give me a brownie and no one will get hurt...

Sometimes, when the weather is hot and sticky, all you want is an ooey, gooey, sticky brownie to go along with the weather. I made these brownies Friday night, after watching "Batman Begins" with Leah. OK, I'll be truthful...I actually fell asleep during the movie (I'm not the most dedicated action movie fan...). But a half hour's sleep was all I needed to get rejuvenated for some hard-core baking at 1am! Which is the best time to bake, by the way. I highly recommend busting out your mix-master late late into the night...errr, into the wee hours of the morning.

So here I was, mixing-up brownies...and not even checking to make sure I had all the ingredients before I began. Good thing I'm a champion substituter, because I kept my cool when I realized that I wouldn't have enough cocoa powder. However, caramel swirled chocolate chips saved the night. And they melted beautifully, too.

OK, so let's sidetrack for a sec and talk about peanut butter. I promise that this will relate to brownies, in time. So I love peanut butter, I'm not gonna lie. Let's cut right to the chase: it's amazing. It's smooth, it's creamy, it's delicious. Basically, it's the Miracle Food. It's a great protein source, and it has delicious mono-unsaturated fat to keep you satisfied. Just think of how low those triglyercide levels could go! Sorry, this is the future-dietitian in me coming out. :) But basically, peanut butter has the uncanny ability to make foods that are already crazy delicious even more delicious-er. And did I just say delicious-er? Yes, yes I did.

Back to brownies. Brownies are great. Gooey brownies are better. But brownies with peanut butter swirls cannot be sweeter. Basically I just dropped spoonfuls of peanut butter onto the batter, and swirled it into pretty designs with a knife. Super easy. This can also be done with other topping, like strawberry preserves, Nutella, and even cheesecake batter. Mmmm. And into the oven they went, and out came...

WOWEEEE YUMMY. Look at that decadent denseness going on there. Beautiful, beautiful. I was lost, and now I have found the perfect brownie recipe...

Just look at that swirly goodness. Am I going overboard? Mayhaps. But I know that my friend, Anita, would agree with me 100% that you can never go overboard when you're dealing with chocolate and peanut butter.

Oh My Gawd Brownies
Adapted from "Fudgey Brownie Squares"...ilovemilkandcookies.blogspot.com

70g butter
70g cocoa powder
100g chocolate chips
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
as much peanut butter as you desire

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper.

Place butter, cocoa, and chocolate chips in the top of a medium double boiler. Stir until melted. Place chocolate mixture in medium bowl. Whisk in sugar. Mixture will appear grainy, but don't you worry about a thing! Every little thing is gonna be alright...

Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Whisk in vanilla, and then slowly whisk in the flour, a little at a time. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter over the batter. Swirl peanut butter into the batter with a knife. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove brownies from oven, and allow to cool to room temperature. However, it is not discouraged to eat them right then and there while warm. :)

*I apologize for using grams in this recipe. My advice: use a conversion site, like http://www.unitconversion.org/, and then weigh out your ingredients in ounces.