Super Simple Blonde Brownies

Last week, I needed a dessert to take to a party. Unfortunately, although I had a kitchen full of ingredients, none of them added up to an existing recipe in my repertoire. So I invented one. It was very simple and pretty yummy, so I thought I'd share. I think this would be an ideal recipe to teach a young child who wants to learn how to bake things. It can be made entirely by hand, or by using a mixer.

Super Simple Blonde Brownies

10 tablespoons butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour
a handful of chocolate chips*

*I used half dark chocolate chips and half white chocolate chips because that is what I had on hand. You can use anything that is handy, even M&M's. You can also add chopped nuts if you wish.

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 13x9 pan.
Melt butter in a large bowl.
Pour in brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir together.
Add flour slowly and stir until completely mixed in.
Pour mixture into the pan and spread it out flat. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

Sweet chewy goodness!

Still Doable?

Christmas is so very nearly here, and I am so very not ready for it. I've reached the point in my knitting where I'm timing myself on how many minutes it takes me to to a round, and then calculating how long that means the rest of the sweater will take, and then adding a very rough guess of how much time the finishing up will take, and dividing that by the number of days left to try to create a game plan that results in me finishing on time. I eventually do this with most of my major deadlines, and it's never a good sign.

On the docket we have: 

1. The Norwegian sweater

Status: Finished the colorwork band and am racing towards the shoulders. After I finish knitting the body, I have to cut the steeks, sew all the seams, block the sweater, knit bands to cover the seams, sew in the bands, and then knit the ribbing for the neckline. 
Prospects: I'm nervous. Really nervous. Fortunately the steps after I get through knitting the body all take much less time than the knitting, but there are lots of steps. And I'm making this pattern up and it sounds good in my head, but my head is stupid sometimes, so I'm nervous. Really nervous. 

2. One sock

Status: Still a ball. I'm concentrating my knitting efforts on the sweater, on the basis that my sister has already waited a year for it and it's better to have one undone project than two half-done projects. 
Prospects: Worried. 

3. Pair of felted clogs

Status: Still in balls. 
Prospects: absolutely not happening. If you're reading this, 'Stache, I'm so sorry, and I promise I'll have them done before the cold weather goes away. 

4. Raspberry liqueur 

Status: Aging beautifully. It's amazing to have a gift where forgetting about it for a month is part of the process. 
Prospects: Excellent, although I still don't have any cute little bottles to give it in. 

5. Lots of pajama pants 

Status: Um, I bought fabric. That's progress, right? The trouble here is that like an utter eejit I left my sewing machine in another state last week. I'm definitely not up for hand sewing pajamas, so the project's on hold. 
Prospects: Pretty positive. I'll get my sewing machine back this weekend and I don't have to have these done until January 6th. Also, one of the many reasons I adore sewing pajama pants is that they are quick. 

6. Five stuffed animals 
Status: Done! 

It was quite a journey. When you sew them together, they look like this, which doesn't inspire much confidence: 

But then you add stuffing (I completely overbought on stuffing, I thought I needed about 8 lbs and so bought 10. Here it is exploding out of the box. And that's after using what I needed!)

... and they become completely adorable.

fail (verb): to fall short of sucess

This happened months and months ago, but I just discovered the pictures on my phone and they are so funny I had to share.

These pictures represent, I feel confident in saying, my single greatest cooking failure in the history of my marriage.

Now, I know that there are many kind, experienced cooks out there that are wanting to reach out through their compute screens and pat me on the shoulder right now and say, "Don't worry, Libby. Gingerbread is tricky. The cookies are really thin and they burn pretty easily. Don't beat yourself up about it. You'll do better next time." 

But here's the thing. 

Those are SUGAR COOKIES. 

Have a second look, this time thinking, that dough started off white. 

I know. I was a little awed, too. Truly a professional-grade burning job. All you have to do, really, is put a sheet of cookies in the oven, forget about them for an hour, then remember that the oven is on, turn it off, and leave the cookies in the oven til the next day when your son wants you to turn on the oven light and you wonder why you don't remember making gingerbread. It's very simple, although it does take time to achieve this quality of results. 

Munchkin was overjoyed to see cookies ... 

... but when he discovered it tasted exactly like charcoal he handed it off to Twinkle.

Brotherly love, right there. 

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