Ina Garten's Chocolate Heaven

I love Ina's cookbooks--have five different ones, I think. Haven't watched her show, but once, when H. was working out where her specialty food store was on Long Island, I asked him to stop in and bring me back a famous coconut cupcake. Too bad--the store was out of business by then.

And I adore her baking mixes, though they're very pricey and I try to hold out for sales.

When visiting Madison, NJ lately for article research, I found a cute little coffee bar & shop that sells Ina's mixes--particularly one I'd never seen, called Brownie Pudding Mix. It cost about $10.

Dark Night, Dark Treat
Last night, I didn't get home from the Targum reunion till about 1 A.M. Since I'm committed to blogging every single day, I usually leave my blog writing for a treat, the last thing I do before bed.

So I'm blogging at 1:30 A.M., and I hear Figgy and her friend A., who was sleeping over, come barreling out of the bedroom to announce that they're hungry.

"We were never fed dinner," says Figgy dramatically, who had been with her friend M. until 8 P.M., when H. picked up Fig and A. "Can we order a pizza?"

They swore some places were open, but I only had $5 cash and didn't want to cause a ruckus in the condo with deep night delivery to the front desk.

"Then can we bake something?" she asked.

And there it was on top of the fridge, the box I'd been saving for weeks. All [all!] they had to add was two sticks of butter and four eggs. They got it in the oven at 1:47, and Ina says to leave it in for exactly 60 minutes.

You bake the deep, dark concoction in a water bath. The girls didn't do that, so midway through, I popped their pan into a bigger panful of water.

It was so delicious. At 2:47 A.M, the two pajama girls had theirs with a little vanilla ice cream. I tried to resist, but...

BTW, Michael Pollan, Ina's Brownie Pudding does stick to your rule of choosing products with very short lists of ingredients. It has under five.