Everyone Likes the Edges

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You might remember when Mom gave me this brownie pan for my birthday a couple of years ago. It came with a little right-sized red spatula for lifting out the brownies. It's a very heavy duty pan - works really well. Every piece has edges, my favorite part!

Baker's Edge Brownie Pan.


Slice Solutions Brownie Pan. I see this company also makes similar round cake pans, pie pans and loaf pans.

I saw this pan in the AC Moore ad in Sunday's paper. You pour the batter in, then set the divider in place. It also has a removable bottom so once the brownies have cooled and the divider is removed, you can easily slide a little spatula underneath each brownie so not even one gets crushed.

I tend to use the top pan just sometimes, like when I'm not in a hurry because it does take a bit longer to fill and then to get the brownies out. More often than not I tend to go old school and bake the brownies in an 8" square pan (even though the box calls for a 9" x 13" pan) because I like them thicker and more moist. When they have cooled, I run a plastic spatula around the outside edge and flip the pan over so the brownies fall out in one 8" square. I then turn the square over (right side up) and slice them into 16 pieces with a knife large enough to make each cut in one swell foop (as we used to say).

Every time I slice brownies I think of this funny thing Dad said to me once. I took him a plate of brownies to give to someone, can't remember who or why. I told him that although I cut them into 16 brownies, I find that 14 fits on the plate just perfectly. (Because I usually hold two back, one for Steve, one for me.)

Dad: Just imagine how well 12 or even 10 brownies would fit on that plate!

I have no idea if the brownies ever made it to Dad's friend or not . . .

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Ever since I mentioned feeling a little off recently, I've felt a bit better each day, but not fully myself. I think the dam broke yesterday - that thing brewing under the surface finally broke free. I noticed when I was reading the Sunday paper, I was feeling very anxious, even though I was purposely steering away from reading bad news. I thought, "Well this is stoooopid - now it's become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Then after dinner, I was in the family room with Steve, he was watching football, I was stitching. All of a sudden, this popped into my head: "What if I lost my job? What if I can't take care of Simon?" and the tears started flowing. I've never had a panic attack but I imagine that's what one would feel like, heart racing, etc. After football was over - I'm considerate even when emotional :-), I asked Steve if I could talk to him and I explained what I was feeling. He was oddly uncompassionate, pointing out A) Simon is 21 and although he still provides some financial support to his 22 year old daughter *, Simon is old enough to support himself, and B) he (Steve) is more likely to lose his job than I am.

Alrighty then. Thanks for the pep talk.

He wasn't mean about it by any means, just factual, true to his gender. We went back to watching TV and about 10 minutes later I said, "Oh! The answer is - if I lose my job, I get another one."

And I was cured.

This will be interesting to see if this "sticks" but as of this moment, I'm not sad or mad and in fact, feel quite ready to tackle anything. I feel like Stefani.

Whew! That was weird. And thanks for your comments and emails of support - they mean a lot to me.

In fact, I've been working on some new stuff I'll be ready to show you soon. I know I've been featuring other artists because I haven't had any new work to post. Soon . . .

* Steve's daughter is now living with his mom, who is in failing health. Steve is so grateful for her help in caring for his mom that in return, he's more than happy to help her financially. She really does do a lot for his mom so I can see Steve's point. (As for Simon, I made my usual 12/31/xx speech about "The Bank of Stefani is closed." But I'll always be his safety net - I just need to work on my definition of safety net.)

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