I've finally settled in for the evening after a very busy weekend, two busy workdays, an evening full of household chores, and a brownie-baking session. Oh, brownies, how I love you! Not one to let brownies cool untested, I just had my favorite treat: a big brownie in a cup of milk. I think I started eating brownies this way when I was 5....the only difference now is that I use soy milk. I've posted my brownie recipe at the end of this post. It's the recipe that I grew up on. Resist the boxed brownie mix! Brownies are super-quick and easy. Also, homemade is best-made (ha ha! I just made that up! Brownies make me witty!).
On to my consolidated report of the past few days...
Friday
I knew that Stephanie of Little Birds was posting stuff to her Etsy shop Friday morning, but I didn't think that I'd be the recipient of a stuffed item! Porkchop somehow snagged this little feller:
So cute! Dying of cuteness! Can't wait until it arrives!! [Disclaimer: this photo is from the Little Bird's Etsy shop.]
Porkchop had to work Friday night (stupid Fright Fest!), but J and I browsed through a couple of shops on Grand (including The Future Antiques) and dined at Sameem's. Afterwards, we stopped by Absolutli Goosed and enjoyed a couple of very frou-frou, very yummy martinis.
Saturday
After picking up a pumpkin crêpe at the Tower Grove farmers market, J and I were off to the Purina Dog Challenge. Purina has an educational/research facility located not too far outside of St. Louis. Now, I'm not fond of international conglomerations like Nestlé (which owns Purina), but darn! The dog challenge was awesome!
We saw the agility competition, the diving competition (like a long jump over water), the head-to-head 60 pole weave race, and the freestyle frisbee competition (frisbee: check. choreographed routine set to music: check. neoprene body suit so that the human is protected during body vaults: check. Crazy!). We also saw....now, a couple of my readers in particular might want to sit down while reading this....we saw Cindy the greyhound break her previous Guinness Book record by doing a 68-inch high jump! That is really high! Also, greyhound! Greyhounds are crazy (in a good way, I mean).
Anyway, I saw lots of dogs on Saturday. All shapes and sizes. Lots of slobbering.
After dinner Saturday night, J and I worked on some projects using my bag o'felted sweaters. I helped J make a scarf and a matching bag. Meanwhile, I finished my green scarf project by stitching it up with blue thread and adding some decorative stitching. I like it. Here's a pic, but note that this picture doesn't show off the scarf's pointiness very well. The scarf is very pointy.
Sunday
J, Porkchop, and I had brunch at Square One Brewery. Super-yum! I had the seafood omelet, which was fanTAStic.
In the afternoon, J and I went to the Shaw neighborhood art fair. The setting was really nice - the vendors were set up on a boulevard near the botanical gardens in the historic Shaw neighborhood. However, I found the art fair to be mostly ho-hum. I was really only excited by one booth: this lady, from Madison. I saw a few other vendors whose art I recognized from Madison....made me miss living there.
I also saw a vendor who was selling some scarves and ponchos made out of recycled clothing. The artist obviously used a serger, which made me a bit envious.
The Rest
Work was super-busy yesterday and today. Busy in a good way...I feel like I've accomplished things. Last week, I was primarily proofreading and copy-editing a horribly written 3-part, 200-page report. The area between my thumb and index finger became bruised from marking up the copy so much. Blech. So, anyway, last week kind of put me in a foul mood.
The Brownie Recipe
Here it is....my favorite brownie recipe!
3/4 cup butter, melted (only butter! no margarine!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup unsifted flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend melted butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well with a spoon. Combine other ingredients together and gradually add to wet mixture until well blended. Spread in greased 8" square pan. Bake at 350 for around 40 minutes (or until browned and starting to pull away from pan).
It doesn't get any easier than that, folks. Enjoy with milk, ice cream, coffee, tea, red wine, beer, or alone.
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