a little decadence

I wish I could say that I made these brownies to celebrate the end of the semester, but the truth is that I made them last weekend and haven't gotten around to posting about them yet. I do think they deserve a post, though.

Instead of baking I've been outside soaking up the sun, and knitting. Life is good.

But back to the brownies.



Sophie and I couldn't resist trying one before I remembered to take a picture. These may just be the best brownies I've ever made. I wanted something extra special, and chocolatey, and easy, and fast; here it is:

Fudge Brownies with Walnuts and Dried Cherries
from Hershey's Chocolate Treasury and How To Be A Domestic Goddess

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped dried cherries

Blend oil, sugar, and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Add eggs; using a spoon, beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually blend into egg mixture. Stir in nuts and cherries.

Spread in a greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from edges of pan. Cool; frost with Creamy Brownie Frosting. Cut into squares.

Creamy Brownie Frosting:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Cream butter or margarine, cocoa, corn syrup or honey, and vanilla in small mixing bowl. Add confectioner's sugar and milk; beat to spreading consistency.


Enjoy!

outside

It's finally Spring! I knew it would happen. We've had quite a few days of sunshine in the past week, and it's actually been warm out as well. Today we were all out puttering, I raked (some early preparation for Sophie's birthday party!) and Sophie took a nap in the yard (with a blanket,
of course. It's not that warm out!).



I took these pictures last Friday when Sophie's friend Bailey was here - most of that snow is melted now!






It's been awfully hard to get any studying done... thankfully I only have a few days left.

I got on Ravelry the other night and showed Sophie some pictures of finished pants from the pattern I want to make her for her birthday, and she was very excited about them. I ordered a bunch of yarn to make my dad a sweater for his birthday, in August - ambitious, I know. It's the new City Tweed from Knit Picks and I'm pretty excited about it. I love Knit Picks! I allowed myself to knit (just a little!) on the socks I'm making for Donna last night... it just made me want to knit more. Two more days!

Obsessed? Perhaps. At least it's productive.

some birthday sewing

I can't remember the last time I went near a sewing machine... it was over a year ago, that's for sure. Probably longer. But last weekend Sophie's friend Dashel was turning 2 (2! Sophie and her friends are turning 2!) years old, so I managed to come up with this:



I only had to rip out one seam, which I think is pretty good given my sewing history.

There's been no knitting around here - term papers and studying for finals instead. I'm not going to make that mistake again! Come next Wednesday I'll be completely done with school until next January (hopefully). I have a big list of things to start (and finish) knitting.

And I have a birthday party to plan!

the end in sight

The end of winter...
The end of diapers...
The end of classes...

All are beginning to come into sight.

Happy Spring!

pink pancakes

Check out the color of this pancake batter:



What's the secret? Pureed beets. The recipe is from Deceptively Delicious, and I'm very happy to report that Sophie loved them (me? love the color, hate the taste). Maybe she won't be as picky as her Mama is if I get her started eating beets now.... :)

I love this cookbook (thanks Keegan!)... every recipe I've tried turns out well and is sufficiently stealthy. I added cauliflower puree to the tuna salad I made earlier this week, and even my dad who swears up and down that cauliflower tastes like old socks didn't notice a thing. I don't like cauliflower either, but if I can manage to get the nutrition without the taste I'm all for it!

the best thing since sliced bread

I love baking bread. This recipe is from the Fiddlehead cookbook, the herb bread, which might be the only bread recipe in that cookbook I hadn't tried yet.

I've made lots of bread. Lots. But this bread...



This might be the best bread I've ever baked. It tastes good, but what's really, really different about this bread -



- is how it sliced.

I think I'm in love.