Tell me, do I reek of desperation..?
no?
...just jet fuel?
well, ok then. I'm not trying to pull in any innocent young readers by my use of the word "brownies" so early on in my blogger career. No, not I, I shudder at the thought of such practices.
Haha but you see, maybe the name of Bob Hoover drew you in, not my baking skills (Lord knows not my photography skills, but hey no one to give me flack, I WILL KEEP ON).
So, the title. Today is yet another calm Friday, I am typing this at work, it's 4:13 pm and I had the catchy title idea and my new Black Bean Brownies video uploaded, so I knew I had enough puns for a new blog post. Lucky you guys huh? Also, I wanted to take a break from the homework now that midterm week is behind me (took my math midterm yesterday morning woo!!) and create something. The brownies are actually from last weekend, but they have given me will to live throughout this whole crazy week so here I am passing on the blessings. *sniff* midterms really bring out the best or the worst in people, ya know?
Ok, I should work on making actual cohesive sense while writing these blog posts'. I have the same problem in my videos, not making sense and then my poor subscribers probably feel like they're on a train wreck headed off a ramp jump headed towards a beluga whale smiling on a cloud. Which is what my brain feels like all the time but I digress (what else is new).
So! Sense! Let's make some.
And brownies too please.
Here we go.
First off, no I am not a baking blog. I'm a 19 year old female, but I also have the freedom of America to post whatever I want to EVEN THOUGH this is supposed to primarily be a blog about Aviation, Student life, and God's awesomeness I think brownies falls under all that.
BLACK BEAN PROTEIN BROWNIES
*these are not sweet the way I make them, but you can adapt. you're not a Banana Slug. branch out from your home Redwood tree*
2 cups canned black beans
1 cup dry oats (I like to use thick rolled old fashioned gluten free, but if that's too many words for you, anything that looks grainy and dry should work just fine)
1/4 cup nut butter (I believe you can omit, but be aware they will be drier so then you have to add more sweetener or milk. I used 1/4 cup organic almond butter)
2 tbsp-1/2 cup liquid sweetener (clearly, you can tell how widely everyone's sweet taste varies. I add about 1/4 cup or less, but it really depends on how sweet you want it, & whether you're using honey, molasses, rice syrup, agave, liquid stevia etc)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon, ginger, pie spice, other spices etc to taste ("to taste" means "to suit your taste buds". fancy, I know, aye trust me I know you know how hard I try for y'all to know I know you like special treatment. *adjusts monocle and gloves*)
1. Bake middle rack conventional oven at 350 F, 221 C (this is typically the type of oven everybody has, so don't go sticking your head in the oven to check if it says "Conventional" or not. unless your oven looks like a spaceship, it's probably Conventional)
2. Bake 40 mins or so (this part is shifty because I baked it for AN HOUR last time and it was fine, mushy inside still even. But this last time it actually was too dry, so honestly, I think I'll forego the timer next time and just listen to my nose. You can normally smell baked things when they're done. my sister has a friend who can do this I've recently just found out, her friend is maybe a superhero who is still developing her power, who knows, crazy world we live in, heroes among us, the usual).
Now that we got those brownies in the oven baking, let's talk life. Bob Hoover man, WHAT A DUDE. One of the CFIs at work brought a DVD about Bob's life, and he put it on instead of us having to watch that one talk show where ladies bash on Hollywood life and celebs. As....charming as that talk show was, Bob Hoover sounded better. The guy was a beast.
TALK ABOUT HIS LIFE, this dude was crazy!
He learned to fly at 15, teaching himself to overcome sickness in acrobatic flying by doing it more ("Overly Manly Man" meme comes to mind). He was a WWII Air Force veteran, possibly most famous for escaping a German POW camp by hi-jacking their plane and flying it over the fence. He was awarded the Distinguished flying Cross.
He died just this past December, a shame so many WWII vets are leaving before everyone knows their story. I just learned of him recently, but now he's gone...many of them are dying off. Here's an article that briefly tells of his craziest stunts:
Bob Hoover reminds me of Louis Zamperini, from the book (and movie) Unbroken. Louis is a troublemaker at boyhood, teachers and parents don't know what to do with him. He gets into running, and after beating an Olympic record no big deal, he eventually gets into flying. He enlists' in the Air Force. Ends up crash landing in the Pacific and being rescued weeks after surviving at sea only to end up at a Japanese POW camp. the rest you'll have to read or watch the movie, whichever you prefer! I personally think the book was better and more epic!
And yes, Louis actually existed too, even though it seems both he and Bob are just really adventurous novel characters.
Oh, looks like our brownies are done! Like I mentioned earlier, they turned out drier than I wanted but the secret of these brownies (or, *ahem*, why I should name them Failproof Foolproof Brownies) is that after baking if you jut leave them in the fridge overnight they get gooey and are more fudgey, especially if yours don't over-bake like mine did! There's nothing like modern refrigeration to help clean up your mistakes, thanks Samsung.
Which leads to my last topic I wanted to touch on: the blog. I haven't formally announced it on my YouTube, because if this post doesn't give you a clear enough idea, nothing will. *But, I also know if I wait until I'm no longer a mess to reveal my blog and YouTube and stuff then I'll be waiting forever. Life is messy, get over it, (maybe bake it into bark-dry bean protein brownies?) but don't cry about it. Ok, maybe I cry a little when autocorrect gives me the 80th squiggly little red line.
I think it was turning sappy there for a moment, no fear, no tears here only bad puns. But seriously, life is not ever going to be perfect. I do fall for the trap of "now is not the perfect moment to reveal my project/video/idea/plan" *cue mastermind evil laugh* etc etc etc well GUESS WHAT before you know it, it'll be too late. Like you'll be dead, or too busy to make videos, or lose interest or move across the world so you'll never get to go do that random thing at that random place with friends because you put it off. So go do it, go start a blog even though it's midterms and you're working 30 hours a week + studying for your Private license. (but honestly, procrastination & passion are always the birthplace of the most radical/creative stuff my dudes, at least for me).
I'm feeling ambitious because it's school season so it's either insane ambition or sleeping 18 hours a day. Who knows which it'll be (just kidding I can't sleep in because my mattress isn't nearly that comfortable).
Work was good today. Weather was crazy squalls with beautiful sun between where it tricks you so you walk outside, only to be caught in a downpour that slams you like a driver committing a Hit and Run down a hill paved with black ice. But that, again, is like life*
Bon appétit.
an' here's something extra for those who read all the way here....
"sliding out of midterm week like":
"going into finals in 5 weeks like":
*life in Portland anyway, where we don't have "official" monsoon weather but pretty close to it