LAX - not as cool as it sounds

Wrote this up yesterday on my travel day from Los Angeles - Albany.

Disclaimer - I was thoroughly tired and some what delirious for most of this.

6:46am - airport

Sitting in the Los Angeles airport at quarter to seven in the morning - today already feels long. My boyfriend, being the awesome person that he is, brought me here early so we wouldn't hit traffic/have to wait through the long security line. Along with that though, it only took me about 10 minutes tops, so I have some time to kill before my 8:30am flight. Woke up about 5:30 this morning, didn't want to leave.. still don't actually. I know that my life is in New York, not in California, in fact, I really do miss the Northeast chilly weather right about now, but still, it's hard to leave. Oh, and while we're on the topic of relationships, it annoys the crap out of me when people have constant FB updates about missing their significant other (SO MUCH) after not seeing them for maybe.. a day. WTF. You don't know what missing someone is, butt head. Anyway - just had to get that out.

So I have a rule about morning flights. If I'm tired and unhappy (usually the case), I find a Starbucks. If the Starbucks line is short, I go in, I get a hot beverage, preferably hot chocolate or chai, and a muffin. The muffin is crucial. So is the non coffee beverage. Here's why: muffins make people happy. I never eat muffins unless I need a serious pick me up breakfast. Also, since muffins are pretty much cake (i.e. simple sugars) they make you sleepy, which brings me to the importance on the non coffee beverage. If I'm about to get on a flight, I'm going to want to sleep. If I'm hopped up on caffeine and that baby three rows back starts screaming, you can bet I'm going to be ready to punch someone up to jupiter - and I'm not a violent person. Give me some warm milk and chocolate/spicy tea though, and I'll be your best friend. I'll be sleeping mind you, but it's better than me punching you in the face.

I've come to a realization about people in airports. They always want your seat. That perfect seat at the end of the row by your gate. They want it. Even if it's a bad seat - they want that too. Usually it's the seat with the least people around it, my personal favorite. Because in reality, I'm not a people person. You know those people that always want to chat it up on flights? I'm not one of them. I like sleep more than I like talking to you, deal with it. In fact, I don't think I ever talked to someone sitting next to me on my flight until my flight from O'hare to LAX on my way here. He taught me how to play sudoku.

Also, I like strangers that are surprisingly nice. Especially old black men because then they could be my cool grandpa. I encountered two this morning at LAX - one of them called me princess (in a cute old man sort of way), and the other let me go ahead of him in line. Gotta love those non creepy old men.

9:57am - somewhere in Utah, USA (headed to Newark, NJ)

You know that feeling of embarrassment after sleeping upright in a chair for the good portion of an hour constantly nodding your head up and down? I'm a constant offender of that, but I also find it mildly amusing because even though you know you're doing it, it's not enough for you to consciously wake up and stop. My thinking process at least is - sleep, I need it, other people can laugh if they want. Anyway, one thing (and probably the only thing) I love about continental is that they give you free meals during meal times. Why don't all airlines do that? From my experience they're usually not super gross either. I mean, if you have any type of dietary restrictions you could wave those pretty packaged meals goodbye, but lucky for me I'll eat pretty much anything except for a few select things (sashimi, squash (except for pureed in soup), fast food in general unless it's the last thing on the planet (or the last thing at a rest stop for 100 miles and I'm starving)). So yeah, rock on Continental, you suck otherwise, but I guess you're kind of ok. Oh dude! Free movies! Ok Continental, you win this time. Finding Nemo it is.

5:11pm - Newark airport

Long flight from Los Angeles to Newark. Pretty tired, but also glad to be back in my regular time zone. Not super looking forward to eating gross airport food for dinner, but I guess it's better than nothing. I wish we had Red Mango/Pinkberry in the Northeast. I had some yesterday but it's so freaking good. I could really go for some about now. One thing noted about airports of the east coast - not all the women are wearing super high heels. We're sensible here, we wear flats.

Tales from the Albany Airport....

Today, it is Wednesday. Had Banquet Management this morning and got out early (score), and decided I'm burning my bow tie after this semester. After class I went home, had some lunch, took a shower, and made some dinner to avoid potential overpriced yucky airport food. Drove to pick up my Dad at work so he could take me to the airport. Got questioned my the security guard, but at least he was nice about it.

Ended up getting here kind of super early, but nice to avoid the lines of check in and security. Oh, but just a heads up - it's not a fun experience getting your bag searched, even if there's nothing questionable in it. I actually don't want some dude looking at my underwear, thanks.

Anyway, I'm sitting at Starbucks enjoying the free wifi and an overpriced iced chai. I guess that's what I should expect when combining Starbucks/Airport. Overpriced meets overpriced, they get married and have delicious chai flavored babies. Ok, that was a little weird, but you know what I mean.

Get into LAX around 11 tonight. It's going to be a long day. Kind of wish I had a girl here to tighten my bra strap, but I guess you can't have it all.

Later, cookies.

What the hell is wrong with me, edition # 2

Had to take a break from the brownie excursions to get situated with school, but now I'm back.

I tried miss Perry's recipe a couple weeks ago, and while they were delicious, not quite exactly what I want, but definitely a step in the right direction.

I was watching food network today, and saw Ina Garten making some delicious looking brownies, and usually her recipes are pretty quality. I don't know if I'd say the same thing about her dinner parties, where everyone seems to have a script and all they talk about is how awesome her food is, but whatever floats your canary.

Wish me luck.

Update - I found it. :-D

What the hell is wrong with me?

Enough about this life bull crap for a second - why can't a make a good batch of motherfreaking brownies?

I have tried, for the past say, all my life, to make homemade brownies that

kick those no good, preservative laden, from a bag/box brownies to the curb, once and for all. Have I succeeded? No.... well, sort of.

I used to have a pretty epic recipe for brownies that I thought I had lost forever, re-found it, tried to make them again and they tasted like non chocolatey bullshit. Have I just learned to suck at making brownies or did I have no sense of a good brownie when I was fourteen? Apparently this is what two years of culinary school will do to you, kids. And funny enough, I don't think we ever had to make brownies.

This subject is even tougher because everyone has their different preference of what a "perfect" brownie is. Your perfect recipe may not be mine, and that's why my usual friend google is failing to meet me for coffee on this one.

I've tried a lot of recipes, all resulting in "good" brownies, but not what I want. They all seem to turn out too thin, and almost like flourless chocolate cake (with usually a minimal flour content of 3/4-1 c.), more than the dense, thick, super chocolatey, chewy brownie that I so desire. Plus they never seem to be chocolatey enough, which is a major category for me in the brownie olympics.

I've been trying to wait a couple days after my last failed brownie excursion before trying out a recipe that my good friend and fellow baker miss Breanna Perry has been so kind to part with. From the pictures alone in her recipe it looks promising, so I find my fingers crossed and myself waiting to say, " Yeah, those boxed brownies got nothing on me." But no pressure, Breanna, I'm confident that I'll soon be tasting the chocolatey goodness of sweet brownie victory.

Plus if all else fails, I'll just have to rename this blog "Following a Brownie". :P