Cooking hack: brownies edition

It's safe to say that my friends and coworkers would identify me as a baker. I love baking and find stress relief in it, and I even love the precision of it (the part that right-brained people hate!).

On weekends especially, you'll often find me trying my hand at some new and challenging recipe (like these French cruellers).

Whenever there is a potluck at work or a dinner party with friends, I'm automatically signed up to bring a dessert.

I've made dozens of cupcakes for parties and showers and the like.

When it comes to giving wedding gifts, I almost always go for a pretty cake stand or handy baking sheets.

But I have a confession to make. It's a dark secret. More specifically, it's a dark chocolate secret. and it's this:

These are hands-down the very best ever most perfectly delicious brownies I have ever had. and it's time for the world to know about it.

I know what you're thinking: "oh so you must doctor it up with your own fancy things, right?" Wrong. I wouldn't dream of messing with Ms. Crocker's perfection-in-a-box. I've tried my hand at dozens of from-scratch brownie recipes, and this box by far trumps them all.

This is the brownie for all people. Whether you like your brownies cake-y or fudge-y, whether you are into dark chocolate or not, these perfectly balanced brownies will make you roll your eyes at the ridiculous deliciousness of them.

Stop judging me! This is good news, y'all! I'm telling you that you no longer have to slave over melting chocolate and butter together, and you can stop searching for the perfect flour ratio. You can find this brownie mix at practically any grocery store and all you add are water, oil and 2 eggs. It's so cheap and takes no time at all!

I'm telling you, wooing your friends has never been easier. If you don't believe me, grab a box and try it for yourself. No matter your brownie proclivity, these will satisfy even the most picky palate.

Happy eating!

    

How to dice a tomato (without the watery seedy stuff)

Some of you may already know how to do this, but it changed my life (and my pico de gallo) back in college, so I thought I'd share it with you all just in case.

When I first learned this trick, I was participating in a chili cook-off with my friend Emily, and we wanted to add diced tomatoes to our chili--but we didn't know how to leave all out the watery seedy stuff*. So we did what all people do when they don't know how to do something: we searched for it on youtube. It was a while ago, but I'm pretty sure this is the original video.

*definitely the scientific term

Feel free to watch that, but here are some step-by-step photos to walk you through it.

 

Supplies: you'll need a tomato and a knife. and a cutting board. your counter tops will thank you.

 

Step one: use the point of the knife to wedge out the stem of the tomato.

 

Step two: cut around the inner "seed ball" of the tomato by cutting a C shape from the top of the de-stemmed tomato to the bottom. Do that a few times all the way around the tomato. If you're me, you'll do a hack-job of it and still have some watery seedy stuff, so just use your thumb to scoop it out.

 

 Step three: throw away the "seed ball" and stem and chop up the remaining parts. Voila, you have beautiful, watery-seedy-stuff-free diced tomatoes.

Happy chopping!