“Are you a Baptist?”
“No,” she said, ” I used to go to ___,” giving the name of another denomination.
“Were your parents Baptists?”
“No.”
“Do you even know a Baptist?” I asked, trying to get a tie-in to the Courier.
I was talking with Cindy Raines, who, with her husband Wayne, lives near Liberty in South Carolina’s upcountry. There is a Baptist connection. Her husband, she said, is a member of Laurel Baptist in Greenville, as are his parents Melvin and Ione Raines. Cletus Lynch is currently serving as interim at Laurel.
Cindy had brought me a plate of 12 German Chocolate Brownies a few days earlier. Because I wasn’t home, she had left them with our son-in-law, Joel Sprague, at his office near our house. She and Wayne are friends of Joel and our daughter Gay.
That was a mistake. Only four of the brownies made it to our house. They were good brownies, although I didn’t understand the name. There was no German chocolate involved in the recipe.
It was Cindy’s mother-in-law, Ione Raines of Mauldin, who shared with us her recipe for Coffee Can Cake a few years ago. Cindy, who grew up in New England, graduated from Furman and for 27 years worked in Greenville as a legal secretary. When her employer retired, she did also.
Now she enjoys many activities. The major one is watercolor painting, and her favorite subject is flowers. The models for her floral paintings most often come from her yard, because her next favorite thing is gardening. Her entry was one of those in an exhibit at the Pickens County Museum, and her painting sold. She took a painting class at the museum four years ago and has been enjoying the hobby ever since.
Cindy Raines
Cindy explained that this is an old recipe. When Cindy was a child, the recipe was given to her mother by a neighbor in the New England community. It is an easy recipe to make. It has only seven ingredients and goes together quickly, and we thank Cindy for sharing the recipe with us. And for the cooked brownies she shared. All four of them.
You can make the whole thing from start to finish in less than an hour. Bake this over the weekend and enjoy it with coffee for dessert after this weekend’s … Sunday Dinner.
German Chocolate Brownies
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
5 ounces chocolate chips
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter, melted
2 ounces chopped walnuts
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan.
Mix together all the ingredients. Put into prepared pan, spreading and smoothing the batter with the bottom of a large spoon.
Bake for about 30 minutes. Makes 16 pieces.