Thursday, February 19, 2009

Giveaway Winner! And Some Brownies to Celebrate!

I'm excited to announce the winner of my Chop Wizard/Chocolate Prize One Year of Blogging Celebration Giveaway Winner! 

We picked the winner the same way we did last time for my giveaway in December, by having each of the four boys and Kevin pick a name from the pieces of paper with names in a bowl.  (Last time we took pictures of each of the boys drawing a name, but today we were rushed for getting out the door to school, so we hurried.)

Thank you to all 83 people who entered the contest by leaving me a comment.  I love talking about chocolate! ;)  Thanks for reading my blog, too!

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After the five names were chosen, they were put into a bowl.

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Then I blindly chose one out of the five.  (They were folded nicely and I could not see whose name I was picking, but I'm happy to say that I chose the name of one of my friend's from back home.

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Shari Waltman come on down!  You are the winner of the Vidalia Chop Wizard and some yummy chocolate--you could even try chopping the chocolate in the Wizard!  ; )  Shari and I go way back to the good old 1980's!  Ahh, such memories.  We don't see each other much anymore or even talk very often, but I'm so glad she won.  Hey, Shari, here's a couple of pics for ya.  I'm so glad I'm hidden from the picture, taken in 1985, but just seeing what I'm wearing--gotta LOVE the 80's.  We're making cookies.  Very appropriate for my blog.  I'm loving my mom's old puke green Kitchen Aid (She had that thing for almost 40 years--it finally bit the dust a few years ago and she got a nice, new one!)  This picture is so fun to look at for many, many reasons.  But we won't even talk about the wallpaper or the wood walls.  Let's just move one.  (The kitchen has since been completely remodeled.)

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I'm loving this picture of Shari from girl's camp in 1984.  Nice.

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And this one also from girl's camp, 1984.

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Fun rememberies.  (I have many more fun pictures of us, Shari, but the computer/scanning thing just wasn't working very well.  I'm fortunate to have these--thanks, Kev!)  Congrats, Shari!

Can't wait to do another giveaway.  It's fun!

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And now for the brownies!  Let's call these 100 Grand Brownies!

I got the recipe for these from Chocoholic.com, via Tiffany at The Cookie Blog.  As a cookie, they are called Chewy-Fudgy After-School Cookies.  There was just something I didn't like about the way they baked as cookies.  I only baked 12.  The boys did eat them up, but I didn't want to just keep baking cookies I didn't like--although, that would probably be a good idea, then I wouldn't eat them!  The recipe mentions to watch the first batch and to not over bake them and I think I did over bake them.  Although, the recipes says to bake them 10-12 minutes, and I thought even at 8 minutes there were too done.  I'll be quiet now about that and tell you that I decided to bake the rest as brownies and see what happened.  I used a bread pan lined with non-stick foil.  I spread half the dough in the bottom, then LINED the whole thing with some mini 100 Grand Bars I had.  I flattened each one out a little to make it more even.  Then I spread the rest of the dough over that.  I baked them until a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean (20 minutes?).  You could use this whole batch of dough in an 8 inch pan, I'm sure.  You can get the recipe for the cookies on the links above, but here's how I made them into brownies.

100 Grand Brownies

2  1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk (or 2 large eggs)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mini 100 Grand Bars

Melt in a microwave safe (glass) bowl the chocolate and oil in 30 second intervals and stir it to combine with a whisk until smooth.  (Or use a double boiler.)  Let it cool slightly.

Stir together the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium-size bowl.  Add the cooled chocolate mixture and combine.  Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix together.

Put about half the batter in an 8 inch pan, add mini 100 Grand Bars  to cover the top. (I smashed each one down a bit for even coverage.)  Add the rest of the batter and spread it over the top. 

Baked in preheated 350 degree oven in a foil lined 8 inch pan, lightly sprayed with cooking spray, about 20 minutes, check for toothpick inserted in center to come out clean.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. 

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Ooey, gooey with a touch of crunch from the crispies in the 100 Grand bars. 

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Yum...those brownies look really moist. Glad you got to give something to an old friend. In the top picture, she kind of looks like my mom did but the bottom pictures not so much...guess it was the glasses and hair! :-)

Leslie said...

Congrats to the winner.
Love the 80's photos!!!
And the borwnies....MMMMMM

test it comm said...

Those brownies look so moist and good!

Elyse said...

OM MY! These look fabulous!! You always post the best recipes. Can't wait to try these for myself!

Judy said...

Wow, those brownies look really good. Your persistence paid off. I might have to go and buy those candy bars.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Shari, those pics are awesome.

And the brownies...wowzer!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Shari! Love the photos.
I think I missed the part of the recipe that calls for the 100 Grand Bars. I'll go back and look closer.
My daughter used to love those candy bars. I wonder if she still does? I'll have to ask!

CindyD said...

Awww...at least I came close!

Tiffany Winters said...

Wow, I'm kind of glad I didn't win... who knows what kind of crazy pictures you'd pull out of me that I didn't know you had. haha. just kidding. But I did cut onions the other day. By hand. Just thinking of what might have been. :)

Congratulations Sheri!

Tiffany Winters said...

Wow, I'm kind of glad I didn't win... who knows what kind of crazy pictures you'd pull out of me that I didn't know you had. haha. just kidding. But I did cut onions the other day. By hand. Just thinking of what might have been. :)

Congratulations Sheri!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Congratulations to Shari! Glad someone nice won! Fun pictures, I wish you were in some! Good call in transforming the cookies in brownies!