Deceptively Delicious Brownies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray

3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup carrot pureee

1/2 cup spinach puree

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Tbs trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

3/4 cup oat flour, or all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/s tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8x8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame.

3. In a alrge bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla,,, and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.

Gooey Volcanoes

Science mad Ben has been picking out experiments to test out from his collection of new science books. Today's project: "Gooey volcano" from Richard Hammond's Blast Lab book.

The directions call for making a volcano out of jello and then injecting baking soda and vinegar into the volcano w/ a baster. Our first volcano was a flop- so Ben turned it into a dinosaur land. Take two was a little bit better, but not much... but since the poor little guy was so excited, we decided that a volcano didn't really have to look like a volcano, right?

Things that made me smile today

A list of things that made me smile today....

• Watching Josh brush teddy's teeth
• Driving around in Elfi (Dan's classic car) w/ Josh in the front seat grinning ear to ear
• Trying a new recipe (Pumpkin and Chive Mini Frittatas) and having them look and taste really good (helped that I baked them in my flower muffin tray)
• Writing a letter to my friend Erica
• Working on my latest photobook and appreciating all my friends and family who I saw in California
• Drinking coffee
• Making risotto w/o being interrupted by my children
• Toasting my mother w/ the cheap bottle of white wine I used to cook with
• Doing all the prep work for tomorrow's dinner (Chicken Marbella, needs to marinate overnight)
• Having a family tidy up time that actually involved someone other then me
• Taking a nap on the couch this afternoon instead of doing anything productive
• Having Ben eat all his dinner w/o any time out sessions
• Having Ben thank me for his blueberry jello dessert
• Watching the sunset
  

Science Experiments

This afternoon we had a science fair in our kitchen. We made gunk, exploding fizzy drinks, an underwater fountain and mosaics. Ben was extremely exciting about the various projects and made me promise him that we can do science experiments every day. I think I have a budding scientist on my hands. (The green face paint was from preschool, Ben came home as t-rex).

Listening to music together

April 11, 2008

July 23, 2009

Family Traits

So Ben has this habit of playing "garage sale/plunket sale/shop" which basically means that he takes out a slew of stuff and puts it on display on the coffee table and then opens his shop for his customers. I don't like this game very much b/c it means that he basically empties the toy basket all over the living room. When looking at this photo of the dinosaur shop from yesterday I got a funny sense of deja vu... (see photo of me). I'm guessing that Ben and I are related and there's really nothing else I can do about it...

Obivously I'm very excited about stamps and am going to enter a contest b/c one of my favorite stamp companies, Hero Arts, just relaunched their website, www.heroarts.com . For all those crafty folks out there go check out their new site, lots of cool new features and a few extra contests!

Ben, 4 years old

Ben, Mr. 4 Year old

• ''I like being four, cause I had a big 4, in my birthday cake."
• Still obsessed with dinosaurs
• Loves building things with legos/duplo/zoob pieces
• Has a strong personality when it comes to things he doesn't like
• Favorites phrases when he's upset, "it's not fair", 'this isn't funny", "'you're not listening to me".
• A complete fish in the water, loves diving to the bottom of the pool for toys
• Is excited about ski season
• Loves reading
• Has a very limited menu in terms of foods that he will eat
• Loves helping bake in the kitchen, his favorite ingredients are eggs (which he likes to crack) and brown sugar (which he likes to eat)
• Loves watching DVDs and will happily sit through an entire feature length movie
• Enjoys playing with his mother's stationery products
• Absolutely loves it when the package lady arrives at our house
• Has a lot of energy and can talk nonstop without breathing