Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

In case you don't get my title reference; it's to a fabulous movie with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Katharine Hepburn claimed she had never seen the movie (despite starring in it) because it was Tracy's last film before he passed away. They had quiet the scandalous love affair. You should read up on it...you know you want to. Have I mentioned before how much I adore Katharine Hepburn? She's probably one of my very favorite actresses of all time. If her name wasn't so gosh darn common I would even consider naming a future daughter after her. Below is a picture of her wearing her trademark trousers. In an era when it was considered the height of bad taste for a woman to wear pants she broke the mold and wore them anyway. There is a funny story (who knows if it's true!) where her trousers were stolen by the wardrobe department on set of some movie she was making. They figured if she didn't have pants she would agree to wear the dress they left for her. Well Katharine was going to have none of that and walked about the set in her underwear until the stunned wardrobe department gave her back the trousers. You know how some people just by looking at them you know you would get along famously? Katharine Hepburn is one of those people.

There is a hillarious scene in the movie Adam's Rib in which she also starred with Spencer Tracy. She is trying rather unsuccessfully to be the "little wife" in the kitchen making him coffee and waffles for breakfast. Well of course the whole thing is a mess. The toast flies out of the toaster and onto the floor, her coffee is boiling over, her waffles (due to added yeast) are bubbling out of the waffle maker. You need to watch that movie for that one scene alone. I love the way she looks at the waffle maker with the copious amount of waffle mix gurgling out of it and looks back over her shoulder at Spencer who is sitting at the breakfast table pretending to read his newspaper. She steps infront of the waffle maker to shield her disaster in home cooking. The look on her face is priceless. Apparently in real life though Katharine knew her way around a kitchen. Her brownie recipe is so delicious and ooey gooey. I have only tried homemade brownies once before and the results were kind of "meh" for lack of a better description. These were flawless. Much like Hepburn herself.

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

Published first in a 1975 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Reprinted by Saveur.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus more for greasing

2. 2 ounces good quality unsweetened chocolate

3. 1 cup granulated sugar

4. 2 eggs, beaten

5. 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

6. 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

7. 1/4 cup all purpose flour

8. 1/4 tsp. table salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8"x 8" baking pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper; grease the paper. Set pan aside.

2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a 2 qt. sauce pan over low heat, stirring constantly with a wodden spoon. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to make a smooth batter. Add the walnuts, flour and salt; stir until incorporated. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. Let cook on a rack. Cut and serve.