It moves!

Sometimes I feel older than dirt.  Do you remember oscillating fans?  Today, we borrowed one from my dad (since we have an air conditioner that quit working!).  We put it upstairs to try to circulate some air (so it didn’t feel so oven-like upstairs-which reminds me of brownies, but I’m getting ahead of myself..).  Anyway, all afternoon I had it on high, pointed at the kitchen to get the hot air moving (nothing better than a hot breeze!).  At some point, one kid got curious, and pushed the little button on top-and it started oscillating!  Fancy Talk!  Anyway, Mary Claire yelled down, “IT’S MOVING!!” and she was scared.  (She has this fire fear since her friend’s house burned down at Easter.  She always asks if things can catch fire, if the grill is off, if the fan will catch fire, etc.)  Of course, I had a little laugh, and tried to explain that it works that way to move air.  I can’t believe what she’s seen in her life, but she hasn’t seen a little fan that moves!  Ah, children-I love ‘em!

Clay rather enjoyed it too-he was up there talking into it, saying he was an alien from Jupiter, that he was driving a space ship, that he was a robot..how have I sheltered my kids from this excitement?

Do you have an old thing I can borrow for a day? Heehee

Ok-so the brownies!  Umm-I’m feeling sickish, that’s how good they were (doesn’t that make you want some? Haha-I’m helping you stay on that crazy diet, friend!)

So.  We pulled out my cookbook of favorites (it’s really a photo album that I’ve tabbed and filled with hand-written or printed recipes and even those yummy magazine recipes that I don’t want to lose!).  I have this recipe for sand art brownies, that are my favorite!  They are meant to pile up in layers to give as a gift in a big mason jar, but I love to make them (if I’ve got all the ingredients!).  You have to have cocoa, lots of sugars, chocolate chips, walnuts, vanilla chips (but I substituted tiny caramel balls-or peanut butter chips sometimes), and I gave each of us a ninth of an 8x8 pan (seriously-to get rid of them faster!), so I was sick when I finished.  Ches had suggested them at dinner (oh-I should tell you about my potatoes-an experiment, but good!), and I just love to mix and bake with the kids-they need to know that things mix, and become something new and better.  Kinda like us. : )

Ok-potatoes.  I had to rally some food together to feed my famished crew.  I had an hour, and some expectations put on me.  I found a bag of small red potatoes (I just love potatoes!), so I got to work.  I got a bowl, cut up a small white onion and threw it in, washed and cut my potatoes into 1-2” chunks, and threw them in too.  Then I added a little olive oil, some sea salt, garlic powder, pepper, and some Pampered Chef dill mix (it’s old, so I’m sure dill would be okay alone).  I stirred them all up, and threw them on a big cookie sheet with sides.  I put them close to the broiler (top burner), and set it to high.  I forgot about it, and didn’t remember till it smelled really good, I could see moisture running down the front window of the oven, and I had fear of fire.  I opened it up, and they were beautiful (all browned, and yummy!).  I dropped them to the bottom rack, and set it to 300 degrees while my chicken finished on the grill (another story, entirely-my trashy stuff down in the grill drain/catching bin caught fire!).  Anyway, they were soo good, and the onions got nice and caramelized, and sweet!  Even the kids liked them = going in my recipe book! 

FYI: The chicken turned out fine, I just turned off the grill, killed the fire with water, and didn’t tell Mary Claire!  It’ll just be our little secret.