Oh my...

If you need a chocolate fix - say brownies - and you have no eggs, are you out of luck?

Nope! This was the case last night, and I found THIS incredible recipe on Allrecipes.com. And Oh, My is an understatement!


Here is the recipe with pictures. I made a few changes, as suggested by one of the commenters on Allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a heavy saucepan combine the 1/3 cup of flour and water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thick. Transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside to cool. {This took a while. I used a whisk. Lost track of time. Just suddenly noticed that I had a very think glue-like mixture.}
   
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. When butter has melted, add the cocoa and mix until smooth; set aside to cool. Beat the sugar and vanilla into the cooled flour mixture. Stir in the cocoa mixture until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the batter until just blended. Add chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool before cutting into bars. {Mine took closer to 28 minutes. I used a 9X11 pan though.}

These were just wonderful! And egg free! I'd like to know what kind of magic is going on with the flour+water=glue stuff. But I can just live in ignorance. With these brownies.


They weren't NEARLY as sweet as boxed mixes. Which meant they were PERFECT with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce on top.


Oh my.

This is what it looks like now!

The kitchen is completely done and functional! And gorgeous! Enjoy!




Of course, it now has dirty dishes on the counter, canisters on the sink, etc. But it was nice and clear for a few hours :) Long enough to snap a few pictures!

I am so please and I really think this will help the resale value of our house. Wouldn't you be happy with this kitchen if you were looking for a new house?

This is what my kitchen used to look like.....

Yes. That is it. It is the original 1946 kitchen. No dishwasher. Only about 3 feet of usable counter space - if you put the dish drainer under the sink.

Erin, over at The State That I Am In, has issued a cleaning up the house challenge. We are to write about our feelings about cleaning. And boy, do I have some feelings!

We are currently in the final stages of a kitchen remodel. It has been a wile ride! My house has been a disaster since the middle of May. Here is the story, in pictures, and you can see all the mess I've had to try to stay on top of.

Mid-May: Purchasing Cabinets. They had to go somewhere: in my dining room! My dining table got moved into the entry/living room because you can see cabinets stacked clear up to the pendant fixture in the dining room. OMG! And there were 2 huge base corner cabinets in the garage that we couldn't even get in the house (since I couldn't lift them.) Seriously, you may be thinking, "Aww! What is the big deal? So you eat in the living room." Yes, a living room full of furniture that I now have to navigate around when cleaning or serving food. And it is doubly far from the kitchen!


Early June: Demolition

This actually went ok on the uppers. They were only held on by a few screws and a bracket. No big mess to take them down and put up the new uppers. But the base cabinets... oh, there was a huge surprise waiting on me down there.


Base cabinets were fairly simple to remove. But when we pulled out the sink base (a huge 5 foot monster!)


we found this...


There are simply not words to describe what I felt when I saw this, the Hilton-Marriot-Waldorff-Astoria of mouse houses! After DH checked it for remains, I got the task of scooping it into the trash - and sucking the rest into the vacuum cleaner.

I hate remodeling. I hate cleaning. I hate being away from home because I have no usable kitchen. I hate coming home from 10 days away to a nasty, black, mildewed toilet and bathtub. While waiting on the counter-top installers to come on Tuesday, I get to clean the bathroom. Joy. But at least they clean the kitchen when they leave. :)

So, now you know more about me. And how I have been CRAZY for the last 6 weeks - can't clean when stuff is all over the house. At least on Wednesday, I'll get to put my kitchen together and restore my house to its former, pre-renovation, minorly cluttered state. What bliss!

Crazy, Creative, CLEVER Child!

Saturday, while at a friend's house, my daughter broke out with a rash on her belly. Our first thought was "the pox" (chicken of course) even though she's been vaccinated. We're not sure, but she latched onto that idea. A few minutes before bedtime, on my bed, after applying a large dose of calamine lotion we had the following conversation:

MG: Where do chicken pox come from?

Me: A virus.

MG: Well, will they go "brawk, brawk?" (She falls over in a fit of giggles at her cleverness.)

Me: (after I stopped laughing) No, I'm pretty sure they won't.

MG: (Lifts her shirt and looks at her belly) "Brawk, bawk, brawkkkkky brawk!" (Looks at me) Nope they aren't chicken pox... but they told me to do the chicken dance!

She then stood up on my bed and proceeded to do a bed-jumping, CRAZY version of the chicken dance while she "brawk-ed" the music.

I'm still laughing! BTW - she's 5 and will start Kindergarten in August. Won't her teachers have fun with her?

Great Accessories Swap!

Got into this from Erin over at the state that i am in. Very good idea. Here are my items for swapping.

This pretty scarf is brown and beige. In the past it went well with my wardrobe but it no longer does. It says, "Made in Italy" on the tag. The background is dark brown stripes of slightly opaque and transparent fabric. Beautiful!


Very cute black and silver beaded belt. Would really jazz up a "little black dress." It fit me before kid #2. *sigh* I cannot find the tape measure - must be at school. If interested, post and I'll get back to you with waist measurements. Probably fit a size 6 or 8? If you are clever, you can probably find a way to make it fit bigger sizes too.
Very cute leather belt that ties. Would fit any waist size. Has multicolored flowers all around. Love it, but not my style.
Simple little bag made of strange fabric. Has a velcro closure. Would make a great little bag for small summer outings.

Thats what I got! Leave me a comment if there is something you like!

Boo Hoo

I have been very diligently keeping a reading list this year. I'm please with myself - up to now I've not left any books off the list. I enter them as soon as I get them home from the library. But the last batch - didn't do it! So I've lost about 6 titles that should be over there - and absolutely can't remember them. Waaaaaa! No real loss - they were more of the same stuff I've been reading. But I wanted a complete log. I wonder if the library has a list of books I've checked out recently... This is going to bug me! :(

On other fronts, we are making plans to:

• Replace the kitchen cabinets and countertop
• Work on improving the condition of the bathroom
• FINISH the SCHOOL year - about 20 days left with kids! Yay!
• Go to Chicago to see DH's stepmom
• Go to the OBX for 2 weeks!!!
• Get DH a job!

All those things will happen between now and August. I'm glad to have a good camera - I must capture all these exciting events for posterity. I must also start posting more pictures!!

Have a happy Mother's Day!!!

A Day Without Kids...

At school that is! Today was a teacher work day so I got a good dose of "Mommy alone time" while slaving in my classroom. I won't bore you with the details - just know I worked like a dog.

Then I came home to a lovely, home-cooked pot roast. I guess we have made up since Sunday's pressure cooker chicken. We've made progress too. This was heard on Tuesday and is a direct quote: "Since you all didn't get sick, go ahead and use the pressure cooker to make chicken tonight. I'll eat it."

I won! :) That feels nice. :)

Here is a photo of the girls, taken over Spring Break at my folks' house in Atlanta. They were up to no good, I assure you!


And to assure my whole audience (of 0) that spring has arrived:
Azaleas will be out eventually - ours are ALWAYS the last on the block. I'll post pics as soon as they bloom!

Happy weekend!