Look at these. No, seriously, look at them. Don't they look gorgeous? Slim and elegant, shiny, a beautiful brown... But you know what they aren't? Well, um - solid. Evidently, Katharine Hepburn liked gooey brownies. With a nice coffee kick and a hint of cinnamon. And a lot of butter.
Also, allow this to be the time that I comment upon alternate spellings of names. You see, I began this post with her first name spelled with an "e" a la "Katherine," rather than "Katharine." And this just brought to mind one of my least favorite things about baby names. Well, everybody's names, but you get them when you're a baby and have no say in the matter, so I'm going with baby names here. Hope you're okay with that (although if not, what can you really do?).
Now, I'm okay with that little switcharoo. I'm pretty alright with Steven and Stephen too. But then people go off the deep end, calling their adorable newborn such names as "Madysonne" or "Meghanne" or "Adecyn," whathaveyou. This has become such a trend, my name has been dragged through the mud along with all the others. You see, people have begun believing that everyone's name has extra vowels, repeated consonants, etc. So I've seen my name spelled "Katelynne" and even as mangled as "Kaytelynne." Um, really? It's really not difficult. The only thing to choose from is whether I'm "Caitlin" with a "C" or "Kaitlin" with a "K." (And we all know, Caitlin with a "C" is infinitely better)
So why don't we have a movement here, people. Let's head back towards "vintage" baby names. Eva. Nell. Mae. Charlotte. Emma. Simple names, with very few ways to spell them. There's no need to fancy names up or give your kids names you'd give a dog (Um, Snow? Bandit? Zeus?!?). Let's get back to the time when the biggest question was whether you should spell it Katherine or Katharine (or Catherine, for you sticklers out there).
Or, you know, you can go exoticize a perfectly good name. *shudder*
P.S. Don't think I'm immune to this one. My mom desperately wanted to name me Aubra. Thank you, Dad, for stopping that. I could just hear the playground chants of "Aubra Cadabra" and "A Bra..."
P.P.S. And these brownies? While I love fudgey brownies and coffee, here are the few things I mentioned in this week's P&Q on the TWD site that I'd do next time: halve coffee, leave out cinnamon, reduce butter by one Tbsp, increase flour to 1/3 cup, bake 35-40 min, and refrigerate before cutting.
Last Week: Rewound Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Next Week: Brioche Plum Tart
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
TWD: Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies
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45 comments:
Hahahah the "Aubra Cadabra" thing just killed me! Those brownies look so good! And I totally am with you on the baby names... sometimes hearing those Hollywood baby names really makes me laugh... like Pilot Inspektor. Why would you do that to your child???
Remember Moon Unit Zappa? I mean, why do that to a child unless you're already saving for therapy.
The brownies look great but I can totally understand why you'd want them to be a solid rather than a liquid next time!
The brownies look very tasty. I am always up for a ooey gooey fudgy brownie:)
Oh please, spelling my name was one thing, it was the constant mispronunciation that got me every time.
And people still try to put an H in my name....
Hahaha thank god you weren't named Aubra!
The brownies look great, I love fudgey, so I should love these!!
Out of all of your suggestions I halved coffee, reduced butter by one Tbsp and increased the flour to 1/3 cup, this worked perfectly!
My coworkers would like to thank you for posting your recommendations in the P&Q-sections as they loved the brownies! (so did I!!!)
Love the little plate! And I just want to eat the bite on the fork!
Funny about names. My sister thought it was cool to have a y in her kid's names. Ehryn--that's Erin. Alysn--simply Allison.
I made the brownies 4 times and they were perfect (not too gooey, just awesomely fudgy) every time. I love these. I hate it when that happens though, when the same thing turns out different for other people. I even only baked mine 25 min. at 300 degrees (dark metal pan). Hmmm? Nothing wrong with a little goo now and then. ;)
Sincerely,
Katrina (with a K!)
However you spell it, your brownies look divine.
So funny, as a Jeannine, I have seen everything you could imagine. In HS there were 4 Jeannine's in my class all with a different spelling.
These brownies totally make me want to drink a glass of mil, and I hate milk!
u made me laugh out loud!!! thanks :)
brownies look great, btw
I'm not going to tell you my real name because it's too odd, but my mom gave me the middle name of Lee because she wanted me to be a Southern belle, in Toronto, Canada. And that's why I eat so much chocolate - to get over my name. ;)
Brownies look fantastic! Love your cute plate!
The name comments are too funny. We are actually debating naming our baby Kate or Katherine right now and having the same conversation. I like names "boring" as my best friend says, but I like knowing that it's a girl or a boy and having it spelled the normal way. You wouldn't believe how many people have asked how to spell our son's name (it's Will, come on!)
Your brownies look perfect. I'm going to stick with your changes next time since mine were just a delicious pile of mush!
You're right - these are definitely not solid! I had the worst time just getting them out of the pan and photographing them...and my pics were terrible! Ack! BUT - yours look fantastic! I really enjoyed these!
-Amy
www.singforyoursupperblog.com
I know exactly what you mean... how hard is it to spell 'Jessica'??
Your brownies look fab! :)
Ha! I'm totally with you on names! Your child will be unique even without a one-of-a-kind name spelling. And I was with you with the non-solid brownies too. Gooey is good, but Katharine really tests the limits of goo, methinks. Yours look fabulous!
I have one of those names. Believe me, I am the only old person named Natashya. It may be popular now, but nobody knew it or could pronounce it back in the day. I refused to use it for the first decade of my life. But seeing as how many of my flower-child contemporaries got saddled with much wilder names than I, I guess I got off light.
I love the brownies, bring on the butter!
exotic spellings of plain jane names drive me nutty.
fyi, this blogger up'd the flour& bake time, and omitted a bit of butter with SOLID results ; p: http://honeymuffin.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/twd-katharine-hepburn-brownies/
Your brownies look great.
I feel bad for kids with alternate/weird spelled names. They have to correct people their whole life.
And uniqueness comes from personalities not names!
Eerk! Thank goodness for your dad, eh? (I'd start calling you Aubra now if I wasn't convinced you'd hate me.) The different spellings of Catherine, though, are all pretty old.
I'm not going to poo on vintage names. There may be readers who own some of the more unfortunate ones!
Too gooey for me.
I agree with you on the name thing. Giving it some weird spelling doesn't make it a different name! We're on a quest to find a non-made up but un-generic name for our coming boy!
So funny! Your brownies look wonderful! I love them.
I agree with you on baby names. These brownies look good. I love fudgey brownies . and the cinnamon adds an extra yumminess :)
Ditto on all of the above on the names... that's including the foreign-to-dutch names mispronounced the Dutch way, shudder!
Love Katherine Hepburn, not her gooey brownies, too gooey for me.
Caitlin,
How funny, I could stop LOL ... really? your mum wanted to name you Aubra? Aubra Cadabra ... lol ...
anyway,
your brownies look so moist and meltingly good.
Lovely looking brownie and fun to hear about your penchant for names and naming people/animals properly. Mine's Kathryn thankyouverymuch...that's why the K and Y in the nickname. I always thought it would be great to be named Jill, don't ask me why as I have no idea. Your brownies turned out great, but I knew they would.
Your brownies do look slim and elegant. You did have a lucky escape with "Aubra"!
I'm with you on all of those suggestions, some of which I actually did. I hated the thought of the cinnamon, so I left it out.
Madam Chow
mine werent quite as gooey as that, but I like gooiness so i think yours look great!
I can't agree more about the stupid spelling thing. And you can only guess how excited I am that my name made the list of acceptable names (Eva) though I am constantly impressed at how many pronunciations people can come up with for it. It's 3 letters and I can think of 10 different ways people have pronounced it!
Caitlin I'm with you all the way on the baby names but these brownies just seem heavenly to me.
Your tips for next time sound pretty good. And can I just say that I really enjoyed the whole baby name discussion. I don't know if it could get more out of hand. And the celebrity names? Why do you want to call your child Banjo?? Anyway...nice brownies!
These look just like Dorie describes. You have a perfect paper topping! I was going to name my kid Apple but that was "taken" so I'm going with Pluot, Aprium, Baby Kiwi and Bing Cherry.
Ha, solid? Who needs solid brownies when you can have fudgey, gooey ones! Looks perfect if you ask me... ;)
Damn, now I will never fulfill my dream of knowing as Aubra. Why Caitlin why!
as=an, by the way!
they definitely need a reduction in butter in my opinion. And less dark chocolate. :) Not my faves, but yours look great.
Add to the list, my sister is one of the culprit parents for the crazy name game. Brittonya and Dakodyta are two of her kids. Seriously. We just call them Brit and Kody thank goodness though.
Continuing the craziness that is the names of my siblings children, my brother joined the fray with Saedjon and Keenon. Yeah.
As for me? Aidan (orig spelling, thank you - not the suggested Aeydin - no joke - that some friends thought would be neat) and Cole (not Kohl). I guess I am a traditionalist. Frankly, I just wanted names it would be tough for kids to figure out a way to make fun of!
I had the same name spelling issue at first too and had to double check how Katharine was spelled for these.
I love the slim and elegant look of your brownies!
Vintage names are the best. Better than Prince Michael I and II. Poor kiddos. I have alsways spelled Caitlin with a C. there is another way???
Brownies look delilcious.
Your brownies look terrific! They were a bit too fudgey for me but everyone else loved them.
I actually spelled her name "Katherine" in my post at first but changed it after I noticed a lot of other TWD'ers had it with an "a".
I think your brownies look really good!
Since when were Lord of the Ring character names considered exotic? C for Caitlin is definitely better, but I'd have to go with K for Catherine.
We spent a lot of time in celtic circles and there are a billion ways to spell your name! I have a thing against naming dogs with people names, too, but I did it with our rescue dog, because it was close to her rescue name (which I disliked). Yeah, the brownies: they were great, and I agree with your mod.s. Mine were not gooey but a bit greasy. Just a tad.
As a fellow Caitlin (note the proper spelling), just wanted to say 'hi' and sympathize with the fact that no one can spell our name right first try. Not only can you choose from a C or a K, you can then select any vowel (or a combo), then a t and/or an l, any vowel (or combo of vowels) and follow it up with an n. Or two n's. Seriously. I had barrettes when I was little that said "Katelynn" on them. Ugh
Brownies: look amazing. I'm eating my incredibly boring breakfast cereal and it's really not winning the battle against those photos.
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