This is not, as a rule, a cooking blog, but these brownies rock! I cut the recipe from the newspaper; the original source is the Baltimore Sun.
S'More Squares
12 graham cracker squares It came out 15 to me, to cover the pan.
1 20-oz. box brownie mix
3 cups mini-marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
Note that you'll be preparing the brownie mix as directed on the box, so you'll need whatever ingredients it calls for, probably oil & eggs.
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. I used butter-flavored cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a single layer of graham-cracker squares. Faith did this part. I had to cut just a sliver off the end of one on each row to make them fit the pan.
In a large bowl, prepare the brownie mix according to directions on the box. I used Duncan Hines Fudgy Brownie mix. Carefully spread brownie batter evenly over graham crackers. Bake for about 25 minutes. Do not over-bake.
Remove brownies from oven. Immediately sprinkle with marshmallows; gently press marshmallows into hot brownies. I buy marshmallows once a year to make a cup of hot chocolate and then never use them again, so when I opened the bag, mine were all stuck together. I just threw them on top in sticky clumps to cover most of the surface of the brownies and didn't worry about pressing them in. Return to oven and bake another 2 minutes or until marshmallows are puffed.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the chocolate chips and oil. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the marshmallows. Cooks who drizzle must have some miraculous spouted non-stick equipment that I don't. I just kind of spooned the melted chocolate on. It makes for a nice marbled-looking top. Cool completely. Use a knife dipped in hot water to cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.
I'm excising the nutritional information, as it's ridiculous to expect a brownie to be nutritious. Let's just say they're empty calories and leave it at that.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Birthday girls
I had a birthday last Sunday. As I'm the family photographer, I have no pictures from the occasion to share, but Faith turned 6 last month, and I do have photos from then.
Faith specifically wanted a party with streamers, hats, and noisemakers. She wanted a pinata too, but I vetoed that. Here she is with her Mawmaw and Poppy, all wearing party hats.
She loved Eric's Cookie Monster cake last year and requested one for her birthday this year. Everyone had blue teeth and tongues, and I had blue fingers just from cutting the cake!
There were also balloons. Faith got a Cinderella balloon, but with two children in the house, the sibling of the birthday kid gets a balloon, too. (It saves chasing and screaming and fighting over the balloon for days afterward.) Here is Eric with his Lightning McQueen (or, as he says, "CarQueen") balloon and a red noisemaker.
And here is Faith with her new doll. She also got a Dora DVD, a horn for her bicycle, an "I Spy" board game, and some new clothes. When I was a kid, clothes were a boring present; I always felt I'd been tricked when I opened a wrapped package and found it was only clothes, but Faith loves new clothes and likes to try them on right away.
Faith specifically wanted a party with streamers, hats, and noisemakers. She wanted a pinata too, but I vetoed that. Here she is with her Mawmaw and Poppy, all wearing party hats.
She loved Eric's Cookie Monster cake last year and requested one for her birthday this year. Everyone had blue teeth and tongues, and I had blue fingers just from cutting the cake! 
There were also balloons. Faith got a Cinderella balloon, but with two children in the house, the sibling of the birthday kid gets a balloon, too. (It saves chasing and screaming and fighting over the balloon for days afterward.) Here is Eric with his Lightning McQueen (or, as he says, "CarQueen") balloon and a red noisemaker.
And here is Faith with her new doll. She also got a Dora DVD, a horn for her bicycle, an "I Spy" board game, and some new clothes. When I was a kid, clothes were a boring present; I always felt I'd been tricked when I opened a wrapped package and found it was only clothes, but Faith loves new clothes and likes to try them on right away.Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Facebook Quandary
(A generation ago, that would have been a title for an episode of "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who.")
So, anyway, here's my quandary. My nephew is on Facebook. So are a lot of other people I know/knew. (I looked people up on his account.)
On one level, I find the possibility intriguing. Everyone has someone they were great friends with years ago and lost touch with, and the thought of reconnecting with some of those people is enticing.
HOWEVER....
As evidenced by the amount of time since I last posted on this blog (and the number of people I owe e-mails to), I am obviously terrible at keeping up with such things. Adding Facebook would only spread my already limited time thinner, not to mention adding a whole other layer of things-to-waste-time-on-online, a category I am far from needing to pad.
More importantly, as I read in an article on Facebook and such phenomena a while back, the truth is: There is a reason people lose touch with each other in the first place. I have a hard enough time keeping up correspondence with the people I have been bound and determined to remain in touch with all along. If I didn't have the time or inclination to maintain a correspondence with people years ago, where do I expect that time and inclination to come from now, when I am busier than ever I was when I was single and childless? There is little more awkward than searching out an old friend, only to abandon the effort to keep in touch once again.
So there's my quandary: to Facebook, or not to Facebook? I'm leaning towards not, for the above reasons. Any of you on Facebook may try to convince me otherwise.
So, anyway, here's my quandary. My nephew is on Facebook. So are a lot of other people I know/knew. (I looked people up on his account.)
On one level, I find the possibility intriguing. Everyone has someone they were great friends with years ago and lost touch with, and the thought of reconnecting with some of those people is enticing.
HOWEVER....
As evidenced by the amount of time since I last posted on this blog (and the number of people I owe e-mails to), I am obviously terrible at keeping up with such things. Adding Facebook would only spread my already limited time thinner, not to mention adding a whole other layer of things-to-waste-time-on-online, a category I am far from needing to pad.
More importantly, as I read in an article on Facebook and such phenomena a while back, the truth is: There is a reason people lose touch with each other in the first place. I have a hard enough time keeping up correspondence with the people I have been bound and determined to remain in touch with all along. If I didn't have the time or inclination to maintain a correspondence with people years ago, where do I expect that time and inclination to come from now, when I am busier than ever I was when I was single and childless? There is little more awkward than searching out an old friend, only to abandon the effort to keep in touch once again.
So there's my quandary: to Facebook, or not to Facebook? I'm leaning towards not, for the above reasons. Any of you on Facebook may try to convince me otherwise.
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