Let it Go

So I'm hopping on the bandwagon.  While I was cleaning the living room today, this happened:

And I am dying.  My little broadway baby!

I love all the videos I've seen of the little ones belting out their renditions of this song.  So I was so excited when Ms. Amber Nora decided to join the ranks and bring her own personal flare and style.  She picked that outfit out herself.  Could you tell??  ;]

Please forgive her cold.  She is a coughing, snotty mess who is apparently apt to drool at the moment.

Also, please forgive the fact that her ladybug wings are pinned together in the front.  I totally realize this could be a safety risk but she wanted them to stay on and she was completely supervised the entire time.  

Also, please forgive my constant need for forgiveness and just enjoy the cuteness already!

Mexican Brownies

Oh, Mexican brownies.  Featuring the fabulous combo of chocolate, Mexican cinnamon, and chili powder, these are unique enough to be special, but not SO unique that you have to be adventurous to try them.  They're my brownie-hating husband's favorite desert and my brownie-loving dad's favorite brownie, so it's a pretty safe bet to take to gatherings and potlucks.  I've yet to hear a complaint.

Wait, that's not true.

ONE complaint.

Around the holidays last year, my husband asked me to fix a batch for him to take to work.  He likes to withhold the secret ingredients, because he likes to see if people can tell (which really, you can't.  The ingredients don't make it spicy so much as just highlight the flavors of the chocolate).  Well...Uhm...he gives his coworker a brownie and said coworker just begins violently clearing his throat.  Like the way you have to grunt in order to get a stuck popcorn kernel.  Turns out, the coworker was allergic to cinnamon.  Who knew cinnamon was an allergen?  Anyway, the guy was totally fine...But just remember that if you bring these to a pot luck.  People might assume, since there's no nuts, that it's a safe choice.  But I guess you may want to label them as having cinnamon.  Just speaking from experience!

So, these puppies are super easy to make and pretty fool-proof.  There's no complicated chemistry or special tricks, you just mix everything in a bowl and bake.  Fabulously simple!  So, here's your cast of characters:

2 sticks of butter (I used salted.  Unsalted can be used as well, with the addition of 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.  Add with the flour, etc.)

2 C sugar

4 eggs

2 TSP vanilla

2/3 C cocoa powder

1 C flour

1 TSP Mexican cinnamon (can be found at Walmart, in the hispanic aisle)

1/4-1/2 TSP chili powder or cayenne pepper

1/2 TSP baking powder

6 oz. chocolate chips (I used milk because that's what I had on hand.  Semi-sweet may be preferable)

I did not document this process, because I had already started baking before I realized how blogable these are.  I'm serious.  So good.  Go make them.  The world needs to know.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Heat the butter (over medium-low) heat, until just melted.  Pour into a mixing bowl and allow to cool for at least 2 minutes.  Add in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix.  Don't over mix.  Just make sure everything is incorporated, until it no longer looks like an egg-white lava lamp.  

Then, add your flour, cinnamon, chili powder, and baking powder.  Mx this well, but there's no need to go crazy.  I'd say 30-50 strokes should be plenty.  You'll be able to tell when it looks like batter.  Just don't go any farther than that.  

Now, stir in your chocolate chips.  Obviously, this is optional, and YES, you can add nuts if you want to.  But in my opinion, the delicate flavors in these brownies get overshadowed by nutty flavor.  I love the chocolate chips, though.  The flavor blends right in, but when the brownies are warm you get little gooey pockets of happiness and when they cool you get the satisfying bite of solid chocolate.  OM NOM.  But that's my personal preference.  You do your thing, baby.  

Pour into your prepared baking pan, and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Start with 20.  Don't be like my husband.  Don't think 20-25 means 22 and a half.  If I meant 22 and a half I woulda said it, ok?  Once these brownies pass delightfully fudgy, they will start heading towards dry and chalky pretty fast.  You don't want that.  So just keep and eye out.

Your toothpick won't come out totally clean, because you've got melty chocolate chips in there.  But it should be mostly clean with a little bit of melted chocolate, probably with a couple teeny tiny pieces of fully cooked brownie attached.  If your toothpick just sinks right in, give it another minute or two.  

These really are SO good, and SO easy.  Isn't that everything anyone could ever want in a baked good?  Enjoy!

-Sadie 

Love your Other

Well, I think it's safe to say that I have an innate need to maintain this blog, though I've failed to do so, because without it, I end up torturing my Facebook friends with my endless ramblings about my family, my marriage, my pitiful domestic endeavors.  While I'm sure a quick update here and there is appreciated by all, blog-length entries are not what status updates are intended for...Although, you know what IS intended for blog-lenth entries?  Blogs!  So hello, blogosphere.  I've got stuff to say!

It's been a while since I started this little blog of mine.  My 4-month-old bundle of cute is now a 21-month-old bundle of possibly even cuter:

And life is a new adventure every single day, in a way I never could have imagined.

But my post today is going to focus on my marriage...I'm basically going to repost something I posted on Facebook today, because it's what inspired me to check back in on this blog.  It was a ridiculously long post.  I do that a lot.  I get riled up about things, ya see, and I just...

I have a lot of thoughts in my mind and my fingertips.

So I came across this today:

A well-circulated Pinterest craft that I made for my husband's birthday a couple of years ago. So nice to go back and read all the silly little things I came up with. They all still apply. I spent a long time pondering my "reasons" and I felt so grateful for him after I really sat there and thought about all the thing I appreciate about him. I'd recommend it to anyone, to just make a list of all the reasons our significant others make our world a better place. Sometimes they're wretched creatures but there's a reason we wake up everyday and decide that we want to continue to walk through life with them. It's a daily decision, and if we based it solely on the butterflies we get when they smile, then...well, let's just say some days you don't get butterflies when they smile. Sometimes you just have to remember that they put up with your shit, too. Or that they make you a better person, most days, because they know all your shortcomings and understand how to help you because they know how you work. Or sometimes you just have to make the decision based on the fact that you know it will get better because you will work together to make damn sure it will get better. Because you're partners. So to take a look at all the little things...It really opens your eyes from the haze of day to day, where human nature pushes you to focus on the bad. *deep breath* lol I'm just going through my memory box and feeling sentimental. I can also go on a rant right now about how tiny Amber Nora's hospital cap is...but I'll save that for another time ;]

Speaking of that hospital cap...It's truly tiny.  I mean ridiculously small.

But in all seriousness, I believe the thing that makes marriage work more than anything is conviction.  Some days it will be hard as Hell, and you'll start to imagine all the ways your life would be better if they WEREN'T in your life.  Chances are, you are wrong.  So you marry this person.  You make vows and promises, but of course you can't understand what your promises really mean.  You can't know how you will feel 2, 10, 50 years down the road.  You can't fathom how you and your other will change as people over the course of your marriage.  You may lose your beauty, your optimistic outlook...Your goals may change, your opinions may change.  Things that may be "why they married you".  Those things might go away.  All you can know is this person accepts you, has decided to walk through life with you.  And you accept them, and have decided to walk through life with them.  That's it.  That's what you've got.  So hold onto that, through the hard times.  Savor the good times, and hold onto those as well.  Because sometimes you will want to smother your other with a pillow.  You would regret it, I promise.

I'm no marriage guru.  I have only been married for two years and some change.  But I've already learned this lesson, seen it in action.  I've seen how hard it can be and I can only imagine what else life will throw at us.  But I'm lucky enough to have a husband who talks and, crucially, listens.  He is the one who has taught me what love is even when the butterflies are on vacation.  He's a wise one, that hubs of mine.  

So folks, that's all she wrote.  Enjoy your Tuesday and go give your other a little bit of lovin'.

-Sadie