Lil Pocket Girl

Last night was another long, relaxing night of cooking and baking with my lil mini-me, Mikayla.  She wanted to make cupcakes (to frost them) but we ended up making brownies.  They were only okay, I wasn't that impressed, although I ate them anyway!  We began by making a recipe she had, which called for 1 1/2 sticks of butter, but then I found another recipe I wanted to make instead.  Since I already melted the butter, we just had to triple the recipe :) Which was 48 servings!! (whoopsy).

We melted the butter, and mixed in butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Mix, baby, mix

Then we added in the Cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder.  The recipe called for frosting, but I really didn't want to start getting into frosting. 

Mikayla and I decided to divide the batter in half, and make one full pan of Brownies with some choc chips and walnuts, and the other pan full of chocolate chips! Variety is the spice of life!

 Basic Brownies

1-1/2 cups butter

3 cups white sugar

6 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Melt butter, and mix together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Slowly add cocoa, flour, sat and baking powder.  Don't over mix these brownies!! Or they will come out over done! Pour half of batter into another bowl and add favorite mix-ins.  We added one cup chocolate chips to one bowl, and about half a cup of walnuts and half a cup of choc chips to the other.  Bake on 350 for about 20 mins (we used 2 9x13 pans)... do not over bake these!! The outside comes out really crispy, and the inside is pretty gooey!

We made a few things for dinner, which were okay, but I wasn't really in the mood for anything.  (guess my love for every food is leaving me?!) We made Panko crusted chicken thighs.  I am a huge fan of dark meat and just think chicken thighs are so much better than chicken breasts... anyone else with me on this?!

I began by using my scary kitchen meat pounder... and pounding the chicken down as thin as it would get.  I skipped dredging the chicken in flour, and dipped it strictly in egg whites, then in Panko bread crumbs. 

I laid those lil chickens in a class pan I sprayed with OO and baked on 450 for about 25 mins or so.  They were pretty good, they were nice and crispy for dippin!

I also made another amazing garbage bread... this time with Spinach, fresh mozz, onions and mushrooms.

I baked this at 450 for about 20 mins as well.  This time the dough wasn't being very cooperative and I really wanted to throw it against the wall :) Sometimes I forget to leave the dough out of the fridge before I try to use it.... and it doesn't work too well!

 

Dinner, with Greens and Cali

I cannot wait to go home and relax with my family today! Rocket and Pocket went in for "surgery" today... you know, the dreaded lil snip-snip, chop-chop.  I received a phone call saying Pocket has a liver infection, she will need to be on pain killers AND antibiotics.  Poor lil Pocket girl, I hope she is okay.  She will be tested once her meds are finished to see if this will be a lifelong infection/problem, or something quick because she is little and squeaky and likes to eat everything. Pray for my widdle baby girl!

So shes not as little... but shes still as cute!