My way of saying thank you - Brownies!!!

Well, first off, a big THANK YOU to all those that have served or are currently serving our great country - you are all AWESOME!!

Second, we have had a wonderful weekend - well for the most part. Friday was busy, Saturday we had friends over for a BBQ and then Sunday and today have been low key because my oldest son came down with strep throat (I didn't think you got that when you didn't have tonsils - but apparently I was wrong) and is now a little funky from the antibiotics. But even with that, we have enjoyed the long weekend and have had a really nice time.

And third, to say THANKS to my military man I made brownies. Really rich, yummy, amazing brownies. I was looking for the "perfect" recipe, but when I couldn't find one that had all the components I was looking for, I decided I would make my own. It's a basic brownie recipe with I added onto. We couldn't think of a name to do them justice but the name "Everything Brownies" seems to fit well because they have a little bit of everything tossed in.

Here are some pictures of my wonderful creation and below I will post the recipe. Make sure to have a glass of milk nearby if you make these because they are super rich!!

Everything Brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into pieces
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate
2 cups superfine sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp really strong coffee
1 Tsp pure vanilla
1 Tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 1/3 cup flour
1 Tsp baking powder
2 cups good milk chocolate chips

Cheesecake layer

2 blocks cream cheese
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
Nutella (as much or as little as you want)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 9x13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray (or butter).
Melt butter and the first two chocolates in a sauce pan over low heat until all melted and smooth. Remove from heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add next 6 ingredients and mix until smooth and shiny. Stir in flour and baking powder until combined then fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into pan.

For the cheesecake layer: Mix together 2 blocks of cream cheese, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonful on-top of the brownie batter.
Now take spoon fulls of nutella and drop between your drops of cheesecake layer. Swirl these together to make the top layer. You can use as little or as much of the Nutella as you want.

Pop in the oven and bake for 40-50 min until the top layer is sort of set around the edges but will still be a little "jiggly" in the middle. Turn oven off and let sit inside warm oven for about 20 more min. Take out and let cool completely before you try to cut.

Enjoy with ice cream and a big glass of milk!!

Leftovers and Re-runs

The perfect way to kick off a 4 day weekend in my opinion, and that's just what we did. We had SUCH a busy day today. The boys and I were at the gym (I joined a super new one BTW) by 8:30. I worked out, they played, then at 10 we were off to meet a friend and her little one at the park. Stayed until noon, when we all packed up and hit Panera for lunch. YUM. Then it was home to get the little guy down for a nap and start cleaning up some of the dust that blew in from having all the windows open yesterday.


We're having a BBQ on Saturday, so I wanted to get rid of some of the food hanging around in the fridge so we have room for more! We have everything from Chinese to Italian and lots of other randoms. So tonight we had "mustgos" (everything in the fridge that MUST GO or be thrown away). One item was another family staple around here: Kel's lazy not so fried stir fry. Recipe to follow.


I had BUNCO tonight - it was a small turn out but nice to chat with the ladies - get some grown up conversation with someone other than my hubs. Then I came home and Matt and I enjoyed the rest of the night watching episodes of House - one of the shows we have gotten into. I bought some of the past season DVD's and we've been catching up so that when next season starts we will be all caught up. We just started watching some of the episodes on USA randomly and got sort of hooked.


So that was our night. Nothing too exciting but nice. And with that I'll leave you with my recipe. I would have pictures but it's my opinion that leftovers don't look all that appetizing so I'll just give you the recipe and leave it at that. It's quick, easy and kids love it.

Kel's Not-So-Fried Stir Fry

1 pkg boneless skinless chicken breast (about 3)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 pkg frozen mixed veggies (I like the birds eye baby broccoli mix)

Stir Fry Sauce (between 1/4 & 1/2 cup)

Cut chicken up into bite size pieces. Put soy sauce in non-stick pan and add chicken. Cook on med-high heat until almost done and add frozen veggies. Sometimes I add in other cut up fresh veggies - carrots, broccoli, etc. At this time add in the stir fry sauce. Cook until chicken is cooked and veggies are done.

I usually serve this over brown rice or couscous - whatever I have on hand.

We go together...

There are so many ways to complete that phrase...we go together like: peanut butter and jelly, a wink and a smile, ham and eggs...the list goes on. I'm pretty lucky that I have found my perfect match when it comes to my hubs. My best friends little sister got married this past weekend and so I've been thinking a lot about my own wedding and all that good stuff...and really I am truly blessed! So, as I'm sure you have figured out by now, I'm back. Well at least giving it a try. Hopefully I can keep up with this and continue to share little bits of my life with you fine folks. But before I begin to ramble too much about all that I'm going to get to my original thought. Those perfect matches in the world, tonight's pairing is all about the spaghetti (or really penne) and meatballs.

I did a race last weekend, okay race is probably too ambitious of a word. It was really a crazy hike in the woods, which involved climbing up LOTS of big hills and then going through a very muddy finish line, but it was a good time. You can check out my stellar finish HERE if you're so inclined. I think I'm somewhere around the 1 min 30 second mark. It's pretty funny so you should check it out. Anyway, after we finished we had a big bonfire and they served spaghetti and meatballs (which I didn't get to eat) but have been thinking about ever since. And also can I just mention that whenever I think of spaghetti and meatballs I also think of this:

I can't help it, the image appears in my head and the rest of the night, day, morning - whatever am singing "Bella Notte".

So I decided that tonight would be the night I tried my hand at homemade meatballs to go along with my homemade sauce. I didn't have a recipe for these so I just looked at a few and took my favorite things from all of them and figured that would be good enough. They turned out WONDERFUL and even my kids loved them, which is always a plus in my book - but really what's not to love. I mean just check out my little guys face...that's a happy camper.

Kel's Turkey Meatballs

• 1.25 lbs ground turkey
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup (or so) chopped onion
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp sea salt
• fresh cracked black pepper

Set oven on broiler setting. Mix all of the above up. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Make mixture into meatballs (the size is up to you - I got about 18). Place on sheet and stick in the oven for 10-15 min until browned on top and cooked. Add to your sauce for another 10 or so so that the meatballs can soak up some of the sauce. Toss with your pasta and you're good to go! Really yummy and good for you too!

feeling a come-back

I sort of feel like I might start up my blog again...sometime soon maybe?!

Things are still good here! :)