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Christie Vanover, Chief, Command Information

When life hands you lemons … go find the chocolate.

It’s been a heck of a week. More than 300 of America’s best fighters came to the Great Place in hopes of earning the title of champion.

Some Soldiers traveled from as far away as Japan and Korea.

Knowing their Families weren’t able to join them, all of us at public affairs wanted to do what we could to provide live video of the fights along with lots of photos.

This is what I live for – telling the story of America’s Soldiers worldwide; however, huge events like this come with a lot of extra hours, way more than the average 40 a week.

I’m not complaining, but extra time in the office means a lot less time in the kitchen. I actually didn’t prepare a home-cooked meal for an entire week. I can’t even tell you if I ate a vegetable last week.

I remember eating leftover bowls of macaroni and cheese, cereal, cheese sticks and fast food. If it wasn’t for the Blimpie in III Corps Headquarters, people in the office joke that I would never eat lunch.

Pretty crazy for a foodie huh?

Sunday morning, after III Corps grabbed the Combatives title for the third straight year, the adrenaline had worn off, and I was craving veggies, so I cranked out a pan of zucchini parmigiana with homemade tomato sauce.

It’s the perfect time of year to make tomato sauce because tomatoes are so plump and flavorful. I heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, sauté about ½ cup of onions and a few garlic cloves and throw in about eight chopped tomatoes.

Simmer it down until the tomatoes are really soft and add red wine, salt and fresh basil. Taste it and adjust the flavors to your liking.

For the zucchini, slice one zucchini, dip it in a beaten egg then in a mixture of ¼ cup breadcrumbs and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Brown it in a pan of two tablespoons hot olive oil and place the cooked zucchini in a baker.

Top it with that beautiful sauce, some slices of mozzarella or provolone cheese and the remaining breadcrumbs. Bake it at 400 degrees until the cheese bubbles.

I must have really been veggie deprived because I ate the whole pan for lunch and dinner. It really hit the spot.

But there was one thing my body was really craving after a stressful week – chocolate.

I know, you were wondering when I was going to finally get to the chocolate.

Well, here it comes.

I asked my friends if I should make brownies or fudge, and the votes were pretty split, so I decided to prepare brownies with fudge on top. I wanted a middle layer and went back to facebook for votes between peanut butter and caramel.

Caramel won hands down. So the layers of this recipe were determined. Brownies topped with caramel topped with fudge.

Unfortunately, I was so tired Sunday night that I undercooked the brownies and burnt the caramel. I needed another day of rest. I took the day off Monday and tried again.

Much better results.



Homemade Brownies

You can prepare brownies from a box, but it’s pretty easy to make them from scratch. Here’s a slightly revised recipe I got from a friend who has a food blog called, A Little Bit Crunchy, A Little Bit Rock n’ Roll.

1 stick butter

½ cup chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa powder

½ cup flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

Melt the butter in a saucepot or microwave.

Place the chocolate chips and sugar in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter on top and whisk until the chocolate is melted.

Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.

Fold in the cocoa, flour and baking powder.

Line an eight-inch square baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Pour the batter inside. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes.



Homemade Caramel

This is my go-to caramel recipe. When it’s warm, it’s great drizzled over ice cream. If you let it cool, it becomes hard like candy caramels. And the caramel is really rich and buttery.

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

¼ cup corn syrup

3 tablespoons butter

¼ cup heavy cream

Place the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a pot and boil on medium-high without stirring for 15-18 minutes.

The sugar should turn golden brown. Keep an eye on it because it can burn in an instant.

Remove it from the heat and stir in the butter and cream.

Pour the caramel on top of the cooked brownies.



Caramel Fudge

This is Jacques Torres’ recipe for chocolate caramel. Jacques is known as Mr. Chocolate because of his mastery of the cocoa bean. Although this is a caramel, it’s very similar to fudge.

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream

¼ cup corn syrup

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Place the sugar and cream in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for about 30 minutes, until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat and add in corn syrup and chocolate chips. Whisk until the chocolate melts.

Pour on top of the caramel.

Place in the fridge, until the fudge has hardened. Then slice and serve.

Warning because of all the butter, sugar, cream and chocolate, these are really rich. Just a one-inch square really hits the spot when you’re craving chocolate, and they go great with a tall glass of cold milk or a glass of dry red wine.

If you store them in an airtight container, they’ll last at least a week. The question is will you have the willpower to let them last that long?