brownie time OR parting is such sweet sorrow

John is leaving me tomorrow to go to Nashville. Seeing as I have the day off work today, I thought I'd whip up a batch of brownies, his favorite dessert. Recently I've been a convert of brownies made from cocoa powder, as opposed to the usual melted chocolate. I find if you use really high quality cocoa (for this recipe I use Valhrona), it really emphasizes the deep dark rich chocolatey flavor of the recipe. Link to recipe below. NOTE* The recipe calls for walnuts, but I used hazelnuts, as I prefer the depth of the hazelnut/chocolate flavor combo. I toasted the hazelnuts to bring out the nuttiness and then finely chopped them so they became almost akin to nut flour - very small grainy chunks. I also took the liberty of adding a 1/3 cup of 80% dark valhrona chocolate -cut into chunks. Enjoy! Feel free to also adjust and be as creative as possible in your choice of added/subbed extra ingredients.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/best-cocoa-brownies/

PPS-this recipe can be made vegan very easily by subbing apple sauce for the eggs.

here's the link to the king arthur flour muffin recipe, 100% whole wheat!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cranberry-whole-grain-muffins-recipe

please note I skipped the glaze for health reasons, and these came out amazingly well. I also used lime zest instead of orange, which gave a nice zing to the overall flavor.

king arthur whole wheat flour-perfect for sandwich bread AND muffins..

Hi friends- I've been hearing great things about King Arthur flour, and the further I delve into my baking experiments, the more insistent I've learned to be about choosing only the best, healthiest, purest ingredients to use in my recipes. King Arthur whole wheat flour was purchased in order to bake some healthy, organic, high fiber sandwich bread for the week. I've only ever made challah and potato bread before, so I really wanted to find a staple I could bake to use weekly so I could finally give those store purchased loaves the cold shoulder.

Enough rambling. you REALLY must try this amaizng recipe. My loaf came out perfectly, great crumb, perfect slices, all around amazing. Don't fret if you make a mistake 1/2 way though baking, or have a question perhaps about subbing ingredients, there's a help line on the king arthur flour site!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe

best yeast roll recipe EVER- parker house rolls!

I wanted to post a link to what is in my humble opinion THE very best yeast roll recipe. These suckers are airy, buttery goodness, everything I crave when I'm dreaming of yeast rolls. I highly recommend this recipe...

http://busycooks.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/parkerhouseroll.htm