Dying For Chocolate - It Ends with Brownies

I know that I promised a post on Friday to review the "Lethal Layer" bars. But an unscheduled 3 hour spat with my husband, "Big K" kept me from posting on Friday night.

The bars sucked. They were dry and tasted weird. From reading the recipe, I expected them to taste a bit like chocolate pecan pie. Not even close. Big K and I tried them at home and I brought the rest into the office for further testing on my guys. Not well received.

D.M.D did not fail me on the ending. Sometimes I can figure out her books and I've already prepared myself for the end scene. Its always Goldy and the killer, neck in neck. How a cater gets herself into these messes is beyond me. Not very realistic, but good mind candy. I must say I was not prepared for the killer to be who it was.. I was also not prepared for the second death. But I must admit, I wasn't sad to see him go. He was such a douchebag.

Because these books always make me incredibly hungry, I did an obscene amount of cooking this weekend. I made a spoon roast on Saturday (thank God for crock pots) that we're going to eat tonight. Today, I made 5 quarts of homemade vegetable soup and 5 quarts of homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm not sure what inspired me to make such an enormous amount but it's here now. It could be the shitty weather that we were unprepared for. The raw, cold rain that has been falling since this morning. We've all be complaining about the mild fall we are having and attributing it to global warming. Well, global warming has been kicked in the ass by this cold snap and it's been damp and chilly all day.

Of course, I have to freeze all the soup. Big K isn't a huge fan of soup and even though I'm a hearty feeder, there is no way I can eat 10 quarts of soup in the next couple days. (Okay, I'm sure I could, but I really want to fit into my jeans next week)

I prepared the soup in small freezer ziploc bags. Then I can pull it out a portion at a time and easily defrost it. Plus, if you freeze them flat, you can relocated them in small corners because they are slim and fit well. They'll also stack easily.

I piled all the bags on a sheet pan and made my way to the garage freezer. I opened the door and uttered "Oh Shit!"

Apparently I had forgotten about my last cooking tirade. The freezer was jammed packed and a mess.

So, I had to clean out the freezer. Found a few things that had been in there since we moved into the house (over 4 years ago) and were liberally covered with ice crystals. I few things were unrecognizable. After reorganizing the rest of the stuff, I managed to fit all my packages and close the door. I'm going to have to start eating some of the things I've frozen before having a day in the kitchen again. If follow that direction, I should be able to use my kitchen sometime next year.

I also made some orgasmic brownies with raspberry and cream cheese from a Williams Sonoma cookbook. The recipe called for using raspberry jam or cream cheese. I used both. Why hold back. I've already "tested" 3 of them. They are gooey, chocolatey with a surprise shot of tart raspberry and the sweet finish of cream cheese. I'll leave a few for Big K and bring the rest to work tomorrow.

I'll let my guys at work get fat.