In The Beginning...
... there was no World Wide Web. There was no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok... There wasn't even MySpace, let alone the concept of streaming movies or TV on demand.
Back in those Dark Ages, there was Compuserve, Prodigy, and America Online. You paid a monthly fee for an extremely slow dial-up connection to your service of choice. That fee entitled the user to 'X'-amount of minutes per month - and when you went over your allotment, you were charged by the minute for your overages. A lot. I know.
Victor and I were introduced online - he was on Prodigy, I was on America Online, and our Yenta, Nancy, was on both. She decided we should meet.
We did, and it will be 30 years in November...
During those years on Prodigy and America Online, we met a lot of really great people - people we were able to connect with in real life, and who remain cherished friends to this day.
One person we only knew from the Prodigy online world - who we lost contact with when Prodigy went away in 2001 - was a woman named Lisa Deaton. Lisa will always be remembered because she gave us her recipe for Double Fudge Brownie Decadence. And, as the recipe implies - it is decadent!
The secret to this particular recipe is the corn syrup. And, yes, boys and girls, there is a difference between Karo Corn Syrup and high fructose corn syrup.
Double Fudge Brownie Decadence
Lisa Deaton
Brownie
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
Glaze
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp corn syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 9" cake pan.
In saucepan, heat butter and corn syrup until butter is melted. Stir in chocolate until melted. Cool, slightly.
Add sugar and then eggs, mixing well. Add vanilla, flour, and nuts, mixing well.
Pour into prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes, or until it springs back when lightly touched.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove and fully cool on rack.
For glaze:
Melt together chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. Stir in vanilla. Frost with glaze and then chill about 15 minutes to set glaze.
The online world really was so much different back in those days. To quote Simon and Garfunkel... A time it was, and what a time it was, it was... A time of innocence...
Not that we were actually innocent, mind you... we could definitely be hell-raisers walking the fine line of being TOS'd... I spent an inordinate amount of time on the Christianity Boards. It was fun being the Gay Atheist who knew more about the Bible than those who professed to follow it...
I also came close to working for the GLCF - Gay Lesbian Community Forum - on AOL circa 1992-93. Alas, the actual money wasn't there. With 20/20 hindsight, I probably would have made a fortune in stock. Oh, well...
It is difficult to imagine a time when you didn't carry access to the entire world in your pocket. A time when you called someone on the phone and it would be busy for hours because they were online with their dial-up. It's also hard to imagine a time when 14.6kbs was fast! You actually had to go to a bank - online banking didn't exist. Bills came in the mail - and were paid by check. It was downright archaic!
But I digress - as usual...
Thanks, Lisa, for the recipe - and the stroll down Memory Lane...
And speaking of Memory Lane... the plate is from the 1992 James Beard Award Dinner - a set of 4 from our friend, Susan, who has been a friend for more than 45 years - waaaaay before the online world existed.
