We made these for a crowd and watched them vanish in five minutes…My husband and I do not need brownies; we’ve eaten enough of them already to meet our lifetime quota and to account for certain body changes that I will not describe here. But Tom is a hopeless chocoholic, so on the occasions when I make brownies to curry favor with my kids’ friends, I have to keep an eye on them.
For a long time, when brownies disappeared from the cooling rack and my husband seemed the obvious perpetrator, he would issue a denial and look meaningfully in the direction of Oliver, our dog. So I thought the golden retriever was both amazingly athletic (how did he reach the brownies I placed behind the kitchen sink?) and had a remarkable tolerance for chocolate, a substance that is notorious for making dogs ill.
But then, on a recent occasion, I left a hot brownie batch on the counter to cool and took Oliver for a walk. When I returned and noticed that the baking pan was half empty, I did a breathalizer test on napping Tom. Sure enough: chocolate breath. (And a messy crime scene: brown crumbs on the sofa.)
I have been making a version of this cake for the past 20 years. However, I’ve always made it in a 9 x 13 pan. I finally decided to streamline the recipe and serve it in individual portions. Since this cake was always something I would normally make for a party, it just made more sense to put it together this way. It’s so much easier to serve. And cuter too.
Silly words that came from car-time with my grandchildren resulted in a new cookie called 
The year was 1996. I had just moved to San Francisco from Chicago,
finally ridding myself of those long midwest winters and trading them
in for even colder summers in the Bay Area. All joking aside, it was an
eye-opening experience for me and one that I embraced fully. I absorbed
the California experience on every level and tasted my way through the
City, spending Saturday mornings at the old farmers’ market before it
moved to the Ferry Building and familiarizing myself with local foods
and personalities.
I am one of those people who enjoys a mid-afternoon sweet snack with coffee. The cravings for something sugary seem to hit about the three o'clock hour. I try so hard to be good but I've stopped fighting it. I figure the penalty is about 100 lunges or something like that. I'm over it. I swear I only take a few bites. I indulge in my sweet treat with French pressed black coffee I make at home. It all keeps me going until at least happy hour. 