The Sunday Salon: Bloglovin & Chocolate

After much hoopla over the soon to be demise of Google Reader and umming and ahhing on my part (I hate change) I bit the bullet and decided on Bloglovin. I was going to test Feedly and Bloglovin extensively and make an informed decision (ha) but I'd probably still be undecided come 1st July ... so Bloglovin it is :)

  

What I was happy with:

• very simple transfer from Google Reader to Bloglovin, blog list imported at the press of a button
• all my categories transferred - Favourite Blog Visits, Australian Bloggers, Scrapbook Blogs etc
• Bloglovin app works well
• I liked claiming my blog and seeing who was already following
• Option to like a post and return to it later

Not so happy with:

• only option for a profile pic is using your facebook photo (I don't want to)
• only option for customising the layout that I can see is by Blog or Date 

And Google Friend Connect is NOT disappearing with Google Reader but it probably won't be around forever so it might pay to follow by more than one source. I keep many of my favourite visits in my blog roll but I like to give readers options - see left hand side bar.

On the state of my mental health, I needed chocolate and lots of it to post my review of Nameless by Lili St Crow so I made this 

Chocolate Brownie Pudding 

recipe from the Merry Gourmet who minimally tweaked it from Barefoot Contessa Back To Basics 2008. 

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter (or 227gm for us metric users)

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar (that's normal sugar for us not castor)

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tblsp Grand Marnier (optional) I didn't use it

Directions: 
Preheat oven to approx 160 degrees Celsius - 150 fan forced (325 farenheit) and grease a 2litre baking dish. 

Melt butter and set aside to cool.
Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer on medium to high speed until mixture very thick and pale, about 5 - 10 mins. Whisk together cocoa and flour and set aside.

When egg/sugar mixture is ready decrease the speed to low & add vanilla, then the cocoa and flour mixture. Mix until just combined. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in cooled butter and mix until just combined. 

Pour batter into baking dish and place in larger baking pan. Add hot tap water to pan until it comes halfway up the side of baking dish. Bake 1 hour. Allow to cool slightly, serve warm with cream or icecream or both :)

Warning: This is for serious chocolate lovers. Rich, oozy chocolatey goodness. The top is crunchy and chewy and the inside is gooey and delicious. Beats therapy ;)

PS: I just found out this is actually freakin awesome cold. OMG I've died and gone to heaven

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.