Speedy Brownies

I finally got around to doing a recipe post! We got this recipe from a friend of ours and it is so simple and quick! If you want brownies that are cake-like, then you will have to bake them longer than 30 minutes. We bake them for 30 minutes and they turn out more fudge-like.

Speedy Brownies
2 Cups sugar
1 3/4 Cups All-purpose flour
1/2 Cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 Cup oil(the recipe says vegetable oil, but we use coconut oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup(6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the first seven ingredients;beat until smooth.

2. Pour into a greased(we also flour it) 9" by 13" pan.

3. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

When we made them this time we added chopped walnuts and white chocolate chips.

We ate most of them before I could get a picture. ;)

I have found that it is much easier to mix if you use a hand mixer. I used a spoon for a while because our mixer didn't work and I sure got an arm workout!

Now I'm hungry for chocolate...
I feel like I should go make brownies. Except that it's nine o'clock at night.

Morgan

A Very Productive Day(And a Very Boring Post Title)

Yesterday we didn't have anywhere we needed to be(a very rare occurrence), so we actually got to spend the whole day at home working on projects that have been waiting a while to be finished(or started).

Since it wasn't raining, unlike today, we could work on thing outside instead of just inside. And I felt productive. :) Yesterday I:
planted herbs and other thing in the garden
fed chickens
dried cilantro in the dehydrator
hung lilacs up to dry(I don't know if it will work, but I'm going to try)
picked up chopped up rhubarb for use at a later date
made homemade bread(Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...)

Okay, I'm done now. Can you tell I live on a farm?

Rhubarb!

Homemade bread

Yes, we had steak for supper. Doesn't it look good?

On an almost completely unrelated note, I finished school the other day! Well, not all of it. I still have one paper to write for English, but I need Dad's help so I will that this summer when I feel like doing school. :)

See you later!

Morgan

Meet Ding-Dong(the lamb)

We have a baby bottle lamb. He doesn't have an official name(yet), but Grace likes to call him Ram-a-lamb-a-ding-dong(Ding-Dong for short), because, as she says, he is all three. A ram, a lamb, and a ding-dong.

Do YOU have any food?

Let me snuggle with your camera.

You're leaving me!

Food!!!!!!!!!

All tired out

Ding-Dong likes to follow us around while me do chores and likes running through clusters of chickens and making the fly up into the air. If we forget to feed him, he has his ways of letting us know. :)

Within the next week or so, he will have to return to the flock(don't tell him that). Hopeful he will stay there and not follow us back to the farm place.

Morgan

Spring has Sprung!!

You know, if I say that I'm going to post soon, it might be helpful if I actually remember to publish or schedule to publish the post. Anyway, here is a most that I typed up on May 12 and forgot to post. :)


Yes, I know, the first day of spring was a while, back but evidently Iowa hasn't gotten the memo till now. :) It seems like we mostly skipped over spring and went straight to summer(It got up to 102 here on Tuesday), but we have had some nice spring days.

Here is what spring means to me:

Spring is flowers.

Spring is working on school outside.(With very helpful cats)

Spring is fresh rhubarb

Spring is budding apples trees

Spring is freshly tilled soil

Spring is baby lambs

And baby kittens

In case you're wondering, my hand is the for size comparison.

Here are some things I don't have pictures for but still deserve a place in a blogpost.

Spring is lilacs

Spring is tagging brand-new calves with Dad

Spring is finishing up with the school year

Spring is planting things and watching them grow

Morgan

Grace's Confirmation Weekend-Part 4

Here is the last installment of Confirmation weekend photos. 

Kennedy loves her cousins

Kennedy Kay with Aunt Kay

My aunts and grandma. And Kennedy trying to steal the veggie pizza. :)

Kennedy and her poofy dress

The only way we could get her to be quiet.
I think he scared her into silence.

She just walked over to him

 Grace and some of her gifts:

The cat laid on the wrapping paper and she just grabbed and pulled.
Thankfully the cat didn't get mad when she did that.

I realized that I took a lot of pictures Kennedy and not many of the others. Maybe that is because she is one of few younger cousins who will sit for a picture and is still young enough to decide that she doesn't want her picture taken.

I am getting a couple posts ready for you so maybe there won't be so much time in between posts.

Morgan

Grace's Confirmation Weekend-Part 3

I have been trying to get these pictures put on the blog since Sunday, but the internet and Blogger have not been cooperating. Here are the family pictures that we took before church last Sunday.

Grace, Daniel, and I with Grandma and Grandpa

Kennedy and I

Maddox

Grandparents and grandchildren(minus one)

Grace and her sponsors

Grandma, Kennedy, and I
(All three of our baby pictures look almost identical
so we wanted to get a picture of the three of us)

Grace and I

Vincent

Grandkids/cousins(again, minus one)

Grandma and us three

Grace with our pastors

I have more pictures from after church when Grace was opening presents, but I had to do separate posts so I could load the pictures. I appears that I do not have a picture of the whole family, so I shall add that as soon as I find one.

Morgan