Commit this to memory

My favorite lines on the fickleness of memory come from Billy Collin’s poem:

“Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.”

Have you ever heard that wonderful factoid about how we can hold up to seven chunks of info, plus or minus two, in our short term memory at a time? Well I invite you to cast aside the order of the planets and commit something of greater practical importance to your memory.

The Moosewood Fudge Brownie recipe. 6 ingrdients, 6 steps, one bowl. Because if you keep some basic supplies on hand and have this recipe committed to memory, you can go from zero to brownies in 25 minutes.

Impulse brownie making is power. This is the itch and the scratch in one 9″ sqaure baking pan. So grease it and let’s begin.

Moosewood Fudge Brownies (adapted)
½ cup butter
2 large eggs
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup cocoa powder (Moosewood calls for 3 squares of unsweetened chocolate to be melted with butter)
½ cup flour

Preheat oven to 350.
1. Butter your 8” or 9” square baking pan.
2. Melt you’re your butter.
3. While it is melting, beat eggs in a medium sized bowl.
4. Add the brown sugar, melted butter and vanilla.
5. Stir in the cocoa powder and flour until smooth.
6. Pour into your pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until done but still fudgey.

These brownies are straight-forward yum. Perhaps you have seen a brownie recipe that is more exotic or special, but this one is like husbands and pets – when you claim it as your own, you believe there is nothing finer on god’s green earth. At least as far as you can recall.