The Brownies They Carried
“In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed.”
I love this book. As an avid reader. As a writer. There isn’t a part of me that doesn’t love this book.
When most people think of it, they think of the first story—the story this collection is named after. The one most of us were assigned to read in school.
The story that introduces us to Lieutenant Cross, his men, and the narrator: O’Brien himself.
In “The Things They Carried,” we get to know each man through the things he has on him in the Vietnam War.
“Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity” (3).
Cross has pictures of a woman he went on a date with, letters from her, and a pebble that she sent him from the shore. We learn that Cross is a dreamer, constantly thinking about Martha. After Lavender dies, Cross burns the pictures and letters from Martha, vowing to be more focused and stop dreaming in an effort to keep the rest of his men alive.
“Kiowa always took along his New Testament and a pair of moccasins for silence” (9).
This story isn’t the last time we see them, though. We actually see them again in the rest of the collection.
We watch O’Brien ask Cross if he could write about a story about him in “Love.”
We watch O’Brien get drafted ad struggle with it in “On a Rainy River.”
And we see O’Brien’s comrades tell stories in “How to Tell a True War Story.”
I wanted to do something dark and rich. Something chocolatey that feels a bit like home.
I wanted it to be comforting like the men’s personal belongings and the feeling of friendship that formed between them.
Brownies.
But they couldn’t be regular brownies.
I wanted them to carry something.
Something heavy and unexpected, with a bit of a bite.
I wanted it green and swirled through the brownies to make it look like camouflage.
I wanted it to be mint cheesecake.
Brownies (I doubled my recipe, so I have more batter and a larger pan in my pictures!)
-2/3 c all-purpose flour
-2 tbsp cocoa powder
-1 c white sugar
-1 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter
-2 eggs
-1/8 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 1/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
Stir in the white sugar and cocoa powder.
Add in 3/4 cups of the chocolate chips, stirring constantly and WATCHING them. Take the pan off of the heat right before the chips are melted, so you don’t burn them. The mixture will be hot enough to finish melting them. If, for whatever reason, it isn’t, pop it back on the stove for a little bit longer, stirring the entire time.
Mix in the vanilla and baking soda.
Whisk the eggs in, one at a time.
Mix in the flour.
Fold in the remaining chocolate chips.
Pour half of the batter into a lined and greased 8x8 pan. I lined mine with foil so I could pull it out of the pan easier. You can use parchment paper if you aren’t worried about pulling all of the brownies out to cut them. There is a difference with preparing a pan with foil, though! When I’m using parchment paper, I usually spray my pan with non-stick spray then line it with the paper. For foil, I put the foil in then spray it.
Mint Cheesecake
-1 (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
-1/2 c white sugar
-1 egg yolk
-2 tsp mint extract (BE CAREFUL! Too much will make this taste like toothpaste)
-2 drops green food coloring
Whisk the cream cheese until it’s soft and smooth.
Mix in the sugar and the mint. Make sure you taste it to check that the mint isn’t overpowering. It will get a little less sharp when it bakes and when you add the egg yolk, but you don’t want it to taste like toothpaste. Unless you do….
Whisk in the egg yolk and the food coloring.
Spoon half of the cheesecake onto the brownie mix in the pan, and use a fork to swirl the cheesecake circles together. It should look like the picture below. Don’t push too hard, though—you don’t want to rip the tinfoil and have that floating around your brownies.
Pour the rest of the brownie batter into the pan, then spoon the cheesecake on top for the last time. Swirl the brownie and the cheesecake together again.
Bake the brownies at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
To make sure they’re done, stick a toothpick in them. It should come out clean.
Once they’re done, let them cool.
You can either eat them warm, or eat them when they’re room temperature. You can top them with ice cream, chocolate syrup, or leave them plain. You can eat them with your hands, with a spoon, or with a fork.
However you eat them says something about you, just like the things you carry.
