~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 8th

★~Today’s Quote: “Where’s your will to be weird? ” ― Jim Morrison

★~ Brownie Day: 

We have a client friend that brought us brownies one day when she dropped off her pups at camp. Cole and I fell face first into them—they were just that good. Cole asked me to ask her for the recipe. I told him I would, and wondered how I would torture the recipe out of her if she told me her mother made her promise on her deathbed never to share the family brownie recipe. Then I remembered her dogs were camping with me. No brownie recipe…no pups. When she arrived to pick up her pups, while holding her pups leashes firmly in my hand I asked her if she would share the world’s best brownie recipe with Cole and me—and I told her I was not going to take no for an answer. First she looked bemused (feelings of wry and tolerant amusement), and then she started to laugh hard. Very hard.

I was confused. Finally, she blurted out the “family secret” brownie recipe was Ghirardelli brownie mix, and I could buy a big box at Costco. This was such good news! I was expecting to spend at least two hours’ prep time making these brownies, and she just told me I could mix them up and have the pan in the oven in under five minutes. If you have not tried them—you must.

Now, one more tip. You do not need a brownie pan to get great-looking brownies out of the pan. All you need is a plastic knife. Using the plastic knife, cut the brownies in half, and then cut them into fourths, and then eighths…easy-peasy, light and breezy! Perfect-looking brownies for the price of a plastic knife. I learned this from The Bearded Iris. Try it—it works.

The best way to celebrate Brownie Day is to whip up a batch of brownies using your favorite recipe or mine.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1956 – The Olympic games, which had opened Nov 22, closed this day at Melbourne, Australia. ‘The Friendly Games’, as this Olympiics came to be known, was Australia’s first attempt at hosting the Olympics and left “an enduring legacy not only for Melbourne and Australia but for the Olympic movement itself.”

♥~ 1963 – Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped at gunpoint from a hotel in Lake Tahoe. He was released two days later after his father paid out the $240,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers, who were later captured, and sentenced to long prison terms. In order to communicate with the kidnappers via a payphone the senior Sinatra carried a roll of dimes with him throughout this ordeal, which became a lifetime habit, he is said to have been buried with a roll of dimes.

♥~ 1980 – Tragically John Lennon’s death was announced on Monday Night Football just a few years after he had been interviewed on that same show. Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell made the announcement.

♥~ 1990 – Workers at the Hypermarket in Norwood, South Africa, baked histories largest pizza, 122 feet 8 inches in diameter. Ingredients included 9,920 lbs of flour, 198 lbs of salt, 3968 lbs of cheese and 1984 lbs of tomato puree.

♥~ 1995 – The first 75 mph speed limit signs were installed in Montana and Wyoming

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1902 – Oswald Jacoby bridge player, author, journalist: syndicated bridge columnist [1949-1984], considered the best card player in the world in 1950; died June 27, 1984

♥~ 1925 – Sammy Davis Jr, singer, actor, (1972 US No.1 single ‘The Candy Man’).

♥~ 1942 – Bobby Elliott musician: drums: group: The Hollies over 25 top 40 hits since 1963, 1972 US No.2 single ‘Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress’, 1988 UK No.1 single ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’, first released in 1969.

♥~ 1943 – Jim Morrison, Songwriter, poet, lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison is considered to be one of the fathers of contemporary rock.

♥~ 1947 – Gregg Allman musician keyboards, guitar, vocals, Allman Brothers Band, (1973 US No.12 single ‘Ramblin Man’).

♥~ 1953 – Kim Basingeractress: Ready to Wear, Wayne’s World 2, The Real McCoy, The Getaway, Final Analysis, Cool World, The Marrying Man, Batman, My Stepmother is an Alien, Blind Date, 9 1/2 Weeks, The Natural, Hard Country; former town owner: Braselton, GA; married to actor Alec Baldwin

♥~ 1966 – Sinéad O’Connor singer: Nothing Compares to You, My Lagan Love, No Man’s Woman, Emma’s Song, This Is a Rebel Song, Molly Malone, Thank You for Hearing Me

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ The brownie was invented (according to brownie lore and exaggerated by Kb) by a housewife in Bangor Maine. She forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate cake and it did not rise properly…her husband went ahead and ate the unleavened treat pronounced it very tasty and gave his wife brownie points for effort.  The housewife was a little tired of hearth and home so she left her husband and marketed her treat under the name ‘Brownie.’ And became rich, famous, and fat.

♥~ The first time that a the name ‘brownie’ appeared in a recipe book was in the 1896 version of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Meritt Farmer. This brownie was in reference to tiny cake like versions, not a true brownie like you would find today.

♥~ In 1906 a real brownie recipe was published  in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, for the first time.

♥~ Cake brownie? Fudge Brownie? The two sides shall never meet.  It’s all a matter of taste and war.

♥~ The world’s largest brownie was made in 2001, weighed in at 3,000 lbs. and was made from 750 lbs. of chocolate chips, 500 lbs. of butter, 850 lbs of sugar, 500 lbs. of flour and 3,500 eggs.

♥~ Cannabis is the most controversial brownie mix-in, walnut remains the most popular and legal.

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Do you like Fudge brownies or cake brownies. Do tell all! Odd Loves Company!  Wishing you a  tremendous Thursday!

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