The Red Kettle

The Red Kettle 

This is an insanely personal post. The kind of post I don't normally share, but today somehow felt the need to do just that. 

30 years ago, I was impacted by the Red Kettle. 

I had just turned 10 years old. My mom, who was several months pregnant had just made the most daring choice of her life and moved us 500 miles away from our friends and family to a city where she thought we could make a complete life change. She was barely 27 years old. She had 3 little girls and another "bundle of love" baking in the oven. The father of her two oldest children was at best, MIA, at worst a complete deadbeat of a father. Her husband had recently been convicted of a most heinous crime in our little town and was sentenced to prison for the rest of eternity, or 2019. Whichever came first.

A new start seemed like a breath of fresh air. Married, but might as well have been single, no skills to speak of, virtually no money, she packed us up and we piled onto a grey hound bus bound for Buffalo NY. An eternity later, we arrived at the front door of our new life. And the first Blizzard Buffalo had received since 1977.

We ran out of money almost immediately. We moved from the hotel room that the state gave us vouchers to pay for, and into the Buffalo City Mission's women shelter. We lived there for about 6 months. I remember my mom saying that God loved us because they never let women with children live there that long.

I remember the house. A beautiful, large Blue Victorian home on Linwood Avenue. We occupied the first rooms on the main floor with expansive floor to ceiling windows that let the light in. We had a couch, and a bed, and cots to sleep on. No TV, no phones, just books and crayons and dolls to keep us busy until before and after school.

In the evenings, a white van would come to bring us to the City Mission for Dinner. The driver's name was Bob. He was a stout bearded fellow who had a great laugh, and a kind spirit. I think he was sweet on my mom. He made us laugh with different stories from the mission. We would arrive at the mission, attend Chapel, and then eat in the hall with all the other people who either stayed at the mission or came for dinner. Hundreds of people there, but everyone I remember were kind.

This story isn't about the mission though, it's about The Red Kettle.

The Mission told my mom about the Salvation Army, on Main Street, which is about 1/2 a mile or so away from the beautiful Victorian house. We walked down that long main street, past the businesses and the Delta Sonic gas station, past 2 very large apartment buildings where we would move to the following spring, past what would eventually become my son's daycare center, past two very beautiful large, ornate catholic churches, past what would become our new church (New Life Assembly of God), past restaurants and to the Salvation Army.

My mom spoke with a person at the front counter. She explained to them that we were living at the women's shelter, she had no money, Welfare wasn't giving her any money because she had left one city and there was a 'waiting' period. She had no daycare for us so she could go to work.

They ushered us into a room, and there was Christmas. I remember a large woman standing over me and telling me "Now child, don't just stand there, pick something out!"

There were tables and tables of toys. Brand new toys. Beautiful dolls and cars and robots and My little ponies and pink boxes all piled high. I was overwhelmed. Even as I type this I am overcome with the emotion of it. I remember my mom telling me we were being Santa's helpers and her telling me to pick something out for each of my sisters as well to wrap up for them. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally chose 3 items for us to take home, and then being given a candy cane and wished a Merry Christmas.

We walked home. I beamed, I was so excited. Other people gave us gifts, and clothes, and toys. We had a nice Christmas, we were blessed.

But I remember the Salvation Army. How they gave to us when we had nothing.

And now, I give. $1 here, $5 there, $20 when I have it to give. Every single time I see a Bell Ringer. I cannot walk away from them and not give.

Because in my mind, I imagine another little dirty blonde haired girl standing there in the stacks and stacks of toys, trying to choose just one toy that her little sisters might love.

Thank you Red Kettle. Thank you Bell Ringers. Thank you Salvation Army. You made an impression, and now, 30 years later - I can do a little more than just say Thank you.

2 Corinthians 8:2
They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

Deep, rich, moist, fudgy, ooey gooey brownies

Deep, rich, moist, fudgy, ooey gooey brownies

Admit it. You want one. With a tall glass of milk. 

And then, you want another. Just because one wasn't enough. 

Go ahead, indulge. You have my permission. I promise.

But you better schedule in that run because honey, as lovely and decadent as these are - you will need to burn them off. I cannot lie and say that they are calorie free :) They are delightful. 

ok - have another, but don't say I didn't warn you!

One of the ingredients listed is "Black Onyx Cocoa Powder". I totally stumbled on this beautiful item several months ago. It's sold in a specialty spice shop here in the Denver area and heavenly. Savory Spice Shop is locally owned, and now franchised. You can order the cocoa powder on line. It is {worth. every. penny.} 

Deep Dark Chocolate Fudgey brownies

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted 

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 

3/4 cup All purpose Flour 

1/2 cup Dark cocoa powder 

1/4 cup Black Onyx Cocoa Powder*

3 eggs
1/2 cup Dark chocolate chips - I like Giardelli myself 

Now listen to me. I'm going to share a few good secrets with you here. Follow all of the instructions if you want these to come out of the pan the way mine did. This is the most important instruction you'll find on this page. FOLLOW the instructions!

Preheat your oven to 350. Especially at high altitude, you do not want your baked goods warming up with your oven. 

First, line a 9x9 pan with foil. Then liberally spray the foil with baking spray. I'm a huge fan of Prep. I could get it in my bakery supply store back home in Buffalo. Haven't found it here in Colorado yet. However, my very large can has lasted almost a year already so it goes a very long way.

Even though these brownies have a ton of butter, the pan still needs to be liberally sprayed. Maybe it's the Black Onyx cocoa powder, or the sugar, but it can be really sticky. 

You can also use pan grease which I have talked about on my blog in this Carrot Cake post from way back in November 2012.  It's a very easy recipe and lasts a long time. Refrigerate it though ok?

ok next, melt your butter. Personally, I'm a fan of using a pot on the stove, just because of the amount of butter. I don't like getting it all over the microwave when some of it is super melted, and some isn't. One step, into the pan, and viola you've got melted butter. Next, add the sugar to the melted butter. 

In your stand mixer, add the flour, and the cocoa powder, and the chocolate chips. Don't be a cheapskate and go with cheap chocolate chips. If you're going to indulge in these, make them right. That's how I feel about that!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating each into the flour cocoa mixture. Once all the eggs are incorporated, you can start to add the butter / sugar mixture. Do this in batches, giving it some time to incorporate. 

Now you are ready. Pour the very thick batter into the prepared, foil lined pan. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. They might be a little soft in the center, and you can try baking an additional 2-5 minutes depending on how you like the consistency of your brownies. Personally, I like mine gooey and fudgey. 

Please let these cool completely. Like, go watch a movie or do laundry or something. Unless you want "dump cake" brownies, do not mess with them until they are cooled completely. I know there's nothing better than warm chocolate and milk, or vanilla icecream - but seriously this will frustrate you if you pull them out of the pan too early. 

Enjoy and let me know how they turn out for you! :) 

Fried dough and cheddar beer sauce :)

Hey all!

Here's a super quick post from my iPad.

My adventures in Colorado have kept me quite busy but I'm still enjoying my kitchen and crochet. I've mastered the art of fine Artisan Bread and have been experimenting with lots of different flavors, like a White Chocolate Cranberry Almond, and everyone's favorite, Garlic Cheddar. I found the recipe here  at Simply So Good, and couldn't believe how easy it is to follow. Seriously, the bread is {FOOL} Proof! If you follow the instructions, it would be impossible to mess this up. Heck, at one point I realized I was cutting the recipe in half, but continued adding the full amount of water (? uh.....no explanation there) and the bread was STILL amazing!

If you don't have 12-18 hrs to let something rise, just add a little more yeast. Doubling the yeast rises the bread in about half the time - and here in the High Altitude, everything rises much more quickly anyway.
If I am in a hurry - I can usually start the baking process after 4 hrs rise time.

I don't own an enamel covered cast iron dutch oven, however my regular ones do the job just fine. The two smaller loaves were the recipe cut in half, the larger loaf is one regular recipe. We are a small family though, so we don't need too much bread. I bake it twice a week, and often make extra to give away. The loaves cost me anywhere from 75 cents to $1.00 so they are totally worth the time and effort.

Got any flavor ideas to share with me?

You can follow my Bread Recipe Board here . I seriously have over 200 pins just for bread recipes alone. Tortillas, Indian Flaan, Artisan, white bread, whole wheat bread, rolls, croissants, garlic cheesy bread,  you name it, I've collected it. 

Last night my son reminded me of a yummy appetizer we had at Old Chicago a few months back. It was a fried dough with cheddar beer dipping sauce. We decided to try and recreate it at home - and so off to Pinterest I went. (and the liquor store, who knew there were so many kinds??)

I found a couple dough recipes but only one cheddar beer sauce so we chose a Pizza dough and gathered the ingredients for the sauce.

We LOVED the dough recipe. Seriously, I didn't have any honey so I used raw sugar as a replacement and it was amazing! Amazing... deep fried and YUMMM. The sauce we felt was lacking something. It was good, but maybe we chose the wrong beer, didn't add enough Worcestershire sauce, or maybe we did something wrong with the cheese. Either way we're sure it's NOT the original recipe's fault - but we are definitely going to use it as a guide and tweak it to our tastes  in the future. I'd say start with this one and go from there.

Anyway - you can find these recipes and many more by following me on Pinterest at sunflowergal74 :) 

Thanks to these websites for the yummy recipes, and for sharing your heart and food on the net for the rest of us to find!

www.simplysogood.com

www.thekitchn.com

http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com

Happy New Year!!! 

~Kisha