Brownies

For Labor Day, I baked some brownies. They were delicious when served with a cold glass of milk, which is how I ate the last of them today.

At the barbecue they were served as pre-dessert for some, with ice cream for others and with ice cream and peach pie for the rest. I didn't make the peach pie but it was beautiful and delicious and I should have taken a picture of it at the party since the piece I took home wasn't that pretty once it got to my house.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

From the Ultimate Muffin Book. I made them with mini milk chocolate chips, but I think I like them better with regular semi-sweet chocolate chips.


The recipe was supposed to make a dozen muffins but it made eight muffins and six muffin tops.

Here's a better perspective of the muffin top. It's about half as tall as a cupcake-sized muffin. I guess it would be the top of a jumbo muffin if it was an actual top of a muffin.

I'm not sold on the muffin top pan yet. The first tops I made stuck to the pan. These didn't stick, but they turned out darker than the muffins even though they were baked at the same time. Maybe a 400 degree oven is too hot for the pan. Also they don't taste like the top of a muffin. They taste like a muffin baked in a shallow muffin tin.

Kelleys Island

I spent about a day on Kelleys Island. I took just a few pictures at first because it was cloudy. The next morning it was bright and sunny so I took some from the ferry as I left.

Boat dock

Kelley Mansion

Sun-kissed lake

White cranes

It was a very relaxing time. We didn't really do anything, but that was the point. It's that kind of island.

Tiger Party

Here's the cake for a baby's first birthday party. The ears are made of cupcakes so the little guy could dig in and make a mess without destroying the main cake. The cake was yellow Special Birthday Cake. The orange and white frosting was Won't Melt Whipped Creme Frosting and the brown was Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting. I frosted the cake white and handed over the decorating duties to the baby's mom. I think she did a great job.

I don't know why I thought we needed cookies in addition to the cake, but these are Swedish Sugar Cookies cut-out in the shape of no. 1 with orange frosting and chocolate sprinkles or "jimmies" to give them a tiger look. You can never have too many sweets at a party!

Hummus

This was my third time making hummus. The first time I used canned chick peas/garbanzo beans. The second time I used freshly cooked chick peas and made two different kinds: regular and jalapeño. This time I cooked the beans yesterday and used tahini along with the other ingredients.

I only had half a lemon so I had to use ReaLime juice to get the tang I wanted. I didn't measure any of the ingredients, but I'd guess about 1 1/2 cups beans, 1 Tablespoon of tahini, 1 Tablespoon of lemon/lime juice plus some lemon zest, 2 large garlic cloves and 1/4 teaspoon salt. I stopped my food processor a few times and taste-tested the spread until it was the right flavor and consistency.

I drizzled some olive oil and a little lemon zest over the hummus before serving with some lightly toasted whole wheat pitas.

Zucchini Bread (and Muffins)

New recipe! I got this recipe from a relative who got it from a friend who got it from a relative(?) or maybe a friend. The recipe doesn't call for eggs, but I don't mind. Very moist and delicious. I should probably just delete this earlier post since I won't be making those again.

If you look closely at the first muffin, you can see some nice bits of green from the skin of the courgette. I love this time of year when I can get young, tender, fresh and cheap summer squashes.

No, I didn't get a new kitchen. The picture was taken on my mom's new granite counter top. Isn't it pretty? The quick bread/muffins were baked in her new oven too.

What I'm Watching

I don't understand why I keep reading about how there is nothing to watch on television. I'm still watching/TiVo'ing plenty. And I don't see it ending soon since new shows are starting everyday.

Earlier in the "summer" (after the television season supposedly ended) I watched episodes of canceled shows that the networks were burning off like Pushing Daisies and Valentine. There are a few shows that I'm watching in reruns like House and Smallville that I stopped watching during the regular season or that I didn't record because they conflicted with other shows.

As for new summer programming, I have a long list. Some I'm only letting myself watch in real time because I'm embarrassed to TiVo them, and they're on all the time: Dance Your Ass Off, Tori and Dean, Daisy of Love, Charm School with Ricki Lake. Others I have season passes for: Eureka, Iron Chef America, Burn Notice, Chowder and Merlin. Torchwood's Children of Earth episodes are being saved on my mom's TiVo since I don't get BBC America.

MTV is showing seasons seven and eight of Degrassi: The Next Generation and Comedy Central is rerunning episodes of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist. New episodes of Monk and Psych start in August.

That's a lot of TV.