Chocolate Cherry Brownies—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

These Chocolate Cherry Brownies we made for Tuesdays With Dorie as our pick today from Baking Chez Moi were pretty easy, are super fudgy and dare I say it—delicious.  I mean, I wouldn’t really know how good they are, since I didn’t eat them, but just look—perfectly fudgy brownies and in my opinion, you can’t go wrong adding cherries to chocolate! 

I followed Dorie’s recipe exactly, except instead of red wine or port added to plump up the dried cherries, I used POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice.  I think any red juice would work just fine.  These are a “traditional” brownie with chocolate and butter melted together, the sugar and eggs added, then the salt, pepper (wait, pepper is not so traditional, but a fun addition), and flour.  Stir in some cherries and finely chopped chocolate and bake.  Easy!

Dorie suggested cutting these brownies when they are just warm or barely at room temperature.  Normally I chill brownies before cutting, but I did what she said and these cut just fine.  I saw others in the group mentioning their brownies needed a much longer bake time than Dorie suggested, but mine were perfect at 28 minutes.  The bottom of the pan was still slightly warm when I cut them and they were easy to cut!  Dorie did suggest cutting them into 25 squares and I only did 16.  My oldest said these were great.  I have a feeling he’ll be eating at least 95% of the brownies (or all of them).  Kevin doesn’t like fruit with chocolate.  (Crazy, crazy man.)   

I didn’t want to feel left out this week, so I made a gluten free, organic sugar version of these with half a recipe in a 9x5 inch bread pan.  I even used apple juice sweetened cranberries (all pomegranate juice, instead of half juice half water).  I used an organic 70% dark chocolate and I used some gluten free pastry flour.  I think they are great!  Mine are a little more crumbly.  They might be perfect if I’d have checked them earlier and only baked them about 20 minutes.  I took them out of the oven after 23 minutes. 

I’m happy.  Scott is happy.  (Parker is at scout camp this week, and the other two boys cringed when they heard they have cherries.)  If you’re looking for a super easy, but slightly changed up brownie with cherries added, try this recipe.  Oh, you’ll need to get Baking Chez Moi for the recipe!  If you’re interested in my gluten free version, let me know and I’ll send you my version of the recipe!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cherry Brownies

Check out the other Tuesday With Dorie participants’ Chocolate Cherry Brownies for more chocolaty goodness!

TWD—My Pear Pistachio POM Phyllo Tart (The 4 P’s Tart)

I couldn’t do it.  I just couldn’t make Dorie’s Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart for TWD this week, which was chosen by Lauren of I'll Eat You. (You can get the recipe there.) BUT, I did make a more healthy version of the same idea so I could at least play like I was participating.  I hope it counts!  Sorry, Lauren, after all the festive food from Thanksgiving, some of it still lurking around here, I just couldn’t make something laden with pastry cream and sitting atop the delicious Sweet Tart Dough we all know and love.  Not to mention that since I don’t drink or even cook with wine/alcohol, I decided this recipe just wouldn’t happen here.

Have I said BUT yet?  Here’s the deal.  I made a tart.  Four inches of a tart with a phyllo dough crust, pears and pistachios, so really, I think it should count.  I really wanted a reason to use the little tart pan I got recently and it was perfect.  The only thing that isn’t so perfect—my broken camera.  Really—driving me nuts!  I would never claim to take wonderful pictures, even with my broken camera.  I actually don’t know anything about photography and I know I even commit the cardinal food photography sin of using flash, but I do think somehow I was taking pretty okay pictures.  Well, now I’ve been “forced” to use this little digital camera we have and I just can’t seem to get a decent picture.  Sigh.  Anyway, here’s the tart in all its non-glory.

  

For the record—it tasted quite good!  After baking it for only 10 minutes, I decided to call it good, but in hindsight, I do think it could have used another five minutes or so, the bottom was just a little soggy.  I also realized with the dough hanging down the sides as it was, that after it baked, it was just a little stuck to the tart pan.  Butter the tart pan next time, sides and all!  I wrote down a “recipe”, if you call it that.  I sautéed an Anjou pear in some clarified butter, then added a little sugar to sweeten it up and caramelize it.  I then added just a touch of POM juice (that was my “alcohol”) to the pan.  I layered the tart pan with six 5x5 inch buttered layers of phyllo dough, then put the slightly cooled pears in the tart, sprinkled on some pistachios and almonds and threw a few POM arils on top.  It was a fun experiment.  Tomorrow I want to make Spanakopita with the leftover phyllo dough because I have a huge tub of spinach.  I don’t really care for feta cheese, anyone ever heard of or made it with any other kind of cheese—ricotta? cream cheese?  I can even handle goat cheese, but just don’t care for feta.

My Pear Pistachio POM Phyllo Tart, by Katrina

6 sheets of 5x5 inch Phyllo dough

1 Anjou pear, peeled and cut into cubes

2 tablespoon clarified butter

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

small amount of pistachios and almonds, toasted and chopped

POM arils for sprinkling over top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  To clarify butter, melt in small saucepan and skim off the foam with a spoon.  Let cool.  Spoon 1 tablespoon of butter into medium sized skillet.  Once that is hot, sauté the pears over pretty high heat, stirring frequently for about six minutes or until pears are golden brown.  Sprinkle the sugar over the pears and cook for just a minute until the pears are glazed.  Add the POM juice and stir pears.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Carefully brush one sheet of phyllo with butter, add the next sheet and brush it lightly with butter and continue with the remaining sheets, layering them on top of each other.  Lay the phyllo sheets in the tart pan, trimming edges to however you want them.  Place the pears in the tart, sprinkle with nuts and arils (you could sprinkle the arils on after the tart bakes).  Bake for 10-15 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  Could serve with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Can’t wait to check out some of the other TWD tarts out there this week.  Anyone else freaking out that it’s December?  Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?  That’s right---cookies!   ;)

Random Things and Some Blogger Linky Love

Happy Upcoming Thanksgiving  (The Turkey was made by Taylor.)

By the way, it snowed last Monday, but didn’t stick.  Many have expressed their jealousy.  It’s was kind of a rainy, snowy, blah kind of day, but it did snow some big, pretty flakes for a little while.  But it didn’t stick.

Sadness, folks.  I collected stuffed animals all my life.  I always thought it would be fun to save them and hand them down to my children.  Except I always had in mind that I’d have a girl or two who would really appreciate them.  Instead, as I’ve tried to display them in our downstairs family room, they have been used more as footballs or just as a place to stash toys that “couldn’t” be put away in their proper places.  I loved it when I’d go straighten them out into a little family all gathered together.  I guess I’m still a kid/girl at heart.

One of my favorite stuffed toys of my youth were SMURFS!  I loved them then and still think they are pretty cute and cool and well, smurfy.  Get this, in 7th grade, which would have been in about 1982, I wrote a short story for English class and my story was picked to go on to regional competition (for what, I don’t know or remember), anyway, the story I wrote was an episode of Smurfs.  I still have the story.  I’d have to dig through some stuff in the storage room, or I’d go find it and post it on here.  It was a good story line and if you have ever seen The Smurfs cartoon, you’d agree it would have been a great episode.  It was a play on The Boy Who Cried Wolf story, but the Smurfs all went camping and Jokey Smurf kept making everyone think a bear was out to get his tent then when one really did, do you think they believe him?  Anyway, it was a great story.  Why am I telling you all this? 

Well, we’ve recently had some rodent issues at our house.  Four BIG rats were caught up in the attic.  Kevin and I kept hearing quite the noises in the attic of our room at night.  Our pest control guy (a friend of ours) came down out of our attic (only accessible from the ceiling in the garage), and he was quite shocked at having seen and caught the biggest rats he’s ever seen.  (Yay for us. jk)  He even put two big T-rex traps up there, when we didn’t even know what was making all the noise and the next day when he checked, he found one (the big daddy) rat trapped (“sorry, rat, but not-in-my-house”, she says waving finger in a big N-O!—think like a sista here).  Anyway, he’d put two big traps up there.  Caught the one rat and get this, the other trap—is gone.  Missing.  Can’t find it.  No where to be found in the attic.  Still to this day after trapping three more rats.  That trap is gone.  Dah, dum, duhhhhh!

In the meantime, we think we’ve gotten all the rats, then low and behold a little mouse went scampering by in my living room late one night.  What did he think he was doing in my house?  I don’t think so.

LONG story short, we caught five mice, two upstairs and three downstairs.  We think we’ve gotten them all.  In our looking and finding the best spots for mouse traps, we found quite a lot of mouse droppings downstairs.  We had no idea they’d been having parties in our house while we slept.  They definitely weren’t too pooped to party!  Ahhaha

Kevin found dropping all around my stuffed animal kingdom!  Those mice were not invited to their party.  In between the sectional couch downstairs—droppings.  In the game closet—on the shelves!!!   Do I need to tell you the rest of this sad, sad story?  I decided to throw away my beloved stuffed animals!  Let me know when you’re done crying, wiping tears and sniffling……….

Done, okay.  So I reluctantly bagged up all my lifelong buddies in three big garbage bags and I put them out on the curb for the trash collectors who were coming that morning.  Then I went on my morning jog.  And do you think I could enjoy that jog?  Oh no.  I thought about my poor animals the whole time.  Most of all, I kept picturing Papa and Scruffy Smurf.  (You don’t remember Scruffy Smurf?  Well, I had him.)  You’ll see.  He was scruffy and floppy.  I switched between calling him Floppy Smurf and Scruffy Smurf.

I hurried my jog and cut it a little short because I felt like I need to pay one last respect to the friends who were there for me through the years.  I took some photos.

  

It just wasn’t right, I know.  I still feel a little verclempt when I see these photos and think about where my poor babies are.  Just a sec, I need a minute……….

I took that first photo for my mom.  She’d be proud to see that I got rid of them.  She tried to get me to do that while she was here de-junking last month.  I couldn’t do it.  I knew in my mind and heart that it needed to be done.  They were just taking up space and although I wouldn’t admit it, were kind of an eyesore.  (If the boys would have just left them neatly arranged!  Sigh.)  You really shouldn’t give stuffed animals to Good Will, especially when they are as old as mine were.  They are full of dust and germs.  Sigh.  I believe I got my Smurfs when I was about 10 years old.  Do you realize that means they were 30 years old!  (No, I never had Smurfette, she always kind of bugged me.) 

Are you as sick as I am writing this just reading about it?  Deep breath.  Then I did this for a photo op.

Look at them.  Just look how sweet and innocent.  And look at that cute, fluffy pig up there.  My sister always tried to tell me that was a bear.  Hello, Pig!  Bye, Pig.  Sigh.

And then I stuffed my Smurf-y Smurf Smurfin’ pals back in the trash bag and said goodbye.  The end.

Ha!  Not.  I couldn’t do it okay.  I couldn’t let the two dadgum Smurfs go.  Mind you, I did throw a couple other Smurfs away.  But these two guys,  they are still here, made there way back into the house..  In fact, move over Kevin.  They now sleep in the bed.

 

Ready for dinner.

 

A bath.  Boy did they need a bath!

Okay, really.  Do you think I’m that crazy?  I’m not.  I assure you, they haven’t taken baths (they refuse, little stinkers), no dinner for them and No, they do not sleep in our bed!

BUT, I did keep them.  Just the two.  I’m still really sad when I think about the rest of the gang and where they are right now.  Let’s just pray they are safe in stuffed animal heaven! ;)  Moving on.

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I’d like to start posting some blogging linky-love often as I do often find recipes of others that I make at home and love.  I’d like to do it about once a month.  Kevin thinks I should call it Kat’s Copycats.  We’ll see, right now I’m just going to call it Blogger Linky-Love.  Oh, there’s so many things and I’d hate to leave any out.  But for starters.  Donna, Donna, Donna.  A mom to four and a busy, busy, oh so busy firefighter’s wife to her firefighter husband.  I heart her blog, My Tasty Treasures.  She puts some darn good food on there.  My most favorite Banana Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Coffee Cake was found over at Donna’s blog.  This time I made some good ol’ Oatmeal Cookies I found on her blog.  I made them for my chocolate class that I did recently.  What?  There’s no chocolate in them?  You’re right. I thought it would only be appropriate and nice of me to have something there that didn’t have chocolate, you know, for those who couldn’t or didn’t want chocolate.  I know, SO nice of me. ;)  You can get the recipe on the link.

I made them again today.  But I doubled the recipe, added two teaspoons of cinnamon to the doubled recipe and about 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg.  And I added one cup of raisins.  I baked them in a 15x18 inch baking sheet.  Baked it for 20 minutes and look how big-a-cookie it made!  It’s 15x18 inches, in case you couldn’t figure it out.  I’m just good with math that way.

I now have a bunch of square cookies and I simply didn’t have to keep scooping individual round cookies.  I know, I’m always thinkin’ ahead.

  

These are a great go-to, basically perfect oatmeal cookie, if you’re lookin’ for one.  Thanks, Donna.

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Then, way back in October, like a good month ago, ;), I made these really good, easy lemon cookies that I found over at Michelle’s blog, Brown Eyed Baker.  They looked good and I was feeling like not making something with chocolate at the time.  I know, shocker!  These were perfect, a little cakey, but slightly chewy and perfectly lemony.  I gave lots of these away.  I followed the recipe exactly as written.  (Another shocker.)  Michelle got the recipe from another awesome  blog, My Baking Addiction.

 

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You might recall that for TWD we recently made Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies.  The cookies were delicious.  But years ago someone gave us a plate of holiday cookies with the best ginger cookies I’ve ever had on it.  What I really need to do is contact that acquaintance and try to get her to give the recipe.  It seems like I’d asked her back then and she told me it was top secret.  I might be making that part up, but it seems like something like that.  Anyway, in my quest for that cookie, I saw these Ginger Spice Cookies over at Eat me, delicious. and thought they looked like the ones I remembered loving so much.

  

I made them a few days ago.  They are really good.  Mine spread more than they did over at Eat me, delicious.  (Okay, I feel silly, but I don’t know her name.  Maybe she doesn’t want her name known.  Maybe I should just ask her what her name is.  She’s got a great blog and over the last two years, I’ve made quite a number of her recipes.)  Her cookies look like the ones I loved so long ago.  Mine were great cookies, but the texture is still not there.  I’m going to make them again.  She got the recipe from Bon Appetit, March 2000.  You can get the recipe on the link.   The only change I made was I cut the cloves from one teaspoon to a half.  (I don’t like too much clove flavor!)  I baked them for 9 minutes.  (The recipe says 12.)  I’m a rebel I tell ya.

And finally, since you know I’d rather have dessert first, I’ll end with a wonderful meal I made last night that I found the recipe for at Lisa Ann’s great blog, LA's In The Kitchen.  It was delicious!  Turkey meatloaf (I made them in muffin tins, she shaped them on a baking sheet.)  I used ground turkey breast.  These were really, really good.  Even Scott liked them.  I was going to say a couple of kids, but I think it was just Scott, but that’s because the others are just darn annoyingly picky.  For the roasted veggies, I did some potatoes, sweet potatoes (my favorite!) and some carrots. Go see Lisa’s.  I really stink at pictures of real food.  Give me a cookie, a slice of cake or a sundae and I think I take okay pictures.  But real food.  Not so much.  A lot of it has to do with when dinner is hot and ready, it needs to get served.  There isn’t time for photos.  Here’s my lame pictures anyway.

The recipe comes from the book, Cook Yourself Thin.

And finally, I saw this great looking couscous salad over at Kevin’s amazingly photographed, delicious blog, Closet Cooking.  I’m almost embarrassed to show you my picture.  The only thing I didn’t have when I just saw this on his blog yesterday and decided to make it because I pretty much had everything was pomegranate molasses.  So for the vinaigrette, in place of the pomegranate molasses, I just used some POM juice.  I loved this salad.  Thanks, Kevin. 

Pomegranate and Pistachio Couscous

Such good food, thanks blogging buddies!  There’s more love comin’ soon!  Now, go hug your teddy bear!

TWD--All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake

For the month of November, as TWD bakers, we are so kindly allowed to post any of the month's four recipes in any order we choose.  It worked out nicely that after I decided to make the All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake it would be perfect for our friend, Tes' birthday.  I just realized we forgot to take a picture of Tes with a candle in her slice of cake.  We sang to her earlier in the evening, but forgot when it was time for dessert.  Whoops!  Tes' birthday is really on Halloween.  We had the cake Monday night. 

This bundt cake was chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty.  You can get the recipe for this bundt cake on her blog, or you can just get Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours and have a ton of great recipes at your fingertips! 

I followed the recipe, even using freshly grated nutmeg for the first time.  I used ground ginger instead of fresh.  And in place of the one cup of cranberries, I used 1/2 cup of cranberries and 1/2 cup fresh pomegranate arils (about 1/2 a POM).  Love POMs!  The cake came perfectly out of the bundt pan (some others mentioned sticking problems.).  All I did was spray the pan with cooking spray.  The cake sure left a wonderful smell in the house while it was baking!  Mine only baked for 50 minutes.  Dorie suggests 60-70 minutes.  It passed the knife insertion test,  so out it came.  Perfect!

I love my Chop Wizard, it chopped the apples into the perfect little tiny squares.

 

I recently made some pumpkin cream cheese ribbon bread that wasn't "ribboning" very well, so I swirled it around and made pumpkin cream cheese swirl bread.  The recipe had some orange zest in the cream cheese, and I really liked it.  I have the recipe if anyone wants it.  The bread was great and quite moist and pumpkiny flavorful!  Where was I going with this?  Oh yes, orange zest and pumpkin!

I decided to make an orange icing for the bundt cake.  I had a little butter sitting on the counter, so I threw that in as well as some powdered sugar, pinch of salt, orange zest, some orange juice and cream.  It tasted great!

Orange Icing, by Katrina

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon orange zest

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons butter, softened

pinch salt

6 tablespoons cream (or to desired consistency)

Mix all ingredients together and whisk until smooth and no lumps remain.  Drizzle over cake.

Love the pecans in this cake and on the top.  The cake has many great flavors.  Tes and I loved it!  The rest of the family---pppbbbbttt!  The boys didn't even try it. (They had a little ice cream and MORE Halloween candy!  Is it gone yet?  jk)  Kevin ate a little courtesy piece, then told me he doesn't really like cranberries.  (Never knew that, he loves cranberry juice!)  I loved the juicy POMs with their little crunch.

I gave Tes a big hunk of the cake to take home. 

Great bundt cake!

Thanks for the great pick, Britin!  Hey, speaking of bundts.  Do you like big bundts?  Mary at The Food Librarian does.  She loves (it may now be a love/hate relationship) bundts so much that since October 15th, she has been posting a bundt cake per day on her fabulous blog, in honor of the upcoming National Bundt Cake Day, November 15.  Why is that date important?  Hmm, yes, someone is having a BIG birthday that day.  It's me, it's me.  I just think it's so nice of Mary to make so many cakes in honor of my birthday.  Wow.  (jk)

Lovin' the bundts, Mary!  Check out her blog, if you haven't!

Double Chocolate POM Brownies—POM Wonderful

Today, after receiving a nice case of POM Wonderful from the wonderful people AT POM Wonderful yesterday, I made some pretty dang, darn good brownies that I just have to share with you.  Thanks so much, POM!  We love the 100% pomegranate juice and what's more, we love all the health benefits this juice has.  I can't wait to use it in MORE recipes.  Stay tuned for that!

These brownies are perfectly fudgy and chocolaty and just might be my latest go-to "whip it up" brownie recipe.  I will be making these again.  I really liked the added POM syrup that I swirled in to the top of the unbaked brownies.  I really was a great flavor addition.  And though I forgot the second added amount of syrup after the brownies baked, these were still amazing.   Go get a bottle of POM Wonderful (in the refrigerator section of your grocery store, near the milk) and make these brownies.  You will not be disappointed.

 

Double Chocolate POM Brownies (adapted ever so slightly from POM Wonderful)

· Juice from 2-3 large POM Wonderful
    Pomegranates to make 1/2 cup POM Syrup*
    or 1 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate
    Juice   (I made the POM Syrup from the 100% Juice)

· 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

· 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

· 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened  (I used unsalted butter) 

· 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

· 3 large eggs

· 1 tablespoon vanilla

· 1 cup all-purpose flour

· 3/4 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional) (I used walnuts) 

· Garnish (optional):

· 1/4 cup arils from 1 large POM Wonderful
    Pomegranate  (I did not use these)

· Fresh whipped cream (I did not do this) 

· 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.  (I lined the pan with non stick foil for super easy removal of the brownies.)

· 2. Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter on high for 1 1/2 -2 minutes until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate melts. Stir in sugar.

· 3. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, chocolate chips and nuts. Stir well. Spread into prepared pan.

· 4. Drizzle 1/4 cup of the POM Syrup* over batter; swirl with a table knife to create marble-like effect.

· 5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is firm. Do not overbake. (I baked mine for 24 minutes.)

· 6. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup of the POM Syrup over brownies. (I actually  just realized I didn't even do this, but the brownies were amazing without it!) Transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least 1 hour.

· 7. Prepare garnish - Score 1 fresh pomegranate and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside. (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.) Whip cream.

· 8. Garnish brownies with fresh arils and fresh whipped cream.

*To prepare POM Syrup, cut 2-3 POM Wonderful Pomegranates in half and juice using a citrus reamer or juicer to measure 1 cup, or use 1 cup of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice. Combine juice and 3/4 cup of sugar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes until reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring frequently. (Super simple and tasty!)

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Today Parker was sick (throwing up once in the night and feeling queasy all day--but is fine now!), but because of this, Parker, Sam and I stayed home from church today.  We had some fun in the kitchen!

Have I ever mentioned that I love Scholastic Books?  Well, I do.  Every time the kids bring home those order forms, I can't help but order books, books, books.  I have always loved children's books and we have three bookcases full of them here at our house.   Here's one of Scholastic's latest offers that I snagged up on the last book order---

 

First, we made Candy Clay.  I have seen many homemade play dough/clay recipe and have made quite a few, but I hadn't realized you can make a totally edible one that actually tastes pretty good.  We made two flavors and colors.  Sam was chowing down on the stuff.  We halved the recipe and it still made plenty!  Here is the half recipe that we made.

Candy Clay, from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions 2, adapted

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt (the "candy" seemed just a tad salty, so I will use less next time)

3 tablespoons butter, softened

food coloring

flavor extracts (we didn't about 1/2 teaspoons per half the mixture)

Mix all ingredients together in  bowl of electric mixer.  It will form little crumbly- looking clumps.  If making more than one color/flavor, remove half the mixture and set aside.  Add coloring and flavor and mix well.  Gather the clumps up into a ball and it will immediately form into a ball of edible clay.

 

Parker made a snail and Sam, well, he pretty much just made a mess, but he had fun doing it!

I didn't photograph the clay very well, but the pink was cherry flavored and the yellow was banana.  It was slightly similar to Starburst candy, but not as chewy or hard.  We put a little powdered sugar down on the counter when they thought it was a bit too sticky.  And DO NOT, whatever you do, do not look at how extremely dirty that back door window is.  Hey, you looked, didn't you?  I said do NOT look.  Oh well. I'll be cleaning that tomorrow, but guess what, it won't stay clean for long!  ; )

Next we also made a Chocolate Clay, but I didn't read all the directions before learning that the clay needs to sit overnight to be workable.  So we've made it and will play with it tomorrow.  So easy and this one tastes even better--hello, it's chocolate! ; )

Chocolate Clay (we also halved the recipe from the book)--half recipe below

5 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Melt chocolate chips in 20-30 second intervals in a microwave safe dish, stirring after each interval.  When melted, stir in the corn syrup.  Spread the chocolate out 1/2 inch thick on a sheet of wax  paper.  Let the chocolate set overnight.  It will stiffen and become pliable.  (We made it this morning at about noon and by 6 o'clock tonight, it was plenty ready to play with.)

Also suggested using white chocolate and stirring in a few drops of food coloring before the corn syrup is added. 

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Our final creation from the book was--super simple, fun and great for Parker's upset tummy--TOAST.  Painted toast!

Funny Face Toast

2 tablespoons milk

food coloring

Paintbrush (we also used cotton swabs, which I actually thought worked better!)

Slices of bread

Mix milk and food coloring (2-3 drops) together in a small dish.  Paint a face or design on the slice of bread.  Toast the bread.   Great for pb&j or BLT sandwiches or just some buttered toast.  This would be fun to use at holidays and decorate with hearts or a shamrock or pumpkin, etc.

   

The proud little artists--

 

"Hey, Sam, you're being awfully quiet out there on the deck, whatcha up to?" said Mom.

When we moved here four years ago, Scott was in 2nd grade.  Well, he just finished 5th grade, which just doesn't seem right.  While he was in 2nd grade, one of his best friend's was Matthew McDougall.  Matthew and his family moved the summer before 3rd grade even started.  Scott was pretty bummed, but the McDougall's still visit here once a year and always call so Scott and Matthew can get together.  Today Matthew was able to come spend most of the day here.  They had a great time together!

And just to be fair and give Taylor a little photo-op, here's his latest.  Well, actually he's been doing this for a good month or two.  He wears his shirts backwards, on purpose, even to school and I can't convince him otherwise.  Most of his shirts have a picture on the front, so the backwardedness (yep, made that one up) is always quite noticeable.  Kids definitely say and do the darndest things!

And finally, by nine o'clock tonight (since there is no school tomorrow and Matthew was still here), the kid's had been outside playing.  Then they had a popsicle.  Well, you can't tell from the pictures like I was hoping, but Sam's legs and feet were about as dirty as they have ever been, including melted popsicle drippings all down the back of his thigh and all over his face.  Needless to say, he had a bath before bed!

You simply cannot tell from the pictures, but once again, he's sure stinkin' cute!  (I'm not biased at all.)

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