Dianne's Fudge Brownies

Dianne Linderman spent a lot of time creating this delicious brownie recipe!  Why? Because she didn't like brownies that tasted like they were "store-bought," or “boxed.” She wanted something entirely different - brownies that were crunchy and delicious on the outside and gooey on the inside. Doesn't that sound delicious?

This recipe is very simple to make, and takes less than 10 minutes. Dianne doesn’t use white flour or white sugar, which makes these brownies a whole lot healthier! 

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla (not imitation vanilla)
• 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2.5 cups organic brown sugar (maple sugar or maple syrup work great too)
• 6 1-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• organic olive oil spray (like PAM) to coat the bottom of your baking pan

To make the brownies:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (this lower setting will make brownies turn out gooey on the inside)
• Except butter and unsweetened chocolate, place all the ingredients into a stand mixer and mix well
• Take the chocolate, add it to butter and melt it; then add into the mix
• Mix everything until smooth, and then stir by hand to make sure that you get everything from the bottom
• Coat the bottom of your baking pan with organic olive oil spray; pour the mixture into the pan
• Bake for 35-45 minutes

You want your brownies to be a little soft on the inside when you pull them out of the oven. When you insert a toothpick into the middle, you want it to come out with a little bit of batter on it; this is a perfect time to get your brownies out of the oven. Brownies actually keep cooking for at least 5-10 more minutes when they come out, so leaving them soft on the inside makes them taste gooey and oh so scrumptious!

Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

For this and more of Dianne Linderman's recipes, please visit http://www.everythingthatmattersradio.com/recipes/fudge-brownies.html
 

Getting Back to Basics

Because of this crazy economy, we all start to think about the real possibility of losing our jobs and our way of life. Unfortunately most Americans have searched most of their lives, not for long term financial security, but for comfort! We buy beautiful things for our homes, nice cars, overpriced clothing and jewelry. We wine, dine, and pay for expensive entertainment, all the while not thinking about what we would do if it all came to a sudden stop!

It is never too late to start planning, and because I have had to find a way to survive a few financial disasters in my life, I can now look at any adversity in life as a total adventure. It’s all about your attitude and how willing you are to live with less. I call this getting back to basics. What did you do that made you money when you were a very young person? I was 16 years old when I became a silversmith. At first it was just for fun. I took my simple, plain sterling silver bands to school and sold them for a hefty profit to all my friends. After making dozens and dozens of plain bands, I had to really start thinking of new and more interesting bands, so I purchased some silver stamps, and stamped my bands to make them look unique and was able to sell my new designs to the very same friends. I moved on to setting stones on my simple bands, and, before I knew it, I was a full fledged silversmith.

I am sharing this story with you because everyone has a creative base, and even if you think you don’t have one, you can start this very moment. Jewelry is not only a craft, but it is also a passion, an investment, and, if you don’t mind sitting outside all day, it can become the perfect business for anyone with even a small amount of creativity. My favorite memories were the days at outside crafters fairs with my 14-year-old brother in the sunshine just hundreds of yards from the beach. Even then I thought, “What a way to live!” When my brother and I returned home at night, we counted our bounty, and, on a good day, at 16 years old, I pulled in hundreds of dollars, and as I told you in a previous article, on my best day ever, I made $800.

So many of us have forgotten the simple times in life, always believing that, if we could get the perfect job and make lots of money, we would be able to relax, but what most of us found out is that we spent the first half of our lives acquiring things and the second half of our lives getting rid of things. Having too much becomes a burden and then you can’t enjoy anything that you have acquired. I guess as we get older we start to appreciate the simple things in life again, and that’s where I am at.

Plant a garden, rid yourself of stuff you never use, redecorate your home in things you have made or found and painted, even photos you have taken. Set up a monthly yard sale and even embellish and recycle some of your old junk. I know people who make a huge living doing this, and they are happier than they have ever been, spending days going through thrift stores and yard sales. And, once a month, they have what they call a barn sale, or even something quaint, like a garden sale. These same friends of mine used to make six-figure incomes and are so much happier being creative, treasure hunters. Some of them buy antique jewelry and add new beads and crystal to make unique, beautiful jewelry.

Getting back to basics is really about finding your original passions in life, and, before you have to, start thinking of what you could do and simply start doing it. Go to crafters fairs, flea markets, and farmers markets and even find others who have an online presence and grill them about what is effective. Learn photography; everything I have ever done in life has required some photos, and just like everything else, they represent quality. I buy hundreds of magazines, and look for ideas in decorating, colors, and even the way photos are taken. Educate yourself, and don’t be afraid to fail. If you start thinking about the basics before you need to, you will have security and will not find yourself without them.

Nancy Pelosi's Policy Gone Wild

Recently, I went on a road trip across America to the Great State of Texas where they have some of the best restaurants I have ever been to. My husband and I and our two kids frequented a certain buffet as we traveled from state to state, and something fascinating happened one Texas evening. There was the usual long line of families waiting to belly up to the buffet bar for delicious food at an unbelievably low price when I noticed that the workers behind this somewhat well-run establishment were sort of rude and were flexing their contempt toward the excited buffet eaters.

As the drooling eaters moved along the well-designed food line toward a grill cook turning tender sizzling steaks, he suddenly shouted, "Everyone has to wait!" Subtly making fun of the people who were waiting for the ribs and steaks, he sarcastically announced “You will get some—in two hours, hee hee!” I noticed that instead of the buffet eaters thinking there was something wrong with the out of control grill cook, drunk on the power of his long supper tongs, the drooling public stood quietly, perfectly in line, with eyes fixated on the prize of the slow cooking steak and ribs, as if they behaved the way the cook told them to, they would get the prize. I suddenly envisioned Nancy Pelosi standing there with those long supper tongs and her crazed smile, and I realized that the cook represented the politicians who keep us in line by always offering us something that they can make us wait quietly in line for.

Would you really trade your principles for a piece of meat? If only a single person would have stood up to the rude grill cook or walked out of the restaurant, he might have been put in his place, but the illusion of juicy steak for next to nothing price appealed to human greed and hypnotized this crowd of eaters giving power to the grill cook and feeding his contempt for them. The buffet eaters were putty in his hands, and like hungry animals, they obeyed his commands. In retrospect, I realized that he purchased his power over the eaters by first supplying something they thought they were getting for just about nothing and then by intimidating them into submission, threatening them and making them feel they might have to do without the steak.

That same morning, ironically, I was watching Nancy Pelosi as she explained to a news guy why she had to get the health care bill passed even though the polls show that 75% of Americans do not want government-run health care. Nancy Pelosi is holding a giant pair of tongs as her contempt for all Americans, especially the ones who want something from her, is starting to bud and peak its ugly head out. We Americans are beginning to realize that the ugly buffet grill cook is really high on power.

My thought that morning was, “Am I really hearing what I think I am hearing, the tong-wielding third person in line to the Presidency is telling 75% of the country that she is in control of the buffet line and that she knows what is best for us, and we Americans can just shut up and stand in line?!!”

Wow, where is the outrage when our pubic servant has the audacity to ignore us? We are the employers, and she is our employee! We voted in power-mad, tong-wielding grill cooks to run our country. We did it to ourselves, and as long as we stand in line instead of taking a stand against these over-paid grill cooks, we are not much different than the Jews in Nazi Germany standing in line for a shower.

Iceberg Wedge Salad Recipe

"How to make wedge salad out of iceberg lettuce."


This is the same type of salad that has become famous at Outback Steakhouse and Johnny Carino's.

Ingredients:
- 1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into quarters
- 1 tomato
- gorgonzola dressing
- bacon (optional)
- sunflower seeds (optional)

Dianne Linderman is a cook, entrepreneur, mother and the host of nationally syndicated talk show "Everything That Matters." Hear more recipes on her podcast "Homemade Recipes Radio".

Balance

I was taking a walk the other day and passed by the window of a yoga studio. A sign in the window said, “Learn to find your center.” In that moment, this statement struck the core of my being, and the word “balance” came to mind.

Life is all about balance, and when things are out of balance, nothing works: when you bake a cake and forget an ingredient, complete failure; if you forget to put a bolt in an engine, the engine dies; when two parents don’t work together in harmony, kids get out of control; eat too much and you’ll get fat, but eat too little and you’ll become skinny; too much stress makes you sick and not enough stress makes you lazy; not using enough fertilizer in your garden produces weak, slow-growing veggies, but use too much fertilizer and your veggies get burned; when husbands and wives communicate too little, they end up in divorce; too much knowledge makes a person feel inadequate, but not enough knowledge makes a person feel inadequate; too much personality makes you look needy, not enough personality makes you look needy; spend too much money and you go into debt, don’t spend enough money and it all goes to taxes. I could go on forever and give a billion out of balance scenarios, but no matter how hard you work at anything you do, nothing will ever work properly until there is a perfect balance.

Take our government: too much liberalism, the country falls into a deep hole; too much conservatism, the country becomes rigid. There is a natural balance in life and without it no administration will ever succeed. It will only push us further away from the center where the majority of most good people are! If a leader does not understand what perfect balance is, he himself is out of balance and can only lead us to failure. To find perfect balance in anything you do takes discipline, awareness and thoughtfulness, nothing more and nothing less.

Nature is a very powerful equalizer, and as our leaders try to push us out of balance the good people of America will push back in order to correct the tilt! I see only good things ahead as more people begin to realize they don’t like living on a slope. Most people are lazy and won’t move unless they are pushed. As I see it, the slope is becoming unbearable. There will always be cling-ons who hold onto the tiny morsels that are promised to them and make these morsels the center of their universe. These people live on a slant and would feel very uncomfortable if their lives were level. The frightening thought is that it seems like our President is increasingly attempting to put our country out of balance by stacking more cling-ons on the left-leaning slope, even if he has to create another country that he has basically purchased by entitlements. Buying votes in exchange for entitlements seems to be a mainstay for his administration.

The complete out of balance co-leadership of the present administration sets the agenda for what they want our country to become, and they think that if they push hard enough, we will all tumble over and grab onto the tiny morsels they throw to us. The good people of America, the brace that holds our country steady, will never tumble to the left-leaning slope. They are the steel cross bars of our country’s frame and cannot be moved or tilted, and, in fact, get stronger as the pressure on them persists. These Americans have a core that is immovable and they keep themselves thoughtfully and properly in balance in all matters of life, country, business, family, and even politics.

No matter how out of balance its leaders try to push this country, the spring back on them will be a force they do not understand and won’t know how to deal with. They are interfering with the balance of human nature, and even though they think they figured out how to manipulate the outcome, nature always wins and balance is its end result!

Have you heard Dianne Linderman's Latest Radio Show? Listen to it HERE.