I don’t ‘do’ sick. I don’t get sick. I hate it. I hate sick people and I have no patience for them so when I’m sick, I have no patience for me.
I mean sometimes I wish for a small bout of food poisoning…. You know, to lose a couple of pounds but normally when of sane mind, I hate sickness and I have a pretty high immune system. Or I did.
I’ve never been as sick as I have been in the last five months. I feel like I’m a broken record, constantly saying, I think I’m coming down with something, or I think I must be fighting something off, because you see for the last five months I’ve been pretty stressed. Now, I like to think I deal with stress pretty well, I work well under pressure and dead lines make me work harder but unfortunately for me, instead of dealing with stress in a mature, head on way, my body has decided to turn against me and send my immune system on an extended holiday, leaving my body to deal with a whole host of unwanted viruses, colds and office bugs. So I’ve been consistently run down… and stressed and then getting stressed about being sick, then getting sick again…. Can you see the pattern. The combination of these things have led to fun and enjoyable out comes. Such as: weekly cold sores, dry skin, a swollen tummy, spots, weight gain, crying…. all. the. time, and my final blow came in the form of what can only be described as death hands. Swollen, blistered, rashy hands and arms. It’s an infection apparently, which has led to nausea (although no lack of appetite) aching joints, headaches, tidiness (although to be honest I’m tired all the time anyway), I feel like I have been hit by a train.
So why am I telling you the joys of my horror hands? Because the Doctor put me on antibiotics that’s why. Booze free, antibiotics. So while this Saturday, is a friends highly anticipated birthday day/night out and everyone including Dave is drinking delicious strawberry and lime cider, eating pulled pork burgers and chilli cheese fries, I am stuck at home. Watching hours and hours of Hart of Dixie (man, I wish I was Rachel Bilson) and feeling sorry for myself. This is only punctuated by occasional photo texts of drunken times and burgers.
So what do you do in dire times like this?
You make brownies. That’s what. Not just any brownies, no, no, no. Frosted Brownies. Then you stick them in the fridge so they go all fudgy and eat them straight out the pan with a fork….
Frosted Brownies
Adapted from The Live-in Kitchen
Serves 1 on a lonely Saturday night
For the brownies:
1/4 cup/35g plain flour
1tablspoon cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup/ 115g butter
3 oz/85g dark chocolate
1/2 cup/100g light brown sugar
1/2 cup/100g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup/85g chocolate chips – I just chopped up some dark chocolate
For the frosting:
1 cup/180g chocolate chips – Again I just chopped up some chocolate
4 tablespoons/60g butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup/60g icing sugar
1 tablespoons milk
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4 and place a rack in the upper third of the oven and line an 8 inch square baking tin.
In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
In a separate, heat-proof bowl add butter and dark chocolate. Either melt in the microwave, or place above a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Once the butter and chocolate have melted allow to cool for a few minutes then whisk in the brown and granulated sugar. Whisk in the eggs, the egg yolk, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and fold into the chocolate mixture with a spatula until well incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Pour the brownie mix into the prepared tin and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with moist crumbs attached. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting, put chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 20 second increments, stirring in between, until melted or melt on above the pan of simmering water again, whatever your move comfortable with. Take of the heat and again allow to cool for a minute or two, whisk in the vanilla and salt, then stir in the icing sugar. Add the milk a few drops at a time, whisking briskly, until the frosting is smooth and shiny. Pour/spread on the cooled brownies and put them in the fridge until the icing has set and the brownies a chewy.















