Irish Coffee Brownies

I came up with these one day when I couldn't find a good Irish coffee brownie recipe elsewhere.  I used extra dark cocoa, which made them even more awesome.

Brownies:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 Tbsp instant coffee
1/4 cup Irish whiskey
1 tsp salt 1 cup flour

BROWNIE INSTRUCTIONS: Melt butter + cocoa in saucepan. Remove from heat, mix in sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, coffee & whiskey. Add flour and stir just until incorporated, don't overbeat. Bake in greased 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 25 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting: 3 tsp instant coffee
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
{about} 2 cups powdered sugar

FROSTING INSTRUCTIONS: Dissolve instant coffee in Bailey's Irish Cream. Cream together the butter, vanilla, and Bailey's/coffee mixture. Beat in powdered sugar gradually until desired fluffiness (you may want more/less than 2 cups) Frost brownies after they've cooled completely.

How To Make Chocolate Milk Without Chocolate Syrup

The grocery store is closed, you're craving chocolate milk and you don't have chocolate syrup on hand.

You may try to improvise by mixing cocoa powder and sugar into your milk.  Then mixing...and mixing...and mixing...still ending up with a glass of off-colored milk with cocoa lumps.  How do you get the cocoa to dissolve in the milk?  I'll tell you.

Mix the cocoa powder and sugar together first, then add just the tiniest splash of milk.  Mix hard until smooth.  Now slooowly add the rest of the milk while stirring.  Voila!  It's not as creamy as it would be using chocolate syrup, but still tasty and lump-free.

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