Shortbread Brownies

I made these brownies for the brunch I went to the other day. You know, something light and brunch-y, like dark chocolate brownies with shortbread.

A brownie is just not enough, now it needs to have a shortbread crust.

It's a Better Homes and Gardens Recipe (printable version here) and it would be really easy and fast... unless your a scatterbrained mess like me.



Preheat your oven to 350. Line 9x9x2 inch baking pan with foil with the foil coming out over the sides. You're going to use that as handles to lift the bars out later.

In a bowl mix 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.



Of course, I couldn't find my pastry blender (and didn't think about my mixer or food processor) and used both a potato masher (really?!) and my fingers.

Stir in 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips.

Actually, I just chopped up some regular chip. I didn't read the directions carefully and added 3 times the correct amount of chips.



Press it all into the pan and bake for about 8 minutes.



In a large bowl combine 1 1/3 granulated sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt.

I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa... so glad to finally have it in the stores around here.

Add 3 eggs, 1/3 cup melted butter and 1 tbs vanilla. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate pieces and spread over crust.

This is when I realized that we only had 1 egg. It was 10 pm the night before the brunch and I was tired. So I went to bed and decided to finish the brownies in the morning.



I neglected to take anymore pictures but B got up and went to the store. I mixed the remaining ingredients and poured it over the crust.

Only I forgot to add the chocolate chips, so I just threw some on top of the batter.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

At this point I went to pull the brownies out and realized.... the oven wasn't on.



Eventually the brownies were completed and despite my spastic recipe making they turned out really good. I might change up the recipe next time and do regular cocoa with dark chocolate chips. Tons of possibilities.



Careful though, eat too many of these and you'll end up with fat sausage fingers, dimples instead of knuckles and rubberband wrists!

The dark side of Peanut

I call this picture "I missed my nap".

I'll be honest, he doesn't really cry much.

When he does it's either time to eat or time to nap and a bit when he was sick.

Oh but he gets frustrated. Life as a baby can be quite frustrating, you know.

Lots of issues to sort thru.

Those first several months can be intense. This was taken last month...


You know, on the day the kid turned 3 months old he actually glared at me.

I was trying to get him to take his binky before we got in the car. I stuck it in his mouth and he pushed it out. I stuck it back in. He pushed it back out.

I stuck it back in and the Peanut pushed it out of his mouth as he gave a frustrated grunt and glared directly at me.

Both my parents witnessed it. They can testify that it was a deliberate I don't want that!

Clearly, I should pay more attention.

God help us.

Domain Disaster

This picture is exactly what I feel like doing. A series of stupid mistakes and I've ended up without the spontaneousclapping.com domain name.

I purchased the domain name last year and it was set up for recurring yearly payment. I had forgotten that my account changed when I got married so the payment was declined.

Go daddy apparently tried to give me a heads up by sending me offers for discounts on buying domain names. When I clicked on the links they reminded me that I had a renewal coming up. Logging into my account I checked to make sure it would automatically be paid.

I was getting so many go daddy offers this past year that I flagged the offers emails to spam.

Today I got a different email from service@godaddy. This wasn't an offer so it didn't go to spam. It was a cancellation notice.

I called them immediately and they very nicely said that the renewal would not have shown up on my online account as having been declined.

Unfortunately, spontaneousclapping.com was on backorder and was released immediately to someone else.

So here I am.

I could cry.

Now when you search google for a past post you get... nothing! I can't believe someone was waiting for spontaneousclapping.com. Does that seem odd to you?

I can't believe I forgot it was linked to my old account.

I see that I can pay $70 plus commission to have them go to the current holder of the domain name and have them negotiate a price to sell it back to me. So whatever the current holder deems the proper amount, plus a commission amount, plus the $70.

What a load.

I'm totally babbling. Anyway, I'm still here!

You can find me at spontaneousclapping.blogspot.com

I'm trying to spread the word so I don't lose touch with all my friends, family, followers and lurkers!

Sorry for all the confusion, I don't even really know what the next step is.

I have a headache.

Photo Album Envy

The very first time B brought me home to his parents he showed me these photo albums. Ever since then I have wanted a collection just like it.



B's mom started the first album on her honeymoon in Mexico in 1965.



Under the pictures are brief explanations of where the pictures were taken, who is in them and the date.



Love this shot from their 1st anniversary.

Both of them are fantastic at getting pictures of people. I tend to bring my camera to functions, get some starting shots and then forget about it. I need to spend more time getting pictures of people and not just the food!



Here is little B at 4 months old- the same age as Peanut.

I love looking back thru these at family and friends, different places, the change in photos and the change in fashion.

Every time I pull one out I hear stories and memories and their are sighs and laughter to go along with them.



All the albums are numbered and in order. On the other side of the partition are special albums. I just recently found out these exist and haven't been through them yet.

For instance, each of the grand kids have one.

An entire family history.



So I vowed to start printing my pictures monthly because I have a tendency to just leave them on memory cards. I've also noticed that when I order pictures they come out of order which is a hassle to reorganize if I get too far behind.

You know, it wasn't that easy to find a large picture album. Everything is about scrapbooking these days.



I have albums started from the time I found out I was pregnant and I'm hoping I can get photo books done of the wedding and the honeymoon.

Have the blog really helped me get organzized for this. I love having an online journal.



I just need to go back and add in some dates and descriptions and we are on our way to our own family history!

Oh and I need to stop taking 500 pictures a day of the same subject. :)

Do you print out your pictures? Do you put them in albums? Do you scrapbook?

Bathtime bunny

My internet is painfully slow tonight. I just can't be bothered waiting 10 hours to upload pictures and put together my intended post.

So I leave you with a little glimpse of our freshly bathed boy. I tried not to hover as daddy took over bathtime.

Looks to me like Peanut is pretty darn relaxed.



I looooooove the smell of fresh, clean baby.

The Mustache

I just pulled this picture of B off of my phone. It was taken July 28th, 2007.

Some of you have already read the story behind this picture but if you haven't you can read it HERE!

It's a little weird but then again, a lot of my stories are.

Brunch with the babies

Peanut and I had brunch with some friends on Sunday. It was the first time I had seen these babies and the first tme I had seen some of the ladies since high school.



Guess what this is. It's a yoga mat! What a cute present!

Doesn't that picture just make you melt?



There really isn't anything special about this picture, it's just that it's so funny to me. How is it possible that we're all married with children?

We just couldn't believe it. A lot has changed since high school.



Aiden shared some of his most prized posessions with his new friend, Samantha.



When we were about to serve brunch I noticed him licking chocolate crumbs off his fingers and it made me laugh. I looked around to see what he had gotten into but noticed there wasn't anything that could have produced crumbs.

That's when I realized it was dirt from the back yard.

I love boys. Seriously.



The babies were getting passed around so much that you can't even tell who belongs to who. This babe Ryan and Aiden are brothers and can you believe that they were exactly the same birth weight and length when they were born?



Such a sweet picture of Angie and her daughter.



Peanut was on his best behavior and eventually I put him down and he took a short nap.



Mia has the most beautiful skin and just look at all that hair. She was born with a full head of luscious black hair.



I also love this picture of Auntie Jen. The light was shining on them thru the window and they looked so cozy.



This is Erica, she's 5 months pregnant and if you didn't see her bump you would never know it. Peanut just loved her. I can't wait to meet her little girl.



Here is a before and after shot. What a difference 4 1/2 months can make!

I believe that the other two are 5 days apart? I may be wrong but they are about 5-6 weeks younger then Peanut.



I thing between the 3 moms we must've snapped at least a hundred photos in a matter of minutes. You know how it is trying to catch a picture with 3 babies in it.

I think all the commotion made Mia go cross-eyed. I was laughing so hard I barely got a picture.



My son is huge. He is big and solid and surprisingly not very soft or rolly considering how heavy he is.

He's been nicknamed Moose because he is so big.

I love how Ryan has his armed draped over Mia and Peanut has his hand on her leg.



I ended up spending most of the day there and we had a great time!