LOVEZILLA

Brownie Points

Apr
22

Ooooh la la. A dainty dessert.

Mmmmm.

The original recipe for these brownie cookies is from PDX Food Love, but being the dainty little dessert gals we are, we had to change it up to make it more. We really make all the recipes for our blog and take the pictures ourselves. We got together the other day to make a few of the recipes for future posts. We don’t live THAT close to each other. We’re what my mother calls: ” G.U.’s” (geographically undesirable). Anyway, when we get together we try to make it count. These brownie cookies were yummy and almost so soft you couldn’t hold them….and so the brownie ice cream sandwich was born.

Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies

Makes 24 large cookies

You will need:

  • 8 ounces semi-sweet baker’s chocolate (don’t use chocolate chips! They have stuff like paraffin in them and aren’t as good).
  • 2 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 + 1/6 cups sugar (amount is weird because I halved the recipe, but it’s pretty easy to eyeball one half of a 1/3 cup scoop)
  • 1/2 tsp. real vanilla extract (again, use the real thing for true decadence)
  • 1/4 cups AP flour
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder

Start by melting the chopped chocolate and the butter in a heat-safe bowl in a double boiler (put the bowl over an inch of water in a pot. Try to get similar sizes so the bowl is pretty steady on top of the pot). Keep the temperature on medium low – ideally this will go pretty slowly so no burning takes place.

While the chocolate is melting, use a whisk to mix together the sugar, eggs and vanilla separately. When the chocolate and butter have melted into a smooth liquid, take it off the heat, and temper with the egg by adding a teensy bit of chocolate to the egg at a time, so you don’t get chunks of cooked egg. Eventually you will be able to just add the rest of the chocolate. Be careful – the bowl will probably still be warm.

Stir in the flour and baking powder, and drop onto cookie sheets with either parchment or silicone baking mats (don’t skip this on these cookies). I would also do no more than 6 to a sheet, because they do spread quite a bit. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees, and allow to cool on the tray, ideally set on a baking rack.

While the cookies were cooling, we allowed some vanilla ice cream to soften a bit. When it’s soft enough to handle, scoop out a chunk and form it to fit the cookies. Truthfully we put a plastic bag on our hands and formed the ice cream to fit the cookie. Wrap each cookie in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. You could even roll the edges in sprinkles to make them fun for a party. Peppermint,cherry chocolate,chocolate chip, orange sherbet. Go nuts…. Mmmmm. Nuts. Those would be good too.

* Makes 12 ice cream sandwiches

 

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POW! BANG! BAM!

Apr
17

BOOM, BOOM, POW! How do you like me now? We were first introduced to the marshmallow gun in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we paid $12.00 only to realize, that even anti-crafties could make one. We took it apart, measured the pieces of PVC sprinkler pipe and made twenty, (not a typo), twenty more. My oldest daughters had all out wars with the neighborhood boys who soon learned that a girl wearing a hoodie sweatshirt (to protect their hair from the dreaded “moistmallow”), could beat them anytime, anyplace. I have fond memories of them coming in the house breathless from a neighborhood chase, their sweatshirts speckled with circles of marshmallow dust.

Although a grass full of marshmallows isn’t always my favorite thing, they do disappear when your sprinklers go on. I shudder to think of the sheer number of marshmallows my dogs have consumed via the M-Gun.

If you’re up to the challenge, you will need:

  • One 17 inch long piece of 3/4″ pvc pipe. (Sprinkler section of a Home Improvement store)
  • One “t” shaped 2 1/2″ connector
  • One end cap
  • Two elbow shaped connectors (our say D2466 on the side)

Using a small saw or sprinkler cutter, mark and cut the pipe into the following pieces:

  • One 3″ piece
  • One 8″ piece
  • One 3 1/2″ piece
  • One 2″ piece

Hook them together as shown. We decorated them with colored duct tape, but spray paint would be great because the fit would be tighter. Make two different colors and have teams for a fun summer night activity, birthday party or youth activity. We’ve lent ours to friends a hundred times. Make one and try it out. Hard short breaths are the best!

Get your hoodie on.

 

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Salon Party

Feb
15

Two down, one to go.  My first and youngest children’s birthdays are eight days apart, so when it comes to celebrating, it gets crazy around here.  Thankfully, I have until March till the next one.  Anyway, back to the party. My oldest daughter wanted to have a Salon Party.  To make it a little more fun, we had the girls come in their pajamas.  

I had four different stations set up.  One for nails, one for friendship bracelets, and the others for bling strands and hair styling. Gratefully, I have two friends that know how to put in color strands and can also do hair.

I purchased colored hair styling glue and strands at a beauty supply store.  All the girls had a blast with it!  As the girls waited to get their hair done, they painted their nails and made  Friendship Bracelets we have shared on our site.

 

Now in the interest of honesty, I’ll share with you my highs and lows.  I was “attempting” to make a zebra cake that I had seen on Pinterest. I assumed I knew everything about how to make the cake by simply looking at the picture and NOT reading the instructions, I just “went for it”.  I was, of course, on a time crunch. Failure? No.  Looked like a zebra?  Sort of.

Luckily, children are VERY forgiving when it comes to cake. They thought it looked like a Zebra.  I’m assuming none of them have been on Pinterest lately.( Or maybe even seen a real zebra.)

 

Now onto the high.  I ended up decorating the cake and cupcakes with an easy Jello frosting recipe that only has four ingredients.  Coleen posted this icing on her blog.  It was AMAZING.  It was YUMMY. It was WORKABLE and I LOVED it!  The cake was white vanilla and dark fudge chocolate so I used a strawberry Jello.  I will defiantly be using this again.  You can access that recipe by clicking here.  You will be happy you did!

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A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Shoes!

Jan
24

 

 

I was invited to a baby shower in our neighborhood and went shopping for a little girl. I always start looking at baby shoes.  They’re so cute and tiny (and impractical). They only fit for 10-15 minutes, but I have a weakness.  I personally LOVE shoes.  I believe the saying that “a girl can never have too many”.  It might be because I’m not a size 8, but my shoes are always a size 8.  They never get any bigger even if I do.  Anyway, I couldn’t decide so I bought 3 pair.  I tied them to a long ribbon with about 6 inches in between each pair, and put them all into a box. Next, I put a card on top of the box that said: “A girl can never have too many shoes.”  I tied the box with ribbon and left part of the ribbon hanging out of the box.  It  had a tag on the end that said: “PULL” .  When you pulled the string, three pairs of shoes came out one by one.

I have been informed that this will be the present for all the new little girls in the neighborhood.  It would be just as easy to put little some boy shoes or boots in a box and say: “You’re never too young for style “. Anyway, it was  simple to make and turned out darling.  It could be made inexpensively or you could spend more money if you wanted to do.

Try it and let us know how it worked for you.

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Tangled Birthday Party

Jan
23

Phew!  It’s over!  This has been the biggest, behind the scene birthday party to date.  If you want more information leave a comment and I will bore give you more detail.

This tower is 21 donuts high.  When all was said and done it ended up being around 3 feet 7 inches tall.  The kids couldn’t believe it.  I placed it on my island for dramatic purposes.  It truly “towered” over them!

 

To try to maintain some order,  I had three different stations set up.  Two were games, one was a craft.  We rotated the kids between stations to keep them engaged.  I bought several small items as prizes for the games.  They got to choose between: pencils, bouncy balls, bubbles, play dough, bracelets, erasers, stickers and finger puppets.

The first game was a “Pin the Pan on Flynn”.  We blindfolded the kids with a sleeping mask and had them try to pan Flynn in the face.

The “Maximus Apple Toss” was next.  Can you see how cute the apple bean bags are?  Sending a shout out to my friend Debra for hooking me up with those.  (Learning to sew is on my Resolution list)

 

The last station was the lantern craft.  All you need is heavyweight construction paper, scissors, crayons and stickers.  They are so simple.  Fold the construction paper in half.  Cut, (starting at the fold) across the paper stopping about an inch before the edge. There were roughly 5 to 6 evenly spaced lines per paper.   I had the kids decorate the lanterns with sticker and crayons.  Didn’t they turn out cute?  The kids absolutely loved them!

 

I placed a paint set (Remember Rapunzel was a painter) in sacks for the kids.   I used a mailing label to stick on the paints, thanking the kids for coming to the party.  They placed all their prizes, the coloring page and donut remainders in their sack to spare us from the whines of who’s prize was who’s.

All the kids had a blast.  I am tired, but luckily it’s a family tradition to go out to dinner to a place of the birthday person’s choice.

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