut macaroons

When planning our fourth of July party, I knew I wanted to offer a cocktail. I expected most of the guys to drink beer, but that the ladies would appreciate something light and refreshing. I was looking for something that said summer.


I found inspiration flipping through the latest issue of Gourmet: Watermelon Margarita Ice Pops. Mmm. That sounded good. I didn't feel like ice pops exactly, but they were onto something with the watermelon. So I closed my eyes and repeated "watermelon margaritas" three times. Then set off to create something that would do the fruit justice.

By no means do I think this is a first. I know plenty of people have made watermelon (and many other flavored) margaritas. But I didn't want to follow someone else's recipe. I wanted to "wing it" and drink any mistakes. But the reviews were positive. Everyone went back for a second glass. The watermelon was light and refreshing... the perfect prelude to sliders, hot dogs, baked beans, and pie.


Watermelon

When I was a kid, my parents owned a fried chicken restaurant for a couple of years ("TJ's Fried Chicken"... I don't know who TJ was, they bought the business with the name). I ate a little too much chicken during those years. I would go to the restaurant after school to help out cleaning up and sometimes taking orders. My after school snack was anything we served in the restaurant, most of it was fried (chicken, egg rolls, biscuits, rice...) and as an eleven year old, that was A-Okay with me. But after a couple of years of after school snacks, I was "over" chicken... or as my friend PJ might say "Chicken and I broke up." I do still love fried chicken on occasion, but generally I have a love-hate relationship with chicken. So imagine my surprise when I started craving BBQ chicken. Usually when my stomach wants BBQ, I think of ribs or pulled pork or maybe brisket. But chicken? I don't crave chicken. (Well, except for an occasional perfect roast chicken).


Most of the BBQ chicken that I

If someone gave you seven homegrown, fresh-picked grapefruit, what would you do? Thank them of course, but after that? If you were me, you would make marmalade. Not because marmalade is your favorite jam-like substance. Not because grapefruit is your favoritest citrus fruit. No. You would make marmalade because you've been obsessed over home-canning and thought it would be a perfect gateway drug. Yes! I'm weird, I can't help it. I've had it in my mind that I wanted to make jam and pickles and can them myself. I want to have a shelf lined with homey jars filled with homemade preserves made from fresh fruits from the farmers market and friends' fruit trees.

Thanks to this bounty of grapefruit, I have a modest start to filling that shelf. One of Dan's coworkers has a grapefruit tree and bestowed upon him a bag full of grapefruit. This is what is left after round 1 of marmalade-ing...

That's dirt on them. I scrubbed them clean before using them. Can you imagine finding dirt on fruit at

If you've been reading along, by now you know I'm from the South. It's not something I talk about that often typically, but my stomach seems to be a little homesick lately (Nothing some good BBQ wouldn't cure, but I can't find the kind of pulled pork I want around here). Anyhow, today I'm bringing you a quintessential Southern drink: the mint julep. Funny thing though, I never had a mint julep when I lived in Georgia. The first one I had was at a restaurant in San Francisco. Haha.
I learned to make mint juleps from Alton Brown's recipe about 2 years ago. And the first couple of times I made them, I followed his recipe precisely. And the cocktails turn out consistently good by following the recipe. But cocktails are not an exact science, in my opinion. So now I wing it. I mean, you know what tastes good and what you like. Besides, you can always drink your mistakes.

"The grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes" - Julia Child (ran across that quote reading Every

I don't usually do anything in particular to celebrate Earth Day, but I have been making small changes to my habits over the last few years to green my life. Things like using reusable shopping bags, reducing my consumer tendencies, and finding creative ways to reuse things. Like this bag. It's made from fused plastic shopping bags. Originally it was meant to be my lunch bag, but it has become an all-purpose almost purse for me because it holds everything from my water bottle to a book to keys to pens and small notebooks and of course, my iphone. I keep thinking I'll make more of these and put them on Etsy but I have been baking more than sewing lately. (Although with this heat wave that may be changing soon).

Anyhow, I had a small pile of Amazon boxes and Dan had several more unwanted boxes. And rather than throw them out or send them to be recycled, I decided to reuse them. I saw this project from Design Sponge a few months ago and decided to give it a shot. My cats love the