What Shall We Bake Today?

Food 1 Minute

In keeping with our Valentine themed offerings this month, I present Red Velvet Brownies!

Ingredients

Brownies:

Cooking spray

1 (4-oz.) bittersweet chocolate baking bar, chopped

3/4 cup (6 oz.) salted butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. table salt

1 (1-oz.) bottle red liquid food coloring

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (4 oz.) salted butter, softened

6 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Prepare the oven and baking pan:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lightly grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray; line bottom and sides with parchment paper, allowing 2 to 3 inches to extend over sides; lightly grease (with cooking spray) parchment.

Melt chocolate:

Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwavable bowl on HIGH until melted and smooth, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, stirring at 30-second intervals. Whisk in sugar; add eggs, 1 at a time, whisking just until blended after each addition.

Make batter:

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Gently stir flour mixture, food coloring, and vanilla into chocolate mixture, stirring just until well incorporated.

Bake Brownies:

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely, about 2 hours.

While Brownies cool, prepare the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat cream cheese and softened butter in bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low, and gradually beat in powdered sugar until blended. Beat in vanilla. Increase speed to medium-high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Frost brownies:

Using a piping bag fitted with a large star tip, pipe frosting on top of brownies or spread frosting over brownies. Cut brownies into squares.

ENJOY!

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Published by pat frederick

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95 thoughts on “What Shall We Bake Today?”

    1. Good morning, Pat! Cold here @ 26, not windy yet. Wheezer ate most of the dry food overnight but he’s nowhere to be seen this morning. He’s taken to coming during the day, then sleeping for a couple of hours in the chair before taking himself off again. Stay warm!

      I can’t get on-line banking set up for some reason so I’ll run up to the bank once they open this morning and get them to help me do it. SMH – I HATE CHANGE!!!

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  5. TheseTruths

    TheseTruths(@thesetruths)

    Offline

    Wolf

    February 7, 2026 01:15

    AG Pam Bondi:

    Tonight our @TheJusticeDept

    attorneys secured yet another crucial legal victory in support of @POTUS Trump’s immigration agenda.

    The Fifth Circuit just held illegal aliens can rightfully be detained without bond – a significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn.

    Thank you to Ben Hayes who argued this case, Brett Shumate and the @DOJCivil Division.

    We will continue vindicating President Trump’s law and order agenda in courtrooms across the country.

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  6. Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh 🚨 JUST IN: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna drops MAJOR TRUTH NUKE on Chuck Schumer after he called voter ID “Jim Crow 2.0” “The people who don’t want voter ID are saying that not only do they want ICE to show IDENTIFICATION…” “…but they are also repeating this idea that President Trump is going to steal the midterms.” “So let’s play into their little game here. If you were really afraid of election theft, wouldn’t you WANT voter ID? Wouldn’t you want that election integrity, security?” “Nope, but they don’t want that. They just want to lie to their voters, but their voters, Democrats, they actually want voter ID. In fact, Black, Hispanic, Asian, White, we all want it.” “They should probably do it, but they’re not going to, but we will, which is why we’re going to win the midterms.” 🔥

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  7. Jake

    February 7, 2026 6:18 am

    Pakistanis Who Have Never Been to US Are Voting in California Elections from Inside Pakistan – Feb. 6, 2026 7:20 pm

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/pakistanis-who-have-never-been-us-are-voting/

    San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Captain says voting records show people outside of the country, in Pakistan, are allowed to vote in the California elections.
    The Sheriff’s Captain revealed this during a press conference in September 2025.

    I think we have some evidence of two or three other people out of the country that are voted? Is that correct? Yeah, approximately two or three other people out of the country, as well as people residing outside of the district.

    The online voter registration system, it seems to be an honor system. Anybody can put information in there to register to vote. All you have to do is click a box and say that you’re not lying, and then you’ll get an email from the Secretary of State or something in the mail saying, Thank you for registering to vote. And there you are. Once you’re on the voter rolls, anytime an election comes around, guess what? You get mailed a ballot, right? You get mailed something to vote. So we found that a little bit problematic.

    Some registrations allegedly involved people not living in the U.S., including claims that individuals (or at least one case tied to Khan’s family) in Pakistan were registered and may have voted via mail-in ballots.

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  9. Just The News: “The new National Institutes of Health chief declared Friday that the Trump administration won’t pursue lockdowns in future pandemics and his agency has stopped all forms of dangerous gain-of-function research, ending two controversial legacies of the Dr. Anthony Fauci era inside the government’s premier health research institution.

    “As far as the NIH, we’ve paused every single project that even is anywhere within the vicinity of something that could be gain of function, and the White House is working on a policy …(that) will make it so that it never happens again,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH director, told the Just the News, No Noise television show.

    “Nowhere in the United States Government will we invest in a project that poses a risk of catastrophic harm to the American people ever again,” he added.

    Gain of function research is a controversial form of science that tries to enhance deadly viruses and bacteria to make them more deadly in an effort to study future pandemic responses. It was stopped by President Barack Obama but then revived in 2017 under Fauci’s leadership, and it is believed to be behind a lab leak in Wuhan, China, that the FBI and other federal agencies believe may have started the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

    Bhattacharya said the Biden administration had confusing rules that left the possibility of such risky research to continue to slip through, and he has put a clear mandate in place.  

    “What we’re doing is we’re saying there has to be a comprehensive risk assessment of every single project that has anywhere close to the vicinity of being dangerous gain of function,” he explained. “And if it’s dangerous gain of function, the answer is, ‘No, you can’t do it.’”

    He said the NIH model is going to be the center of a larger government-wide policy being finalized by the White House. “So we’re headed toward a comprehensive policy for the entire federal government where that’s the case. As far as the NIH is concerned, I’ve already implemented a policy like that, where we pause dozens of grants, and as soon as the new policy comes up, we’ll submit them to the new independent board that’s going to be looking at this,” he said.

    Bhattacharya said the government still has much work to do to reform pandemic preparations from the failures of COVID-19 outbreak, but that one tactic used then and favored by Fauci — full community lockdowns — will certainly not be used under this Trump administration.

    “I think I can tell you that the appetite for lockdowns in this administration is basically zero. So I don’t think we would have the same kind of approach. But we do need to have a national conversation about what happened during COVID, especially during the Biden administration, with the vaccine mandates and all that.”

    Pandemic prevention “shouldn’t just be some secret plan sitting in the government vault that you pull out if something terrible happens,” he said.

    “We saw during COVID every single person’s life was affected in some, mostly for the worse,” he added. “…I’ll tell you under my watch, I will never advocate and the NIH will not be advocating for lockdowns ever again.”

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  11. Hmmmm…..I’ve been avoiding delving into Turning Point USA, the Charlie Kirk murder, and his oh-so-photogenic wife. TBH, I’ve been suspicious of her for a while now and after listening to this Stew Peters video, I’m even more convinced – she is NOT what she purports to be and it looks like she is quite the liar…..watch and see what you think! Both of her parents were deep in the US intelligence apparatus and it seems that Erika lied outright about their background and living on Ft. Huachuca for years. Candace Owens may, indeed, be dead on-target!!!

    Charlie Kirk turned down big $$$$ from Israel yet immediately after his death, TP accepts that money and more from Israel sources…..sounds fishy to me!

    “Owen Benjamin joins Stew to discuss Charlie Kirk’s betrayal and murder, linking it to the Epstein files cover-up by elite international pedophiles.”

    https://rumble.com/v75eoe0-killer-wife-the-many-lies-of-erika-kirk.html

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    1. I’ll take your word for it. erika’s attitude didn’t sit well with me either. carrying on your cause is one thing…doing it so quickly after your husband is murdered is a total other thing. she seized the reigns too quickly imo.

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  12. Just The News: “Ukraine and Russia now face a firm timeline proposed by the United States to try to bring the war to an end. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that Washington has set June as a target for both nations to reach a comprehensive peace agreement. If Russia and Ukraine fail to meet that deadline, the U.S. is prepared to increase diplomatic pressure on both sides to push negotiations forward, Zelensky said.

    The deadline emerged after a press briefing in Kyiv, where Zelensky addressed ongoing efforts for a breakthrough in negotiations that have yielded little progress to date.

    U.S.-facilitated discussions in Abu Dhabi recently concluded with no major agreements as Kyiv and Moscow remained far apart on core issues. Ukraine has made clear it will never retreat from contested regions such as the Donbas, while Russia continues to insist on terms that Kyiv rejects.

    Part of the U.S. strategy involves scheduling a new round of trilateral negotiations in Miami next week, which would be the first to be held on American soil. Zelensky said Ukraine has confirmed its participation, emphasizing that the country is committed to diplomacy even as the fighting in the four-year war continues.”

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  17. Bummer…..sigh. I can’t get my on-line banking set up for the new account – tried twice but no-go – I keep getting the message “unable to set up account.” And the lobby of the new bank isn’t open on Saturdays so I have to wait until Monday to get help. Sheesh! What a PITA!!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  18. Yes, I’m in a mood…..🙄😏😫😖😩😬

    I am sick and tired of the wall-to-wall coverage on Guthries’ disappearance! Jesse Watters entire show except for about 10 minutes at the end was all about her. What makes her so damned special anyway??? How many people go missing – yes, even those taken for ransom – every fricking day of the week and we NEVER hear a word about it?!?! Or at most, a 10 minute news flash! The first 3 HOURS of Fox News this morning was ALL about her – literally NOTHING else! Enough!!! Just because her daughter is a widely known news commentator??? Disgusting!

    Liked by 1 person

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    2. this was it…i think.

      TLHoward.

      February 7, 2026 12:58 pm

      I just now saw Nancy Guthrie’s Facebook page–she’s virulently anti-ICE, anti- Trump, anti-Maga and heavily involved with a church that believes illegals should be able to flow freely over the border.

      Liked by 1 person

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  24. Just The News: “Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said on Saturday that Tehran would respond to any U.S. military attack by targeting American bases stationed across the Middle East. He made the remarks in an interview with Qatari television amid sharply rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

    Araqchi stressed that Iran would not strike the territory of host nations or the U.S. mainland, but would focus specifically on U.S. military installations in the region if Iran were attacked. He framed this as a defensive measure, saying that Iran “cannot strike American soil, but we will target their bases in the region.”

    His comments came a day after indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the United States in Oman were described as positive by both sides, though no specific date has been set for the next round of discussions. 

    Araqchi reiterated that Tehran is willing to discuss its nuclear program but refuses to widen negotiations to include its ballistic missile program or other issues.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  26. Just The News: “Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said on Saturday that Tehran would respond to any U.S. military attack by targeting American bases stationed across the Middle East. He made the remarks in an interview with Qatari television amid sharply rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

    Araqchi stressed that Iran would not strike the territory of host nations or the U.S. mainland, but would focus specifically on U.S. military installations in the region if Iran were attacked. He framed this as a defensive measure, saying that Iran “cannot strike American soil, but we will target their bases in the region.”

    His comments came a day after indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the United States in Oman were described as positive by both sides, though no specific date has been set for the next round of discussions. 

    Araqchi reiterated that Tehran is willing to discuss its nuclear program but refuses to widen negotiations to include its ballistic missile program or other issues.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  29. Liked by 1 person

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    1. 1866: Cotton seeds are agricultural waste. After extracting cotton fiber, farmers are left with millions of tons of seeds containing oil that’s toxic to humans. Gossypol, a natural pesticide in cotton, makes the oil inedible. The seeds are fed to cattle in small amounts or simply discarded.

      1900: Procter & Gamble is making candles and soap. They need cheap fats. Animal fats work but they’re expensive. Cotton seed oil is abundant and nearly worthless. If they could somehow make it edible, they’d have unlimited cheap raw material.

      The process they develop is brutal. Extract the oil using chemical solvents. Heat to extreme temperatures to neutralise gossypol. Hydrogenate with pressurised hydrogen gas to make it solid at room temperature. Deodorise chemically to remove the rancid smell. Bleach to remove the grey color.

      The result: Crisco. Crystallised cottonseed oil. Industrial textile waste transformed through chemical processing into something white and solid that looks like lard. They patent it in 1907, launch commercially in 1911.

      Now they have a problem. Nobody wants to eat industrial waste that’s been chemically treated. Your grandmother cooks with lard and butter like humans have for thousands of years. Crisco needs to convince her that her traditional fats are deadly and this hydrogenated cotton-seed paste is better.

      The marketing campaign is genius. They distribute free cookbooks with recipes specifically designed for Crisco. They sponsor cooking demonstrations. They target Jewish communities advertising Crisco as kosher: neither meat nor dairy. They run magazine adverts suggesting that modern, scientific families use Crisco while backwards rural people use lard.

      But the real coup happens in 1948. The American Heart Association has $1,700 in their budget. They’re a tiny organisation. Procter & Gamble donates $1.7 million. Suddenly the AHA has funding, influence, and a major corporate sponsor who manufactures vegetable oil.

      1961: The AHA issues their first dietary guidelines. Avoid saturated fat from animals. Replace it with vegetable oils. Recommended oils: Crisco, Wesson, and other seed oils. The conflict is blatant. The organization issuing health advice is funded by the company that profits when people follow that advice.

      Nobody seems troubled by this. Newspapers report the guidelines as objective science. Doctors repeat them to patients. Government agencies adopt them into policy. Industrial cotton-seed oil, chemically extracted and hydrogenated, becomes “heart-healthy” while butter becomes “artery-clogging poison.”

      1980s: Researchers discover that trans fats, created by hydrogenation, directly cause heart disease. They raise LDL, lower HDL, promote inflammation, and increase heart attack risk more than any other dietary fat. Crisco, as originally formulated, is catastrophically unhealthy. This takes 70 years to officially acknowledge.

      Procter & Gamble’s response: Quietly reformulate without admission of error. Remove hydrogenation, keep selling seed oils, never acknowledge that their “heart-healthy” product spent seven decades actively causing the disease it claimed to prevent.

      Modern seed oils remain. Soybean, canola, corn, safflower oils everywhere. Same chemical extraction process. Same high-temperature refining. Same oxidation problems. Just without hydrogenation so trans fats stay below regulatory thresholds.

      These oils oxidise rapidly when heated. They integrate into cell membranes where they create inflammatory signalling for months or years. They’re rich in omega-6 fatty acids that promote inflammation. They’ve never existed in human diets at current consumption levels.

      But they’re cheap. Profitable. And the food industry has spent a century convincing everyone they’re healthy. The alternative, admitting that industrial textile waste shouldn’t have been turned into food, would require acknowledging the last 110 years of dietary advice was fundamentally corrupted from the start.

      Your great-grandmother cooked with lard because that’s what humans used for millennia. Then Procter & Gamble needed to sell soap alternatives and accidentally created the largest dietary change in human history.

      We traded animal fats that built civilisations for factory waste that causes disease. The soap company won. Your health lost.

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  39. Liked by 1 person

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  41. Whoa! Gotta be pretty bad off to fry yourself!!!!

    Grisly Suicide At Pennsylvania Olive Garden

    “(I can’t even fricking imagine how bad your mind has to be fried to try and die like that. I can only imagine that he was on some kind of potent drug. DAMN!)

    The horrific event at an Olive Garden restaurant in Williamsport, located in north-central Pennsylvania, reportedly left coworkers in shock and caused the multi-day closure of the restaurant. Several published reports confirm an unnamed Williamsport Olive Garden worker died by suicide after dunking his head, face-first, into the boiling grease of the kitchen’s fryer. The gruesome incident occurred Friday, Jan. 30.

    The employee, who hasn’t been identified, stripped his clothes off and thrust his face into the fryer at the chain’s restaurant in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, shocking coworkers who were trying to prevent the act.

    “‘A male victim went head first into the fryers,’ dispatchers could be heard saying in grim 911 audio,” read a portion of The Smoking Gun’s article. “‘I don’t have a lot of details, lot of people screaming, some kind of a burn victim,'” another operator could be heard saying.

    “The cook was rushed (to) a nearby hospital to be treated for his severe burns, but he later died from his injuries, authorities said. A female employee suffered minor burns after she and several other workers tried to stop the cook from injuring himself even further.”

    “In response to a TSG inquiry, Trooper Lauren Lesher, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson, said that the “incident was a suicide attempt and out of respect for the individual and their family, we do not release information.” Lesher added that the provision of details about the event could lead to the late worker’s identity being discovered,” read The Smoking Gun’s report. “In a brief phone conversation, a manager at the Olive Garden, which closed for a couple of days after the incident, said, ‘We are not able to disclose anything due to our privacy laws.'”

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