Sum-sum-summertime!! ..... and chocolate.

Summer may not be here yet on the calendar, but it's definitely here in spirit. And weather. And I love it! I've probably said this before, but ..... I love having the doors and windows open and breezes freshening up the house. I love driving with the sunroof open. I love going barefoot. I love the smell of freshly-mown grass, and blooming flowers and coming rainstorms. I love brighter colors after winter's duller and darker neutrals. I love sleeping with just a sheet and the ceiling fan running. I love lemonade and milkshakes and homemade ice cream. And I totally don't understand why we don't think of making homemade ice cream in the wintertime-- it's not like it couldn't happen then.

So, a week ago, school let out for the summer. My mother used to dread school vacations. I remember she would sign me up for summer school, just to get me "out of her hair". I didn't think I was that difficult a child, but Mom surely wasn't a fan of having me "underfoot." I am rather a polar opposite, because I love having the kids home and NO SCHEDULE during vacations! It makes me really happy!

So, when our local church youth leaders asked if they could use our back yard for a water play activity on the last day of school, I was all for it! I love the youth, and love having them here. We set up the volleyball net for them, and Todd actually had several from his Sunday School class come early for a pizza party. Todd has often told them about how amazingly-good pizza is when it's got the smokey flavor of being cooked on the pellet grill, so this was their chance to sample it. That's the only way we cook pizza anymore: outdoors, on the grill. It comes out with the crust a bit more crusty and the cheese takes on the smokey flavor --mmmmm-- so good!! Like it was cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven.

Then, it was game on, with all the teenagers! They used the volleyball net to create a Water Balloon Battleship game. I think you can figure out how that works!

One side would load up on water balloons,

And the other side would line up for the barrage:

But of course, the game changed into an all-out water fight ....

(Which, I'm so glad their leaders had figured that into their plans. Can you imagine how dull it would have gotten if the water fight part hadn't been allowed?)

I didn't get a lot of "great" pictures. I need to practice more with action shots in late afternoon light. I should really have everyone come over again for a rematch, just so I can practice with the camera!

After the water fight, the kids played some regular volleyball, and ate the yummy treats that everyone brought.

I think the kids enjoyed it a lot, it was a great school-end activity, friendships were strengthened, and their leaders were smart to have something for them that was just for FUN.

There were a little over 30 kids here that evening, and many of those were some of my former and current Seminary students, and also some of the new ones that will be in my class this coming fall. I love my Seminary kids so much!!

So, also that day, I decided to make some brownies to add to the table of treats for the kids. I've been trying to be careful lately on what I've been eating (more on that in an upcoming post), so I haven't done a whole lot of baking. But, sometimes, I just need to bake something!!

So this is my go-to recipe for when I decide to make brownies from SCRATCH. Most of the time, I'm all about a boxed brownie mix. In fact, that's so convenient, that when we've gone camping, I often bring brownie mix to make while we're gone. I take the bag of mix out of the box, and write the eggs/oil/water on the bag with a Sharpie marker, along with the baking time and temperature.

But if I want to feel like a Holly Homemaker, I make them from scratch. 

The original recipe calls for chopped nuts instead of chocolate chips. And while I love nuts, I am not a fan of nuts IN things. I like them on the side. Coated in cinnmony-sugary goodness. (That's another recipe post for another time.) I also like them spiced. Or roasted and salted. Or honey-roasted. Just don't (generally) put nuts IN things. Like cookies, or brownies. Unless the nuts are the whole point -- like pecan tassies or something.

So, yes.  I totally use chocolate chips instead of nuts. But if you're in the "love nuts in brownies" camp, go ahead and knock yourself out.

Here we go......

First, I've changed to always using a glass baking dish for brownies. Probably because I was tired of warning people not to use a sharp knife in my "good" non-stick baking pans. Even when I provided a plastic knife to serve them, somehow my non-stick pans were always getting scratched. This way, I stay happy! Baking times change a little, so check the recipe closely.

Start with the REAL butter, and please don't fudge and use margarine for this one. 20 years ago, I would have used margarine, but today's margarine has so much water and air in it, it's not even close to the same as butter for baking purposes. So, I put the butter and the baking chocolate in the mixing bowl and microwave it to melt it. Butter melts faster than chocolate,so you have to watch it, and stir it a little.

You don't have to wait for the chocolate to melt all the way, because it will finish melting as you stir it with the hot butter. When it's all melted and smooth, it looks like this:

Some how, a wooden spoon just seems "right" to use with this recipe.

Then add the sugar ....

When you mix in the sugar, it takes on a gritty look. Which is probably a help when you add in ...

... the eggs (and vanilla). The grit of the sugar helps the eggs incorporate better. And actually, I think the addition of the sugar helps temper the butter/chocolate mixture a bit, so that the eggs don't scramble on contact.

This is that chocolate chip part ....

Well, after the flour, that is. Flour, and THEN the chocolate chips. Anticipation of chocolate is probably at work in my brain, here.

By the way, going off topic here for just a moment..... Have you seen this product, or am I the only one who didn't know about these things:

These baking melts are kind of like big, fat, flat chocolate chips. I debated putting them in with this batch of brownies, but decided not to do it this time. (Which is fine, because these brownies don't need them at all.)

HOWEVER. In the last two batches of chocolate chip cookies I've made (both batches for other people, and one went to Cameron at college), .... I have used these, and they're REALLY good in the cookies! I don't mix them into the cookie dough, but I've taken one of them and embedded it into each of the dough mounds on the cookie sheets. So every cookie gets one of these babies inside it.

Oh. My. Goodness. Seriously, good stuff right there! Where have these things been all my life??

Anyway.

Back to the brownies! Mix it all up,

And put it into a GREASED baking dish. 

I totally thought I had greased my dish well enough (I use baking spray), but when Todd cut these brownies, he said he had a big problem with them sticking. So my takeaway lesson is: don't forget the grease, and be generous with it.

And don't forget to let the five-year-old lick the spoon, either!

I always thought my mom was the coolest for letting me lick spoons or bowls or beaters!  This is my way of being the cool mom. I admire mothers who are totally into healthy eating constantly. That's just not me, though.

Anyway ---- Then bake!

After you ignore the dirty stovetop, please note that these brownies were just a bit too underdone. But better underdone than overdone, when we're talking about brownies, here!

Not finished with these yet, but here's the recipe with exact ingredient amounts for you:


One Bowl Brownies

4 squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Microwave chocolate and butter in a large bowl on HIGH power for 2 minutes, or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Stir sugar into melted chocolate mixture. Mix in eggs and vanilla until well blended. Stir in flour and chocolate chips. Spread in a 9x13-inch glass baking dish.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out with fudgy crumbs. Do not overbake.
Cool in pan. Frost if desired. Cut into squares. About 24 brownies.

(When using a metal baking pan, increase oven temperature to 350 degrees.)


So, to me, brownies always need something to "finish" them. Usually, that's frosting. And sprinkles. Once, I tried just dusting them with powdered sugar. I thought it was great -- not as decadent, but still good -- but the family sure didn't go for them like that. Guess who ended up eating most of that batch? You got it.

So, I usually use canned frosting (for convenience sake) to frost the brownies, and I top that with sprinkles of varying kinds. And that's what I did for this batch, too, because I ran out of time to make frosting from scratch as well. (Sorry, no finished photos. Ran out of time for THAT, too!!)

BUT, if I were to make frosting for brownies -- THIS is the recipe I use:

Glossy Chocolate Frosting

3 tablespoons shortening
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Microwave shortening and chocolate until melted. Stir in remaining ingredients, beat until smooth. Place bowl of frosting in a bowl of ice and water; continue beating until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency. Perfect amount for a batch of brownies. Ok, and if you're really all that into nuts, you could totally put in 1/2 cup of finely chopped nuts. But I didn't tell you that.

I have also substituted cocoa and butter for the squares of chocolate in this frosting, and it worked just fine. 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon butter or shortening = 1 square of baking chocolate.

Whew!! This was a really long post. Probably should have divided it, but too late now! And, you probably are craving some chocolate by now. If not, you should go re-read this until you do!

Minute to Win It

Recently, the youth in Alyssa's class in our ward at church agreed that it would be fun to have weekend parties for playing games together. After a kick-off that was a birthday party, they moved on, and this weekend, Alyssa volunteered to host a party at our house.

Alys did some research to find some Minute to Win It games, and here's some of what she came up with, in no particular order:

First.... ping pong basketball. The backboards are clipboards attached to the kids' belts. Their teammate had to use ping pong balls to hit the backboard and [hopefully] get as many ping pong balls into the "baskets" as they could (we used ice cream buckets, but wastebaskets would be better because they're deeper.) Those with the clipboard could help maneuver them, although it didn't seem to make much difference!!
Another game used a popsicle stick in the mouth, and stacking 6 dice on the popsicle stick -- and had to hold for at least 3 seconds. Not bad, not bad.......

The really challenging game: "Glass Road Truckers". In only 60 seconds, they had to stand 8 bottles and a drinking glass in a row, upside down, with a shot glass on top of the drinking glass. And THEN they had to blow a ping pong ball across this line, and into the shot glass at the end. It was definitely not easy!!

(We used Jarritos bottles: it's a made-in-Mexico soda that we made the kids hurry and drink so we could use their bottles!) But after taking a long time for setup, Darcie managed to get her ping pong ball in with only one try! Showoff!!

And finally, it's not a game night at our house without a rousing game of "States". I can't believe I haven't already explained this. Disclaimer: this one can get a bit violent........

For this game, each person chooses a state for themselves. (Up to 50 could play, but it gets a bit difficult with more than 25, really.) One person - the hitter - stands in the middle with a rolled-up newspaper. The object is NOT to get hit with the newspaper. So when someone calls your state name, you must call another state before the hitter nails you with the newspaper. If you call the name of another state, then the hitter can hit THEM. If you don't call another state before they hit you, then you're up. You become the new hitter and the previous hitter sits down in your place. It's a lot of fun:

Other extenuating rules:

You must speak up: no whispering a state name.

If you call the state of the person who IS the hitter, they can hit you and you're up.

If you call a state that's not being used, the hitter can hit you and you're up.

Once you as a hitter get to sit down..... you MUST call the name of a state before you sit. Otherwise, the new hitter can immediately hit you, and you're up again.

Hit only the knees of the person, and not excessively. It IS a game.

Some strategy does come in to play, like when the two players continually call each other's state, or when everyone agrees that Someone needs a turn in the middle, so they all call his state, no matter who he calls.

The game is over when the newspaper is shredded to bits and completely unusable. Whenever the extended Huffakers get together, we try to include States sometime during the gathering. In fact, Brandon mentioned that he recently taught the game to some Jamaicans, and I believe they rather enjoyed it!! (Be sure you're reading his blog for updates.... he only has FOUR MONTHS left! http://www.huffakermission.blogspot.com/ )

The kids had fun at Alyssa's party.... and next weekend, I believe they already have one scheduled. At someone ELSE'S house!