{brown's brownies}

every year, the kids' school hosts a night called "the celebration of learning" where each classs showcases what they have been working on throughout the school year.  the kids have a great time showing their parents and siblings the projects they have created and often do special presentations as part of the event.

2nd grade has a tradition where each child makes and brings a dish representing whatever country they are from.  (their school is pretty ethnically diverse and many different heritages were represented.)  the child then displays and serves the dish to whomever visits their "restaurant".  aiden named her dish "brown's brownies" and went with our old family standby of "best brownies".  since we kind of joke that we are muts when it comes to ethnicity, good ol' american brownies seemed as good of a choice as any (and much easier than fried chicken or apple pie!)

and since i get asked quite a bit for this brownie recipe, this seems like the perfect place to share it.  i believe it first came from a martha stewart magazine clipping, but i'm not totally sure.

best brownies

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
3 square unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 eggs (room temperature is best)
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• heat oven to 350.  butter a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish.  (i almost always double the recipe and just use a 9x13 pan.)  i line my pans with parchment paper to easily remove brownies for cutting, but this is not necessary.
• melt butter and chocolate in saucepan on very low heat.
• with an electric mixer on high, beat eggs with sugar for 3 minutes until thick and pale.  add chocolate mixture and vanilla and beat another minute.
• add flour and salt and beat until smooth.  add chocolate chips.
• bake 20-25 minutes until tester inserted 1" from edge comes out with only a small amount of brownie on it.  do not overbake or the brownies will be dry.
• cool completely and then lift parchment paper from pan and cut into squares. 

1st grade performed readers' theatre and highlighted janelle cannon books.  miles played the part of "mother bat" in stellaluna.  his voice inflections were hilarious!

and one of my favorite pieces on display...george & abe.  aiden rocked these portraits, don't you think?!!

{no-bake energy balls}

i found this recipe via pinterest and we are totally addicted.  the kids love them and they feel way healthier than giving them cookies.

you can find the recipe on the blog smashed peas and carrots.

try it and let me know if you can eat just one???

{cupcake bunting}

it was aiden's teacher's birthday this week.  as the room mom, i was in charge of treats and a gift.  i had wanted to try making bunting to decorate a cake, but figured dishing out cake to a bunch of 1st graders sounded like a hassle.  i used cupcakes instead and it worked just fine.

her favorite color is pink

i looked on etsy for some inspiration and then just kinda winged it.  if i would have had heat-n-bond i would have used that to attach the fabric together so the flags would be two-sided and then cut them out. (i used fabric glue instead cause that's what i had.)  i cut out the flags and then sewed them together with embroidery thread.  wrap a piece of double stick tape around the skewer and then wrap the thread around that and it holds like a charm. i should have better planned the length of the bunting, but i didn't and just got lucky.

i used heather bailey fabric scaps

i decided i need a cake plate.  evertime i want to dress up something homemade, i just resort to one of our everyday plates.  i think i may need to find a fun plate at the thrift store and whip up one of these beauties!

via apartment therapy

{peppermint patties & other yummy things}

so...my valentine's day sweet treat for the family was homemade peppermint patties.  i used this recipe via darby's blog and they were divine!  i wanted them to be heart shaped so i used a silicon heart shaped ice cube mold from ikea.  the mold worked great and they turned out so cute, but took for-ev-er!  paint mold with chocolate...freeze...add filling...freeze...add chocolate to the top...freeze...pop out of mold and repeat.  i ran in the kitchen every ten minutes or so all through the grammy's to do the next step. 

i didn't know owen could open the freezer by himself until i caught him snitching the hearts out of the freezer the next day.  i guess the peppermint patty love runs in the family!

and in other yummy news, i finally committed to some hooks for the bathroom.  i think the kids might like the numbers on them just as much as i do...even though they thought they just got to pick whatever hook they wanted. (hello...birth order people.)  now if i could just get them to actually hang the towels up.  ha!

{another snow day}

truth be told, i was thrilled to have another snow day.  i layed in bed till 9am and loved every minute of it!  i worked on projects around the house and owen was so excited to play with someone other than me.  i'm pretty sure mike wasn't sharing my sentiments when he trudged off to catch the train to work with 8" of snow on the ground. poor guy...

snow has covered all but a foot of the fence

he could not stop eating snow.  pretty sure he never even looked to see if it was clean.

this is how people mark their parking spaces once they shovel out.  classy, huh?!

there is something about snow falling that makes me want to bake.  mike jokes his waist line grows with each inch that falls. owen and i made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with a recipe from my friend jen.  seriously, these are THE BEST cookies ever.  try them...for real.  she gave me the recipe at church on the back of a kids coloring sheet.  i should probably recopy this.

3/4 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
cream above together well, then add:
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
beat well and then add:
3/4 t. baking soda
3/4 t. baking powder
1 1/4 c. flour
mix until just blended and then add:
2 c. oatmeal
mix and then stir in
1 c. chocolate chips

i use a large pampered chef scoop & then squish the dough down a bit.  the cookies are BIG...like 4" across.  that way you can say you only ate one.  ;)
bake at 375 and take out when they just barely start to turn brown.

have you tried fair trade yet?  we got fair trade sugar at costco for like a dollar more than regular...and it's organic too.  buy fair trade whenever you can.  fair trade = good thing


(yes, he is wearing his bathing suit and it's 15 degrees outside)

we also made snow cream for the first time and weren't disappointed. heather recommended it and the kids thought it was so fun! we mixed 1 c. cream, 1/2 c. sugar and a splash of vanilla together and then mixed that in to a big bowl of ice cream (preferably clean)

 so much for eating low sugar.  maybe tomorrow...