German chocolate... brownies

Yes, you read that right. I made German chocolate brownies tonight. Much like the German chocolate cake (my absolute favorite birthday cake), these rich brownies are coated with a coconut "frosting" making them nice and rich. I didn't step-by-step photograph what I was doing, but they are super easy to make and this was the end result:

Looks tasty doesn't it? Trust me, it is. Now you want the recipe, don't you? Well, I won't make you wait.

German Chocolate Brownies
For brownie:
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 c. cocoa powder
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

For frosting:
2 c. coconut flakes
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 c.) butter
1/4 c. evaporated milk

In a large sauce pan, melt butter. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla and blend well. Remove from heat and add cocoa, flour, salt and baking soda. Again, blend well until there are no flour-y lumps. Grease a 9-by-13 inch glass pan well and pour batter into the pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick insterted comes out with a few yummy crumbs (they'll be fluffy and perfect, trust me).

While the brownies are baking, mix your frosting ingredients well in a small mixing bowl. Remove brownies from oven and "frost" (it's not going to spread that well, use small spoonfuls and try to smoothe them out best you can) the brownies. Turn oven to "broil" and sit frosted brownies about 4 inches below the coil for about 3 minutes. You don't want to burn the frosting, so keep an eye on it!

Let them cool, cut them and you're done.

NOTE: Coco likes his brownies without the frosting, so I actually frosted half of the brownies and left the other half unfrosted. Not a good idea, because the broiler kind of burned the top of the unfrosted side. If you do this, you'd do better separating the brownie batter into two separate pans. I'll do that next time.

Calories: About a million
Makes: Around 12-16, depending on how big you cut them (as you can see, I got about 12 out of my pan of brownies).

Discovering play

The kids like to play. When we woke up this morning, I was dreading what was coming - I had told them I'd take them to Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville. I was looking forward to going to the museum, touted as "an adventure in play," but I was worried that if we went, they'd get sick from that norovirus going around. I REALLY can't deal with that. Yuck.

After giving them a choice - do you want to play Wii all day or go to DPK - Mom was outvoted and we got going. It's not too far and we had gift certificates from Mawmaw Jackie and Pop we had gotten for Christmas, so all I'd really be out was lunch money.

For $8, kids can play all they want in a variety of different areas at DPK, all following the same theme of "I CAN." Kids can be a doctor, vet, go shopping, work on a farm, play on stage, build, play in water and more. And this day, it was also HAT DAY! Had I known, we'd have probably worn one of the million funky hats we have here (I'm sure Coco would have LOVED wearing his Capt'n Hook hat), but it was OK. The kids got to make their own hats there. Don't tell them the feathers I added look like Pimp caps. I thought they were HILARIOUS and some of the looks I got from other parents made me think they thought they were too.

The kids had a blast in all the different zones of the kid friendly museum, but I think their favorite area had to be the water zone. I base this on the wet shirts we walked out with and the huge grins on their faces. Sure, there were waterproof aprons there, but what's the fun in that?! In the car, the were able to take off their shirts and put on their zipper hoodies, so no one was the wiser.

And when we got home, and they insisted on playing Wii, guess who wore their pimp hats the whole time? It was definitely a fun time - one I would have gladly paid for had we not had the gift certificates. When they run out, I'm sure I won't mind paying. The kids didn't even realize they were learning. That's always fun!

Wordless Wednesday - Oh my GAG!

Yes, this is how I found her the other morning - eating butter from the fridge.