It’s Friday evening and 84 degrees currently. I could be and would be typically running, but after a 9 hour work day, strange as it is I did not feel like running for miles today. Instead I decided to go get coffee, sit outside, enjoy the warm weather reading a book, mostly because I know that being free on Friday evenings is soon  coming to an end. The farmers market will begin next month and my Friday evenings will consist of being in the kitchen baking up a storm.

As much as I have baked from time to time the last few months, none of the items have been test runs for the market, but I decided to put a few ideas that have been swirling in my mind to the true test.

I typically like to try something new and share with my friends to get their opinion. The last few days I have spent my evening with a few different friends. My friend I run with came over and I made Sri Lankan dinner, over which we talked about all the races we want to sign up for in the next few months.

Her running days are coming to a standstill because she is pregnant. However, even though she is taking a break from running half marathons, she will be running the 10K races and if not she has agreed to go along with me on a few road trips and be my one woman cheering squad for the races I will run and she won’t be running.

I seem to have compartments for my different friends, which I am sure is typical or normal for all of us.  I have another friend who I spend time taking photographs with, where he and I could spend hours talking about photography or spend an evening exploring new places taking pictures.  Then there are my foodie friends with whom I would go try new restaurants or explore new International grocery stores we hear about and have endless conversations about all things food related.

Of course there are times I have a dinner party and have them all over, but I enjoy having the one on one time with each of them doing what we like without the pressure of trying to include someone who has no interest in that particular hobby.

As much as I am trying to write about the latest brownies I tried, I seem to be drifting away. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would notice that I have a love affair with Pistachios and cardamom. My friends constantly claim that I need a Pistachio intervention. If at work I mention I baked something, in union they would all say ‘and it had pistachios’. Yes, yes I am guilty of going overboard with the use pistachios. Maybe I feel that it is an underused and neglected nut, but I make no apologies for my love of all things pistachios.

Before I forget, you should try flambéed peaches with, you guessed it, Pistachio ice cream.  It is an easy, impressive and a conversation starter when you turn the lights down in your kitchen while you flambé the peaches to the oohs and aahs of everyone around.

Back to the brownies…. and before you wonder, it did have pistachios.

I was trying to avoid the usual chopped pistachios in the brownies, therefore, I made a pistachio paste which I mixed into cream cheese and swirled into a brownie base along with some ground cardamom and sprinkled some nuts on top too.

Pistachio & Cream cheese brownies

It seems my running friend, my photography friend and the few foodie friends,  seem to be of the unanimous decision that the taste of pistachios were too subtle in my brownies and the cardamom overtook it and one even claimed, it was to chocolaty, which means back to the drawing board and another attempt at tweaking and perfecting these brownies.

Here are a few pictures I captured with my friend.

First Landing State Park

PS : Despite all intentions and plans of not going to run, once I had the coffee, the 84 degree temp seemed way too inviting to not take advantage of.  3.5 miles  later it is safe to say that I am a slave to those running shoes.