starlady: (jack)
[personal profile] starlady
Since we were snowed in yesterday, I made these amazing Aztec Gold brownies for my dad as an early Valentine's present. Short verdict: OMGNOMNOM. They are truly amazing, and I must rec the recipe to those who like chocolate and chile in combination, because they are amazing (did I mention that they're amazing?).

Some notes:

1) I melted the chocolate and butter together in my double boiler, because no power in the 'verse will compel me to melt things in a microwave when I have a double boiler.
2) It's fine to use unsalted butter if you add up to 1/4 tsp of salt to the flour/cocoa mixture. Also, "espresso powder" = instant espresso. (Side note: I absolutely cannot find Dutched cocoa powder anymore. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder is partially Dutched, and I think that's the best one can do. It works fine for me in recipes that call for Dutched cocoa powder, anyway.)
3) I think you could comfortably decrease the chipotle powder to 1tsp and not get too much of a reduction in amazingness, if you want less of a capsaicin aftertaste. I also think you could probably decrease the sugar to 1 cup, if you are like me and are cultivating a sugar aversion.
4) I don't think it's necessary to have either double-strength or Mexican vanilla (though Mexican vanilla is amazing). Just go for a vanilla that isn't the supermarket brand (hint: the first ingredient listed should be vanilla, not alcohol, water, or sugar). But use decent chocolate.
5) I used parchment paper, and my oven got the job done in about 26 minutes.


Oo, my arms ache from shoveling.

Every so often I dive into pop music and don't come back up to the surface for a while. So, in no particular order, my thoughts on some albums I have recently acquired.

Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer – Short version: OMG how did this band get this good, and why did no one tell me about it? I should not have had to be randomly listening to WPRB at 23:45 on a Wednesday night to hear the amazing song "You Go On Ahead." I didn't care for Sunset Rubdown before this, but this new album is amazing, with a rare thematic cohesion (seriously, listen to the album on repeat a few times; you'll find that the songs interlink interestingly). I'm bad at talking about what kinds of music people play--this is somewhere in the session jam-ish side of indie rock. They sound a little like Bell X-1, both lyrically and in the lead singer's voice.

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – After hearing the band talk on World Cafe with David Dye I realized that the album is actually a rather barbed meditation on the nature of popular music (which I should have realized, given that the first song is titled "Lisztomania"). It's also pretty awesome digital indie pop, very close to Passion Pit but without the falsetto.

The Magnetic Fields, Realism – To be blunt, not as good as their last album, Distortion, and since I actually paid money for the physical CD I am miffed. But it's not bad, and since I haven't paid for any of the band's other albums, I don't begrudge Stephen Merritt the $13.99.

Björk, Debut – I can't believe I didn't own this album, but after I heard "Human Behaviour" on XPN the other week I realized I didn't. It's amazing, still, and if you listen carefully you can hear echoes both of the Sugarcubes and of Björk's one jazz album, Gling-Gló.

Spoon, Transference – Who doesn't love Spoon? They have been awesome for a good long while, and still are. The new album is more raw than their last, but equally good.

Vampire Weekend, Contra – I really liked VW's first album, and the second is a credible follow-up, though I do think the band loses a little of its shine to lack of novelty. But they wear their entitlement and their musical skill with equal aplomb.
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