Brownies on a Snowy Day

So we were kind of hit with a blizzard over the past few days. It was a little challenging to get out of the house.

Okay, it was really challenging to get out of the house.

So what do you do when you are stuck at home?

I read, I watch TV and movies, I hang out with my family, I work on homework :(

But luckily we have some great neighbors who just moved back in down the street this summer after being over seas for three years. They invited us down for a warm turkey dinner, so I decided, what better to do then to bake something chocolate to bring?

After much deliberation and scrolling through too many Buzzfeed lists of mouthwateringly beautiful cookies, I decided on brownies. I love brownies. But this time I wanted to add my own twist, something more interesting. 

I love mint. So why not make mint brownies? But no one in my family really likes your typical mint brownies, with green frosting thickly sitting on top. So I decided to try to make my own mint topping.

First, I made normal brownies from my family's favorite recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 6 ounces, semisweet chocolate chips

The recipe makes 24 squares, so I typically double it. I personally like the amount of chocolate chips, but my family thinks a little less could work better.

The recipe also calls for

• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, but I don't put these in because I'm allergic to them! Also, not sure how well they would go with mint.
• 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, but these are just for a topping, which you don't need for mint brownies

Alright, on to the cooking instructions.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking pan (if doubling) or an 8 inch square glass baking pan (if going with original).
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or in microwave. Cool ten minutes.
3. Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Stir in chocolate chips (and walnuts if you are using them).
6. Spread batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. (Mine took about 35 minutes).

So these brownies came out of the oven looking fluffy and yummy. But I still wanted to add something a little bit more. 

I hadn't found anything on the internet for mint brownies without frosting, so I thought, 'Why not make mint whipped cream that people could put on as they want?' Delicious, right? Problem: We did not have whipping cream. Problem: We could not go get whipping cream, as the whole street was covered in what looked like 2 feet of whipping cream. Okay, next idea?

I decided to make your typical buttercream frosting, but add in some chocolate and some mint. I used a recipe I found cooking last weekend. It makes three cups of frosting and requires quite a lot of sugar, so I quartered it (only made a fourth of what it called for?).

My version:

• 1/8 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/8 cup confectioners' (powdered) sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
• A tiny bit of half and half

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and enough milk to achieve desired constistency.

On to the mint chocolate modifications.

After this point, nothing was very exact, so if something doesn't taste right, keep fiddling with it until it does.

First, I put in about 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract. Then I melted chocolate chips in a cup in the microwave. When the chocolate was liquid, I stirred it into the frosting. Tasted it, and it tasted weird. So I put in some more chocolate and some peppermint sugar sprinkles. Still tasted weird. Aah, cooking is an art. So I put in even more chocolate and a couple squirts of whipped cream from a can. (Don't know if that was necessary.) I think at this point it tasted pretty good, but if its not to your taste, just keep adding chocolate or peppermint until you're happy.

I then put the thick frosting in the fridge. We walked down to our neighbors' house. After dinner, I decided to frost the brownies because by now they were cool. Always wait until your brownies are cool. The frosting was almost as thick as ice cream, so I decided to put it in the microwave for twenty seconds.

It came out pretty liquidy, and not at all frosting like. With the advice of my mom, I decided to spread it on the brownies anyway. Then I sprinkled some more of the peppermint sugars on top. I stuck the brownies in the fridge and waited.

When we took them out for dessert, the chocolate ganache topping had hardened and was a nice thin layer of thicker chocolate on top of the brownies. It was perfect.

As you can see, they were pretty popular.

And now I have a wonderful recipe for the next time we get snowed in.~

101 Reasons Why Life Is Beautiful

This was an idea from retro-piggy.blogspot.com which I love. Basically you just list 101 things you love or are thankful for. This is the first twenty with pictures.

1. Family time

2. Friends that make you laugh and understand you

3. Music that makes your heart swell

4. Delicious, crusty, warm baked bread

5. Sweet, cool cheesecake

6. Inside jokes with friends that are funny not mean

7. Cool, sunshiney breeze on a beautiful day

8. Children being simply profound

9. Little tiny family/owned shops that sell cute food

10. Walking into a huge beautiful library

11. Stage doors

12. Reading for hours

13. Beautiful quotes that are true

14. Hugs from little kids

15. Cute shoes

16. Movie soundtracks

17. The beach and the ocean and the sound of the waves

18. Beautiful architecture and buildings that inspire you to write stories

19. People who do their jobs faithfully and joyfully even when they're boring

20. Smiles

Summertime!

It's summer!

This is basically my start-of-summer masterpost, full of a bunch of different things for summer.

Summer is a great time to look back on all the things that have happened in the past year and also to look ahead to what you want to accomplish and do. So...

Top 5 of the Year:

It's hard to pick just five things that made this year great, but here are a couple in no order:

-Solos in choir concert and spring ballet

-Developing friendships 

-Seeing some great musicals

-Learning a lot 

-Having some great teachers

I'm sure there's more but it's hard to think off the top of my head :)

Top 5 Goals for the Summer:

-I really want to reexamine and become deeper in my relationship with God.

-Taking a personal finance course

-Stretching and hopefully getting my splits! :)

-Creative writing and reading a lot of great books

-Spending time with friends

Summer Reads:

These are a couple books that I would reccommend. There's other books I love but they don't seem summery enough :P

If you want to check out some of my favorite books, go to the "To Read, To Watch" page.

If you have any questions about the books I list, please put them in the comments.

-The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights era, The Help tells the story of a young writer, Skeeter, who decides to write a book filled with the stories of maids who work in the households or Jackson. It's a powerful story about friendship, human rights, and standing up for what you believe in. 

***Some foul language and violence.

-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is a great American classic, also about civil rights, but set in the 1930s. If you haven't read it, run to the nearest bookshelf because it will probably be there. I did a lengthier review of TKAM in the "To Read, To Watch" section. 

Also to note that a sequel of sorts to Mockingbird is coming out this summer entitled Go Set a Watchman. I'm not sure that I'm going to read the sequel for several reasons that I may outline in a later blog post. If you google the title you'll find plenty of articles about the controversy about the publication. But please, please read To Kill A Mockingbird.  It is one of the richest and important books I have ever read with some of the most lovable characters I have ever encountered. 

-All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This is on my summer reading list and I read it this past winter. It's beautiful writing and provides a unique perspective on World War II. I liked it over all, but some of the middle bits I didn't love as much. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year I think, so it's highly popular. The writing is extraordinary.

-Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

If you're looking for non fiction, this is the book to go to. If you're a fiction reader who doesn't really like non fiction, this is also the book to go to. Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. He writes about psychology and sociology. I have read many of his books, but this is the one I started with and it's probably my favorite. It talks all about our first impressions, split second judgements, and why they happen and why we should or shouldn't listen to them. It's full of anecdotes so it keeps the interest, and is fairly easy to read while also being extremely informative.

Let me know if you like any of these books in the comments! Also if you have some favorite summer reads that you'd like to reccommend, please do, as I'm almost always looking for new things to read.

11 Things to Do in the Summer Without Going on Vacation:

I love the freedom of summer, but I also find that sometimes I don't know what to do with myself and end up wasting time doing almost nothing. Here's a list to help me just as much as you.

Without people:

-Read a good novel and write a review either in your own notebook or online.

-Find an intriguing recipe and cook something new.

-Take photos or draw pictures of the beautiful flowers and trees summer brings.

-Write a short story.

-Shoot hoops or ride your bike.

With people:

-Film your own movie and then have a premier complete with fancy dresses and a red carpet. You could even have it outside by hanging a sheet on the garage door and bringing a projector outside.

-Don't have a video camera? Put on your own play complete with costumes and sets.

-Open your own "restaurant" and cook a fancy meal and invite people over to enjoy it.

-Make a fort out of blankets or in a tree.

-Have a neighborhood pick-up soccer or kickball or Capture the Flag game.

-Make a lemonade stand or some other roadside business.

-Set up a mini water park in your driveway with a sprinkler and hose.

I hope you have a wonderful, exciting, joyful, relaxing summer!

Let me know in the comments what things you love to do during summer!

A picture is worth a thousand words

Sometimes I get inspiration for writing from a single picture. These are some fun pics that might spark a story or poem inside of you. (They are also just really nice photos).

If it's short enough, share your inspired writing in the comments!

Photo: Me

Photo: Eric Johansson (I think)

Photo: Me

Photo: The Internet

Photo: My sister

Photo: Me

101 Questions for Breaking The Ice

Put your answer to one of the questions in the comments or put a number in the comments for me to answer!!!

1. What's your full name? How do you feel about this name?
2. If you could have any other hair color, what would it be?
3. If you could live in any other time period, only for the clothes, which one would it be?
4. What are your favorite books?
5. What are your favorite movies?
6. Who is your favorite author?
7. Who is your favorite fictional character?
8. Who do you most admire?
9. Who is your celebrity crush?
10. What's your favorite season?
11. If you could break one habit, what would it be?
12. If you could break one Guinness World Record, what would it be?
13. Who would you have compose the soundtrack to your life?
14. If you could meet one famous person (living), who would it be?
15. If you could meet one famous person (dead), who would it be?
16. What's your "spirit" animal?
17. What color represents you?
18. If you could win one TV game show, what would it be?
19. If you could meet one US president, who would it be?
20. If you had a time machine, what would be the first place you would go?
21. If you could assign yourself one senior superlative from a yearbook ("Most Likely to. . .), what would it be?
22. What one super power do you want?
23. What 3 places do you want to visit that you haven't been to before?
24. If you could visit one fictional place, what would it be?
25. If you could turn one book into a Broadway musical, what one would you pick?
26. Would you rather win a Tony, an Emmy, a Grammy, or an Oscar?
27. Would you rather visit the past of the future?
28. Which one sport would you want to go to the summer Olympics for? The winter Olympics for?
29. What's your life motto?
30. What's one book better than its movie?
31. What's one movie better than its book?
32. If you could switch two actors from two of your favorite TV shows or movies, who and why?
33. Who would you have narrate a documentary of your life?
34. Who would you have play you in a movie of your life?
35. If you mad an acronym for your own secret agency, what would it be and why?
36. If you could be in any musical or play, which one would you pick and what character?
37. If you could be in the remake of any movie, which one and which character?
38. What's your favorite word and why?
39. What fear do you most want to overcome?
40. What are your pet peeves?
41. If you could be any Disney character, which one would you pick?
42. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
43. Who's the best teacher you've ever had and why?
44. If you could make a summer camp for anything, what would it be?
45. If you could reenact any day in history, what would it be?
46. If you could prevent any day in history, what would it be?
47. What are your comfort foods?
48. If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?
49. What's your favorite kind of weather?
50. What do you want to be alive for the 50th anniversary of? Or 100th?
51. Would you rather do a truth or a dare?
52. If you could travel to any other country, only for the food, what one would you pick?
53. If you could create a national holiday, what would it be?
54. What's your favorite holiday? Why?
55. If you had to eat the same food for the rest of your life, what food?
56. What would be on your ideal iPod?
57. Is there one place you never want to go back to?
58. If you had two children (one boy, one girl), what would you name them? Why?
59. If you started a charity, what would it be for and what would you call it?
60. What's one book or movie that's changed your life?
61. Would you rather be at the World Cup, World Series, Olympics, or Superbowl?
62. Would you rather be in the World Cup, World Series, Olympics, or Superbowl?
63. What's your guilty pleasure?
64. IF you could make a museum of anything, what would yours be for?
65. If you got really good news, who is the first person you'd call?
66. If you got really bad news, who is the first person you would call?
67. Who inspires you?
68. If no one was watching, what good or fun thing would you do?
69. What's your dream meal?
70. What's one chore you are readily willing to do?
71. What's one chore you will never do?
72. What's your favorite dessert?
73. Who that you know would you take as your date to the Oscars? What celebrity?
74. If you could hear one singer, band, piece of music live before you die, what one?
75. If you could vandalize one piece of property, which one and what would you do? (Like painting the Washington Monument to look like a giant pencil)
76. If you could make any food any other color, what and why?
77. If you could perform one place, where?
78. If you could throw a pie in the face of any famous dead person, who?
79. If you could throw a pie in the face of any famous living person, who?
80. If you were robbing a bank, who would you have be your getaway driver?
81. What's your life's theme song?
82. What celebrity does everyone else love who you don't?
83. If you could be known for inventing one already invented thing, which one?
84. What's your favorite quote or Bible verse?
85. What movies do you cry at?
86. Which body of water do you most want to live by?
87. What's your Meyers-Briggs personality type?
88. What's the best April Fools trick you've ever done?
89. What's the best Halloween costume you've ever worn?
90. In what setting do you most want to live?
91. What's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you?
92. What one thing in the news lately has made you laugh?
93. What's one of your favorite things in your house?
94. What's your favorite place in your house?
95. If you had a royal carriage, what would it be pulled by?
96. If you could act like an animal for a day, what one?
97. Would you rather be behind the camera, or in front of it?
98. What's your favorite way to experience water? (Swimming, walking in the rain, etc)
99. If you could be a piece of furniture, what and why?
100. If you were a kiwi, which one would you be?
101. What one question would you add to this list?