Brownies again...and an award!

Homemade Super Rich Chocolate Brownies w/ Walnuts and Pretzels!

It seems like every time we are due to get any bad weather or anything severe I want Brownies. Maybe these have become my comfort food? This time it was Hurricane Ike.


I know, I know we weren't even suppose to really get anything bad from it but it was out there and it was within 200 miles of us!!! Was I really just looking for an excuse??? Now in my defense we have had a lot of flooding due to heavy rains. Lots of wind with gust up to 40 miles an hour but nothing like having a huge storm pummel you head on...my prayers go out to the people in Ike's path.

Anyway. I made Brownies again. This time I added some walnuts and some pretzels (trying for that salty/sweet thing). I only had pretzel thins though and they got a bit soggy before it cooked up so use the regular size ones if you try this!

And this is how I ate my piece!!!

Homemade Super Rich Chocolate Brownies

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

I also stirred in 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup of crushed pretzels.

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter an 8″square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches hanging over the sides. Butter parchment paper.

In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, stir together butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Combine sugar, eggs, and vanilla using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Spread evenly with spatula. Bake about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet. Let cool in pan about 15 minutes.

Lift brownies out of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

This is a wonderful award that was passed on to me from Meryl's Musing which is a really fun blog filled with a little bit of everything. I am so truly honored every time that someone passes an award on to me. I love the validation that comes with it.

The rules are as follows:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (as shown above).

3) Nominate at least seven other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

So the ones that I am choosing are the ones that I read all of the time and have actually become "friends" with most of them.

Jenn - the left over queen
Peter at Kalofagas
Danni at On the Way to Critter Farm
Nuria at Spanish Recipes
Dharm at Dad~Baker and chef
Val at More Than Burnt Toast
and last but not least Brittany at Musings of a Barefoot Foodie

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Pasta, Salad and an Award!

I love blogging and food bloggers are turning out to be some of the best people anywhere. I guess maybe it's because we all share a common bond and are doing this because we have such a huge passion for it. Pretty sure none of us are being forced to do this?

That's why it is so incredible when you receive an award from one of your blogging friends. It's a form of validity...hey, someone really likes what I am doing! My sincere thanks go out to Val from More Than Burnt Toast for giving me this award. It came on the end of a pretty challenging time so it was doubly appreciated.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere.

Here are the rules to follow :

When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.

Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.

The hardest part about getting these awards is trying to come up with just a couple of names to pass this onto!

In no particular order:

Nikki - The Canarygirl
Robin at Caviar and Codfish
Jenn - The Left Over Queen
Heather at Gild the Voodoolily
Nuria at Spanish Recipes
Peter at Kalofagas
and last but not least Courtney at Coco Cooks

Thanks again Val!!!


Dinner last night was a thrown together meal of pasta and salad. The girl's are back in school today after their Hurricane Day on Tuesday which means homework and helping with the homework and redirecting to get them to do their homework etc... You get the idea. Homework is not the best time in our household. While my oldest daughter was doing hers I decided to make some of my favorite summer pasta dish. Pasta with Basil, Fresh Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic. This time though I just didn't feel like roasting the garlic so I minced it up and tossed it in with all of the other ingredients. It made the raw sauce taste even fresher than it did before if that was possible!

Pasta With Fresh Tomato, Garlic and Basil

8 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
3/4 lb ripe plum tomatoes (I just use whatever is tasting good right them)
1/3 C fresh basil (chopped)
1 Tbsp capers
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box of long thin pasta (angel hair, linguine, spaghetti)

Directions:

• Dice the tomatoes (if the have a ton of seeds squeeze them out).
• Add the garlic, basil, capers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Let stand for at least 20 minutes.
• Cook pasta.
• Mix sauce with pasta and serve warm or at room temperature. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served the pasta with a herb salad mix and this nice, light and well balanced salad dressing.


Todd English's Lemon Vinaigrette

Ingredients: 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 garlic clove minced 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage leaves (optional) 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional) 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:

• Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a jar. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Hamburgers?

Look at that great burger all dressed up!

Last night was another one of my crazy rushed night. The girls had an hour long skating lesson and then my oldest had Karate. Just when we had to leave the skating rink we ended up caught in the worst thunderstorm I had seen in a while...welcome to summer in Florida. Rains everyday, usually pretty heavy but not everywhere. I got caught in it at the rink but at my house we barely had a drop???!!!

When we finally did get home T. had dinner ready for us. We were just having hamburgers (made from organic, all natural, no hormones or antibiotic) but we had some leftover pico de gallo and guacamole from our tacos the night before so he piled ours high! T. had some grilled cubanelle peppers to go along with his.This was one of the best burgers I have had in a while!!!

I also received an award from Nikki at Canarygirl.com. Nikki has an incredible blog which she writes from the Canary Islands, Spain. How cool is that? Check out her blog! And thanks Nikki!

To pass this on I am going to just give it to 5 of my favorite bloggers. I don't have time to check and see if they already have it as I am trying to get out the door to take the girls to the movies!

Jenn at The Leftover Queen
Danni at On the Way to Critter Farm
Robin at Caviar and Codfish
Heather at Gild the Voodoolily
and last but not least Brittany at Musings of a Barefoot Foodie

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

My lovely, amazingly, incredible weekend!

All I had with me was my i Phone so the pics aren't great but this was the view from our suite. I was too lazy to even stand up and take it, so this is from my lounge chair!!!

Have I mentioned lately how awesome the man I married is??? On Mother's Day I got many, many great gifts from my girls and one really incredible awesome gift from my hubby! He got us a night away at the beautiful Sanibel Harbor Resort and Spa. Now, we all know that I could have called and made the hotel reservations myself right? That isn't really all that big of a deal. I plan all of our vacations but he went a huge step beyond. T. made arrangements for people to look after the girls while we were gone!!! To me this was huge. I am always the one who is arranging sitters and play dates etc., but this time he was definitely driving the bus.

Anyway, we could really only do one night but we made the most out of it. We dropped the kids off at their sleep over spots at about 2 on Saturday and we were on our way. Get this...about 30 minutes later we were at our destination!!! By 3:00 we were checked in and loving our beautiful suite with an incredible view of the Sanibel Causeway! 3:30 we were poolside with cocktail in hand. We had 7:30 reservations for dinner at the Courtside Steakhouse where T. had a big honkin steak and I had Black Grouper with a provencal sauce with added crab and shrimp. YUmmmmm!

Late afternoon view from the balcony!

Room service was on tap for breakfast. We figured with the view and all why go stand in line somewhere else. Event the room service menu is huge. I decided on an omelet with cheddar, tomatoes and spinach and T. went with Parma ham, brie and forest mushrooms. Oh and the incredible view...we watched dolphin and osprey while we were having our breakfast. It was truly and incredible place and a badly needed weekend away. We hung out around the pool until late afternoon and then went and picked up the girls (who each had so much fun that I don't think they even missed us!!).

Breakfast with a view!!!

Pretty cool hubby huh???

On another note: I won a drawing that my blog friend Pam from Life on A Southern Farm, held over the weekend!!! I Won, I Won!!! She makes these very cute stuffed creatures and she raffled 2 of them off. I am the proud winner of the GA. Bullfrog. Thanks a million Pam!!! If you haven't taken a peek at her blog head on over. I visit often because of the sense of peace I get from watching a much calmer and more peaceful life than the one I am living now!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Do you like what I'm wearing?

After almost 250 posts on this blog I am officially very tired of the color orange! I have changed my template to a very nice, but boring white and I am so much happier! I still have some work to do on it. I would like to figure out how to put a picture on it and all but that will have to wait...to many other things going on!

I also received an award today from Val at More than Burnt Toast. Val is a fellow Canadian who lives on the West Coast of Canada in British Columbia. She is probably one of the most supportive bloggers you will ever find. If you have a cause to support through blogging Val is your girl! Her recipes are bright and creative with excellent photography. Thanks again Val! Now the one thing that I have to do is to pass this on to 5 more bloggers that "make my day"! Should be easy right...not a chance. I visit anywhere from 20 to 30 blogs a day! Usually when I am waiting for the girls after school and killing my iPhone battery but this makes it very hard. Here are my 5 but please if your name is not there you still "make my day"! The only rules you guys have is that you need to pass it on to 5 more bloggers.

In no particular order:

Peter of Kalofagas - Greek Food and Beyond. Peter has become a great source of inspiration for my daily meals and boy does that come in handy. I hope to be able to meet up with him when I am in Toronto this summer.

Robin at Caviar to Codfish because I really related to how her blog has evolved. You may remember her as The Clumsy Cook but seeing as she was no longer that she changed her profile.

Jenn - The Leftover Queen for her friendship, inspiration and support! You really do make my day!

Heather of Gild the Voodoolily for just being herself and never trying to please anyone other that herself with what she does. Also she just plain and simple makes me laugh!

And last but not least Pam from Life on A Southern Farm - she has an incredible blog about life on a...did you get that...Southern Farm. It is about her past and her present with nice reflections and pictures that take me away to a much more calm and peaceful life. I like that!

Now onto something completely different. I have received quite a few comments about my girls not liking muffins. Yep I do agree that it is very weird but also a very positive thing for them. I have always been a little worried that they would develop really incredible sweet tooth because of the way that we have raised them. Some insight into this...my children eat a very small amount of prepared and pre-packaged food.

We do not have anything in our house that contains High Fructose Corn Syrup (sweetener of choice for almost all foods), they do not eat store bought treats except on rare occasions when we are out. Now what they do get though is cake, muffins, cookies, pudding, yogurt etc that is all homemade. As long as I can control what goes into their food they can have it. I think that what the food industry has done to our food is just incredible and I am doing everything that I can to keep it out of them! The common theory though is that when you deprive your child of something like sweets when you are not there they will do anything they can to get it. I guess I am proving that this is not the case and I can't tell you how happy I am about this!


I also think that children can be a great help in the kitchen and that this will help reinforce the eating choices that they make growing up. Last night I decided to give my 7 year old some lessons in knife wielding and all I can say is that we got to spend some nice time together and she still has all of her fingers!!! I had her cut of the lettuce for my salad and she had a blast...felt like a big girl and all. Do they ever grow up too fast!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

I won, I won, my first award ever!!!

And thank you so much for it, ga.farmgirl!!!

ga.farmgirl's blog - Life on A Southern Farm is really on of my favorite's that I make a daily visit to. I have this huge attraction to "life on the farm" blogs right now and she sure is hitting the spot. Great pictures along with nice stories to go along with them. Please be sure to check it out. There really is something for everyone there!



Now I guess I am suppose to pass this on to 5 more of my favorite blogs so as much as I like all of the ones that I visit I can only choose 5 so here goes:

Jenndz: The Leftover Queen, always ready to add a kind comment, moderate differences and offer encouragement. We can all learn so much from her!

Farmgirl_dk: On the way to Critter Farm - Yes I know you have already been given this award but I wanted you to have it from me as well! You offer so much on a daily basis (even in the midst of realizing your dream. I find your blog very inspiring and I know others do as well!

Robin: Caviar and Codfish (formerly known as The Clumsy Cook) - Love your blog...especially love the courage it takes to change your name and the direction. Shows that we can all evolve.

Heather: Gild the Voodoolily - You just crack me up and there is something huge to be said for that. We all need to laugh and you provide me with that!

And last but not least Bellini Valli: More Than Burnt Toast - This is another blog that inspires me. She is also a fellow Canadian and I have a soft spot for that, so I check her blog daily hoping to find things that trigger memories for me!

Thanks so much to all of you for the support and the inspiration!!! Now pass this on to 5 of your favorites or anyone that you think deserves this award!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com