geekette8

My back is doing much better now. It appears that when under doctor's orders to potter around, I turn to baking; I've made a meatloaf from my Mum's recipe (yum), a double batch of chocolate and cherry brownies from my Green and Black's chocolate recipe book, and Gloria's 5-minute chocolate-cake-in-a-mug recipe which is EXTREMELY tasty and astonishingly easy and quick. Dangerous indeed.

Also this weekend: sorted out various stuff around the house, garden, and car; Jif taught Matthew how to ride without his stabilisers; caught up on a bunch of SG-1 and Atlantis; did an enormous grocery shop; and only logged into work to check my email twice (and not found anything too scary therein, either).


5-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tbs plain flour
4 tbs sugar
2 tbs cocoa
1 egg
3 tbs milk
3 tbs oil
3 tbs chocolate chips (optional)
some nuts (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to a large coffee mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.



Chocolate and cherry brownies

11 oz butter
11 oz dark chocolate, broken into chunks
5 large eggs
1 lb granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
7 oz plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
9 oz dried cherries

Melt the butter and chocolate together. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick and creamy. Beat into the chocolate mixture.

Sift flour and salt together, stir into liquid mixture, beat until smooth. Stir in the cherries.

Pour into a large lined baking tin and bake at 180 C for 20-25 minutes - until a crust has formed over the top of the pan and started to crack, but brownies are still gooey in the middle. Remove from oven, leave in pan to cool for 20 minutes. Cut into squares. Leave to cool further before removing from pan.