Classic Mint Chocolate Brownies

As for the garden of mint, the very smell of it alone recovers and refreshes our spirits....." --Pliny the Elder

In our family,  we are big fans of grasshopper pie.  We even switched out a green grasshopper pie (made with creme de menthe) to a red "ladybug" pie (made with peppermint schnapps) for Christmas - and to be honest, it wasn't really the same.  So I have had my eye on these Classic Mint Chocolate Brownies by Sally's Baking Addiction for a long time now, and decided that it was time to give them a try.

(Picture from Sally's Baking Addiction.)

I am usually a stickler for following a recipe to a T.  However, although I was POSITIVE I had peppermint extract, there was none to be found in the cupboard.  What to do, what to do?  So I had to be creative, and I thought to what I use for our grasshopper pie, which is creme de menthe.  Is it okay to put that in a brownie?  Well, my kids eat it in pie, so I figured it would be okay.  And it was delicious - didn't taste boozy at all.  And while my kids liked it, they said the best part was the ganache topping, and we could have skipped the mint part in the middle.


From my board "Eat Dessert First."

Road Trip Games for Teens and Tweens

Would you rather.....be stuck on a road trip with rambunctious toddlers or sullen teens? -- Me

Travelling with kids is hard.  And let me tell you, it doesn't get a whole lot easier when they're teenagers.  We drive back and forth to Connecticut a few times a year to visit my family.  It's not an easy trip (that I-95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic is brutal).  And once there, there's not a whole lot of things to do.  So it's kind of a boring trip all the way around as far as my boys are concerned. 

Over the years we have tried different things.  I posted a few years ago about a ______________ for kids.  And we have used that over and over and over.  I have had workbooks that I have pulled pages out of.  I have downloaded appropriate worksheets from Educators.com.  That keeps them occupied for a bit.  They love games where the whole family is involved, so it has to be an oral game so the driver can participate too.

I've notice that the game "Would you rather....?" has become very popular recently.  I see it all over Pinterest, and all different categories for different holidays and such.  My boys love playing this.  We've bought a card game and try to come up with our own scenarios.  But Landeelu has provided a whole list of Would You Rather questions.

I love that you can just print the questions and cut them out into strips.  I put them in a little jar and have left it in the car so it is ready anytime we are on the road.

Do you have any games that you and your teens like to play in the car?

From my board "Children make your life important."

Sausage and Cheese Biscuits

"One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast." -- Robert A. Heinlein

OK.  So I have created a summer bucket list for my kids to do.  This is the first summer that they are home alone all day while both parental units are working.  I don't want them to get bored, and I certainly don't want them fighting and ready to kill each other by the time I walk in the door at the end of the day. 

So I thought, why don't I create a bucket list for myself.  I have taken each of my Pinterest boards and selected one pin that I would like to complete by the end of the year.  I have taken some liberties with this - I'm not going to try to complete a St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day pin by the end of the year (since it is July).  So I've allowed myself a few allowances (can I use the same work twice in a sentence?).

It started today.  Happy Independence Day everyone.  (It started as a rainy day here in Virginia.  I told my boys that our countries forefathers are crying over the condition our country is in today, but I digress.)  Nobody is at work.  Nobody is at school.  I decided it was the perfect time to try a new breakfast item.  Everybody in my family loves breakfast meat, so I thought Sausage and Cheese Biscuits by Taste and Tell would be perfect.

What I loved about this recipe is that you make these biscuits from scratch.  Don't get me wrong - I am all about the ease and convenience of mixes and starters and such.  But sometimes I wonder how much more difficult would it be to make it from scratch, and know exactly what's in your food.  So, these were perfect.  The hardest part?  Cutting the butter into the flour.  Note to my mother-in-law:  a pastry cutter would be a great gift!  I would get much more use out of it than a frozen drink mixer.  (No, no, no.  It wasn't THAT kind of frozen drink mixer ladies.)  Other than that, super easy.



So hubby and I thought they were yummy.  The boys complained that there was not enough sausage in them so B proceeded to cook the rest of the sausages that I did not use.  The good news is there are leftovers so I get to take one for breakfast tomorrow!

This gets a family score of 3 stars - liked it, but not going to make this every week. 


(From my board "What's For Breakfast?")

Would you rather.....?

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other."

 -- Burton Hillis

DH had surgery last month and this has required a lot of car rides back and forth to doctor's offices for check-ups and follow-ups and what not.  And due to the nature of his surgery, he is not yet able to drive long distances, so I have been doing all of the driving.  These trips can be somewhat monotonous, especially when then kids are with us.  And on occasion, one of their electronic devices runs out of batteries.  *The Horror* 

Well, I was ready for it this last time with a rousing Christmas rendition of Would you rather?  For those of you who don't know the game, the premise if very simple.  You ask the question would you rather, and then you have a choice of two answers.  Boys like this game because when they make up the questions, they inevitable involve something gross like eat your own boogers, or eat someone else's earwax.  Ewwwwww.  But you get the picture.

Birthday Party Ideas 4 Kids has a Christmas version of this game.  With a wide variety of questions.  Would you rather be in a scene from the movie Home Alone or Elf?  (Me - Elf.  The kids - Home Alone) Would you rather wrap 100 presents or decorate 10 trees?  (Me - wrap presents.  The kids - decorate trees.)Would you rather have a red Rudolph nose or a Frosty button nose?  (I don't think we got a straight answer on this one.)  You get the idea.  And we usually require our kids to give their reasons - it turns into some pretty hilarious and thought-provoking discussions.

From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

Elf on the Shelf (again)

"Being a parent is holding the magic of childhood safely in your hand." - Unknown

Is anyone else completely elfed out by now?  Now that I don't work nights anymore, I have taken over the nightly duty of the elves, as it has been relinquished by my husband.  I don't know if I've just been doing it so many years that I'm tired out by it or just have run out of new and exciting ideas.  So of course I turn to trusty Pinterest for inspiration.

And it never disappoints.  Skinnymom.com has gathered 101 Elf on the Shelf ideas.  There was one I particularly liked.

Boy were the boys disappointed when they couldn't find all 6!  Don't fear, they did find it later after school.

French elves hanging out in the front door wreath checking out the neighborhood activities.

 Creepy peeping tom elf!

Sorry so few pictures, but I had to rely on many repeats from past years.  Need to get my game on again for next year!

From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

Holiday Sled Decoration

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."
  -- Andy Goldsworthy

I have a friend who is super crafty and last year showed me a picture of an old sled she had decorated and put on her front porch at Christmastime.  So when I was visiting my parents and helping clean out the garage, you can be sure I grabbed my old wooden sled to bring home.  And it sat in the garage for several months.

When I saw a picture again this year, I knew I had to try it and I found this picture on Pinterest.  It was posted by indulgy.com. 

I wanted a look that was more wintery than Christmas so that I can keep it on my front porch for a while.  My friend's sled had an old pair of skates tied to it too.  I just may have to keep an eye out for mine for next year!



From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

Paper Snowflakes

"Getting an inch of snow is like winning ten cents in the lottery." -- Bill Watterson

Sometimes nothing is as much fun as partaking in childish childhood pasttimes.  I remember cutting snowflakes out as a kid.  You just randomly cut triangles and angles into the paper and out came all these randomly beautiful different flakes.

I guess I didn't realize how HARD it was to fold that paper so that you would get a six-sided snowflake.

At one of my previous job, there was a girl who one year cut out these amazing snowflakes with snowmen and reindeers and trees and other such things cut into them!  At the time I looked and looked on-line (this was pre-Pinterest) era and couldn't find anything.  And I am definitely not creative or patient enough to figure out how to cut them so they would come out in such a way.

But now thanks to the advent of Pinterest, I can easily find such directions.  As usual, I've had these pinned for a while.  And it looks like the link is gone.  However, the pictures are good enough to be able to follow the directions.  And if you look, you can find other sites which use the same or similar instructions.

This one has reindeer heads.  Can you see them?

They look really pretty on windows that are lighted from behind!

 

Our medical assistant had fun cutting out snowflakes from Frozen - Olaf and Sven designs.  We even had a Batman snowflake!

From my page "Creativity is like electricity"