First, the brownies (chocolate takes priority after all). Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated fame wrote about how nothing can compete with the boxed brownie mix in terms of texture. I recall he came up with some complex way to replicate that texture from scratch, but I'm sure its more complex than the recipe I found on food.com. When I have a craving for brownies, I generally do not have a box of brownie mix sitting in the cupboard, but I generally have the ingredients needed to make them from scratch. And this recipe is simple (and uses only one pot!).
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease 9x 13 inch pan (I just lay greased aluminum foil down for easy cleanup)
3. Melt 3/4 cup shortening (crisco) in a large saucepan over low heat, then stir in 3/4 cup cocoa
4. Remove from heat
5. Mix in 2 1/4 cups sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla.
6. Mix in 4 eggs, one at a time (this is where the bartering connection comes in--see below)
7. Stir in 1 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and (optional) 1 cup chopped nuts
8. Bake for 30 minutes
9. Cool completely before cutting
Okay, so the four eggs in the above recipe...we had a glut of eggs as the days are getting longer and the hens were laying again. On the flip side, we were running out of hay for the horse and our sheep (first time this has happened in 7 years). What to do, what to do? At our last monthly farmers' market meeting, our hay farmer mentioned that he would be happy to barter. Eggs for hay! (for all Settlers of Catan fans, sound familiar?). So, we were able to get 40 bales of hay in exchange for 40 dozen eggs (a dozen a week, of course). Bartering goes way back, but we really don't pay much attention to it these days. Instead we rely on the symbolic exchange of cash or credit. What value does the paper money actually have? None (or very little). You could find oodles of information in the social scientific literature about bartering, but I'm just not going there right now. Instead, suffice it to say, that when bartering, the value comes from the intrinsic worth it has to both parties. In this case, our hay farmer has thousands of bales of hay; giving up 40 of them was certainly worth a 9 month supply of eggs. To us, when we have a glut of eggs (and often end up giving them away) and no source of hay on our farm, the trade is priceless. Both parties end up happy. I hope in the future to establish more bartering relationships (firewood is another area of need for us).
Some progressive cities such as Portland, Maine, have established time banks which works on the same principle (I'll babysit your kids for 2 hours, if you could mow my lawn). Just imagine how much simpler (and affordable) life could be if we relied more on this principle. Until then, enjoy the brownies.
