little bit of heaven brownies

Make these. You'll thank me.

When my sister was pregnant with her daughter, we had a baby shower for which I made these brownies.  One of the guests took a bite of hers and declared, "Well, that right there is a little bit of heaven," and since then, that's always how I've thought of these brownies--a little bit of heaven.

They are brownie.  They are chocolate.  They are caramel.  They are divine.  Hungry yet?

Little Bit of Heaven Brownies:

1 box chocolate cake mix (the recipe I have calls for German Chocolate, but any kind of chocolate will do.)
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
Approximately 50 caramels
1 cup chocolate chips (I like semi-sweet, but you can pick your favorite.)

1.  Find a child with nothing to do.  Enlist her help unwrapping all the caramels into a small sauce pan.

2.  While the caramels are being unwrapped, place the butter in a medium-sized bowl and melt it in the microwave it.  (You could of course use softened butter instead of melted, but that would require remembering to get the butter out ahead of time.)

3.  Add 1/3 cup evaporated milk and the chocolate cake mix to the butter.

4.  Mix together with a spoon.

5.  Place half the batter in a 9x13 baking dish, which has been previously prepared either with butter and flour, or baking spray.  Spread evenly along the bottom of the dish.

6.  Bake batter in the dish at 350 degrees for approximately 7 minutes.

7.  While the bottom half of the batter is baking, add 1/3 cup evaporated milk to the unwrapped caramels.

8.  Heat caramels over medium heat until smooth (it will probably boil.)

9.  When the bottom layer of brownie is out of the oven, sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips on top, and then pour the melted caramel on top of those.

 10.  Spoon the remaining batter on top of the caramel.

11.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  When you pull it out, batter will still be a little wobbly, but don't worry about it.

12.  Refrigerate for 1 hour, during which time it will solidify.

Serve in small portions because this stuff is rich (and that will leave more for you!!)

Linked to:

homemade french bread

This recipe comes to you from my gorgeous Guatemalan friend, Luisa, who is a cooking/crafting/do-it-yourself-er extraordinaire, but unfortunately, her blog is also her family blog, and so it's private.  So, I hope she won't mind if I share with you her (mother-in-law's) recipe for homemade french bread because I think it's something everyone should have!!

**Read through the whole recipe first before you start.  It takes roughly two hours start to finish, so bear that in mind when making this.**

Homemade French Bread: (2 loaves)

2-1/2 cups very warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 pkgs or 4 tsp dry yeast
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp cooking oil
6 cups white flour
Sesame or poppy seeds (optional)
1 egg
corn starch

1.  In 1 cup warm water (warm enough for a child's bath--not yours!  You don't want to scorch your yeast, just make it feel all snugly and warm,) add the yeast and allow it to begin percolating.

2.  Meanwhile, run a large mixing bowl under warm water and then measure out your sugar, salt, oil, and 3 cups of flour into the bowl.

3.  Add the yeasty water plus the other 1-1/2 cups warm water and mix. 

4.  Slowly add the other 3 cups flour, mixing between each cup added.  By the end of this step, I usually knead with my hands rather than mixing with a spoon, but whatever you want is fine. (**This recipe works really well at a high altitude, so those of you living in lower altitudes than Utah might want to stop with just 5 to 5-1/2 cups flour total.)

5.  Let dough rise for 10 minutes and then stir or knead it back down (even if it doesn't appear to have risen much.)  Repeat this step four times.

6.  Divide the dough in two parts and place one on a lightly floured surface, leaving the other in the bowl for now.

7.  Roll the dough on the counter into a rectangle approximately 9" by 12".

8.  Roll up the dough jelly roll style and pinch the ends closed.

9.  Place on a baking sheet sprinkled with corn starch.

10.  Make the other loaf in the same manner.

11.  Allow the dough to rise uncovered for 30 minutes.

12.  Using a sharp knife, make 3 shallow diagonal slices in the top of each loaf.

13.  Brush the loaves with a slightly beaten whole egg, and then sprinkle with poppy/sesame seeds, if you would like.  The heavier you brush on the egg, the crustier the top of your loaf will be.

 (We like the top fairly soft, so we brush the egg on fairly lightly.  We also like to make one loaf without seeds.)

14.  Bake immediately in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy your beautiful, delicious homemade french bread.  Thanks, Luisa!!

This ends up being a lot of bread for our family, so we usually have it as a side dish with something like spaghetti or chicken casserole.  Then, the next day I usually slice it thinly and make mini-pizzas for the trouble-makers' lunch.  It can also be sliced across the middle and made into garlic bread (grocery store style.)

Any other french bread ideas out there?  I'd love to hear them!

christmas scent

Some of my favorite things about this season are the smells!  Cinnamon, citrus, pies baking, candies being made . . . oh, darn it!  Now I have to clean the drool out of my keyboard!!

I love to have the scent of Christmas in the house even on days when my projects include less fragrant things, like sewing, cleaning, or dejunking in preparation for more junk crap stuff.  So, I like to make up some Christmas Scent and let it fill the house.

There are several variations of this, most of them are close to the same, but here is my version:

Christmas Scent:
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
4 cinnamon sticks
4 bay leaves
2 tablespoons whole cloves
4 cups water

First, slice up your lemon:

and orange.

Then, add the bay leaves (they don't have to be organic, but that was the only bottle I could find with whole bay leaves in it.)

What the . . . ?  Why would they include a sprinkling strainer on a bottle of whole bay leaves?

Anyway, add your bay leaves:

Now, add 2 tablespoons of whole cloves, once again with a sprinkling strainer that can't possibly do anything but tease you with the smell of what's inside!

Last, pull out 4 sticks of cinnamon:

Finally!  A reasonable lid!

Throw all the ingredients into a crock pot:

Add 4 cups of water:

Turn your crock pot on low:

And enjoy the scent that will fill your home!

This same pot of ingredients can be used again and again.  You just have to put them in the fridge when they're not being heated to avoid molding (because that's not a good smell!)

As you heat the mixture, the water will evaporate.  I like to just throw the lid on to help slow that process:

It'll stifle the smell a little bit, but with four little troublemakers running around, I tend to forget to check the water levels. 

When the water level gets low, just add more water and keep enjoying the scent!

Feel free to throw all the dry ingredients in a jar with the directions, and give these away as gifts to teachers, neighbors, and friends.