Brownies!

Today's Wonder of the World is...Brownies! All kinds!
Like this stack of chocolaty heaven.

Flickr photo by Bender Works
Oh good gracious, that photo is waking up the chocolate monster within me!
MUST. DIVERT. ATTENTION. NOW!!!

Let's look at another type of brownie, all right?
Like this one, from my 1971 Brownie handbook.

Aren't those girls cute? And they all have the same haircut!
That Brownie uniform was the whole reason I started Girl Scouts. Though I don't think I ever wore gloves with mine. Gloves would have gotten in the way when I was licking my fingers while eating all those Girl Scout cookies.

Uh oh. Now I'm thinking Thin Mints.
Sorry, I have chocolate on the brain.

Let's look at a Brownie from Folk and Fairy Tales by Peter Christen Asbjornsen, a Norwegian naturalist and folklorist. (He's one of the authors of Three Billy Goats Gruff!)

Flickr photo by puzzlemaster
The caption reads, "The brownie flings the crockery."
What a naughty brownie! Who would have thought that there was such a thing as a bad brownie?!

And how about this kind?

Flickr photo by mHudson
It's Brownie, the old mascot from the Cleveland Browns! Apparently he's back in style with their new management, though I couldn't seem to get a straight answer about just who is the mascot of the Cleveland Browns. Is it a dog? A brownie? The letters CB?

Oh dear. I feel a rant coming on. Remember the mascot post, and how my children's high school mascot is now the letter R? Go HERE to relive the drama.
Or not.

Brownies are supposed to be helpful, for goodness sake, not flinging crockery.

Arthur Stillwell would stick up for Brownies, because apparently they helped him out a lot! He's the founder of Port Arthur, Texas, and he claimed that brownies told him where to put the city.

Hmm.
Not to be critical, but maybe he should have named it Port Brownie, Texas.
Just a thought.


So what else do Brownies do, when they're not planning out cities?
I looked it up in my old handbook, just to refresh my memory, and that's when I started to feel a little like flinging crockery.
Well, not really.
I'm not an angry person.
But look! The handbook said we should look at what our mothers do, to see how we can be helpful. And this is what Mothers do, apparently.

And if we're really quiet and don't interrupt his manly work, I suppose we can watch what daddies do too.

Hey. Wasn't this in 1971? Hadn't we learned things by then about what girls can do and boys can do? Then why isn't that daddy sitting criss-cross-applesauce and watching his daughter complete the circuit? I'm glad we've moved on since then.

I need to calm down and go eat a brownie.
And remind myself of how much I loved scouts! And how much it taught me!
Like when I earned my photography badge.

I guess they didn't cover centering.
Or maybe I was being an artist, making some kind of statement about being kept behind a gate, in the playground of life.

Or maybe not.
Hey! I just thought of another kind of Brownie!
This one!

Flickr photo by BENDER Works
And that gives me a great excuse to show you this AMAZING art that I just discovered on Etsy!
Look!

Isn't Elmer Wonder-full?
It's by the artist at Artsy's Shop, HERE. (Thanks, Artsy, for the photos!)
Go visit! Browse around! You won't believe the cool things you'll see!
Some are so whimsically wonderful that you may want to tattoo them to your arm!


See what I mean?

I love those mixer pups!
And they're making me think of mixing up some chocolaty goodness!
Like this.

Another Etsy wonder! This clever artist used brownie boxes and other food boxes and made them into postcards!
See the back?

Aren't those fun?
Go HERE to see the whole stack.

I can't stand it any more. I must go feed the chocolate monster within me.
Are you in a Brownie mood?
If so, feel free to use this recipe if you don't have a mix. I warn you, if you eat them as you sneak into your bedroom, (not that I would) you'll leave a Hansel and Gretel trail behind you. Very crumbly delicious!

Killer Brownies
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 lb. unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Melt chocolate and butter together and cool. Mix eggs and sugar. Add flour to chocolate and butter and stir well. Add rest and mix well.
Grease a 9x13 pan and add batter.
Bake for 25 minutes or so at 350 until done.

I need to change the name. "Killer" scares me.
Maybe The Moist Delicious Brownies In The World!


Have a Wonder-full Monday, y'all!
Love, Becky