Super Bowl Brownies

Due to the fact that I have discovered some unknown love of baking lately, I whipped up a batch of Super Super Bowl Brownies for the shin dig that Will and I are attending this evening.  I would love to, but simply cannot take credit for the recipe.  During my insane boredness during Icegate 2011, I came across the world of recipe bloggers.  Who knew there were so many out there?  My quest started out as a search for healthy recipes...which this, my friends, sadly is not one of them...but it is oh, so worth it! (Maybe the fact that I used all natural sugar and peanut butter evens out the badness of the 1 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 sticks of butter?)

This Peanut Butter Brownie Recipe I got from Two Peas and Their Pod blog.

1 cup butter, at room temp.

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy, about 3 min.  Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.

Fold in peanut butter chips.  Spread dough in a 9 x 13 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake for 30 min.

Let cool completely before slicing.

Oh yeah and don't forget.....GO PACK GO!!!!!!

Snow Day Scones

So, I got a tad bored yesterday while Will was taking his 4 1/2 hour nap.  I also had some groceries that I needed to use up, including a 1 lb. bag of dried cranberries that I got from last week's produce order.  I have never made scones before and decided to give them a whirl.  I used a Simple Scone recipe and changed it up a bit and here's the result:

Here's my version of a Lemon Cranberry Scone Recipe:
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, frozen
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sour cream
1 lemon
1 large egg

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in cranberries.
3. Grate some of the lemon rind into mixture.
4. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream, egg, and the juice of the lemon until smooth.
5. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large cough clumps form.  Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball.
6.  Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-8 inch circle.  It suggested using a cookie sheet, but I used a Pampered Chef pie dish.  Sprinkle top with sugar.
7.  If you wish you can cut the dough into 8 triangles and separate them, or keep them in a large circle like I did to bake.
8. Bake until golden, 15-17 min (if you separate them into triangles), or 25 min if cooking in a large circle.
9.  Cool for 5 min.

Long Time Offline

Unfortunately our old reliable friend, the Macbook Pro, finally bit the dust. During its slow demise, I was unable to update our website. Eric and I just trekked it to the Apple store this past weekend and purchased a brand new shiny Mac desktop. Due to the fact that it doesn't seem to have the same website capabilities as our old computer, I'm starting a new blog. Also, the old website was pretty high maintenance and as a crazed working mom, I definitely struggled to find the time to update it with our life's happenings.

There has been so many fun developments in Will's toddlerhood lately. He started walking a week after his 1st birthday and hasn't slowed down since. His personality is starting to shine as well and let's just say that the apple didn't seem to fall far from his father's tree. He finds himself super hilarious (does that sound familiar?) and lately has been yelling at the t.v. and throwing his hands up while watching Hoosier basketball (once again, sound familiar?).