Almond Mocha Brownies to Celebrate 8 Fabulous Years at Infoedge....

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.

George Halas

A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could.

~Charles Erwin Wilson

This is exactly what my bosses n mentors have done for the last 8 years.... Sanjeev, Hitesh, Ambarish, Simeryn, Saroja, Ayesha, Vivek, Vibhore, Deepali, Vineet and Partha have been my mentors and bosses... It's on 31st March 2003 when I joined Infoedge fresh out of business school..... In 8 years I've learnt so much in Infoedge, not just about work but so many other things which are way more important in life....

Celebrating 8 years at Infoedge with my favorite flavours, making Almond Mocha Brownies....

These brownies are rich, dense and full of flavours like all my years at Infoedge... Have seen it grow from Fledgling to Eagle... few lakhs to many crores.... very proud of the entire team...

We've had a blast working.... making new products, analyzing data, drawing up marketing plans, managing ad campaigns.... late nights... revamps....these times spent in office have been most fun despite being the most tiring.... leading to winning contests...

This was the training workshop which changed so much for me... so many new friends, a fresh new perspective.... a super experience. How can we forget what the long meetings would do to Shiv..... The wonderful 'Prashikshan' workshops where many eminent personalities spoke with us....

Have hosted some lovely parties on my birthday at home...... we've had loads of fun... pictionary and tambola being an important part of all the parties with free flowing alcohol and yummy food. It was so much fun organising the Spring theme & Red n White parties.....

Our outdoor camping, rafting and parasailing trips have been really adventurous. Have had the most fun with Vivek, Julie, Puneet Makkar and Puneet Chawla(Mad Hatter) amongst others. The Tunganath trip stands out as the most difficult yet exciting one.

Diwali parties in office have been a blast... dressing up for fashion shows, shine n shimmer, dabangifying the show... spreading cheer n festivity...... poking fun at all the seniors(risking our jobs n appraisals)... making special presentations and awards.... awesome shows hosted by Payal and Harveen...

All festivals and special days like Independence day n Christmas saw us coming together and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.... The boys would constantly be pushed into doing off-the-cuff stuff at these celebrations making for some very precious memories....

Lots of weddings and new family members were added.... some farewells were much more painful that others... but they were friends for life.... Food and food trips (esp to Chandni Chowk) have always been a huge highlight for all of us...

I saw these Brownies on Martha Stewart's site and lost my heart.... I just had to make these for my celebration....

Almond Mocha Brownies

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

few toasted almonds for garnishing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. Place butter and chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Add instant espresso powder. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with toasted almonds.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

The parties we've done are just something else... most of the censored pictures are still censored. all the people who attended these will see these pictures n have huge grins across their faces.... just like I do now :))))

A few party rituals, lots of pictures of people and food n drinks.... crazy pictures of silly things we did... insane behavior n total masti.....

There is so much more to life at infoedge, 1 post isn't enough to capture them all. Would like to thank everyone who made these 8 wonderful years pass by in a jiffy... Would I change anything about them.... [In retrospect No, yet some stuff for improvement yes]... Just like I won't change a thing in these brownies....

Sending these warm fudgy brownies to wish Divya all the best for her 3rd Blog Anniversary e-Party and she is giving away a gooey gooey brownie book!!! Pl drop by to wish her...
sd