1,440 Brownies

3:44 PM, Wednesday afternoon. The grass (partially covered by the yellows and browns of falling leaves) now has a scattered frosting of snow. It’s a cold, clear day here.

I read a little of Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to Earth last night -- such a sadly beautiful story. It’s been years since I first read the novel. I put it back on the shelf though, after a brief sampling. November is too quiet a time to read that kind of book, at least at the moment. The novel I am reading now is Slant by Greg Bear. Very cool stuff. (And, actually, the title of the novel is not Slant but: / According to the copyright info "The title consists solely of the slant sign." Neat.) Bear can always make my head spin with the believable strangeness of his future worlds.

And now for something completely different:

Fun with Gummi Bears 101. Gather a collection of different-colored Gummi Bears. Carefully bite the heads off-of each bear (don’t worry, they don’t mind). Save the heads -- don’t eat them (this is important). Now stick contrasting heads on various Gummi Bear bodies for an elegant color effect. You can have red Gummi Bears with orange heads, clear ones with red heads, and so on. Invite friends to participate -- make a party out of it! Or, make your Gummi Bear excursion a first date for that special someone: show up at her/his place dressed in your best clothes, say, "Have I got a night planned for us!" Then take your enthralled date back to your place, sit down at the kitchen table, and whip out the Gummi Bears. "Honey, wait till you get a load of this!"

Now that’s a memorable evening.

In a similar vein...

My Grandmother gave my Mother an old hardback book, faded and filled with newspaper clippings, writing and printed material. It is called the Desk Diary: 1946. In the very back, under the heading, "Institutional Recipes of Authoritative Origin" is something that, very possibly, is not on any other web page in the world. (A drum-roll please.) I present for your culinary experimentation, a recipe for...

Brownies!

A whole heck of a lot of brownies.

(I’m not kidding, we’re talking 720 servings here -- or 1,440 individual brownies.)

Brownies
by Frances Berkeley Floore (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Europe)
Ingredients
Sugar: 30 pounds
Eggs: 10 dozen
Flour, pastry: 7 ½ pounds
Chocolate: 7 ½ pounds
Shortening: 15 pounds
Nuts: 10 pounds
Salt: ¼ cup

--- Mix sugar and eggs together in Hobart mixer [whatever that is]. Melt chocolate and shortening. Add flour and salt to egg mixture and chocolate and shortening last. Add nuts. Pour into 15 greased pans (17 x 26 inches). Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees Fahrenheit) Cut each pan into 90 pieces (6 x 16) and serve two to a serving.

I have to go lie down now...

--- JWR, 1997