Friday with Food: Brownies!

Last week I had the opportunity to hear an interview with Danell at Weed 'em and Reap. She was talking about how she lost about 30 lbs by simply cutting out processed food. She said that she gave herself permission to eat whatever she wanted as long as she made it herself from healthy, real food. She said she was making cakes and cookies like crazy for awhile, but the desire for them tapered off. She still makes it if she wants it, but she doesn't want it as often. She made her sweets with whole grain flour and real unprocessed sweeteners. Well, that got me thinking about brownies.

 I have this cookbook that belonged to my grandma.

This is her handwriting on the brownie recipe. This is REALLY GOOD! Ok, so how do I make it better? Whole grain flour, real butter, and coconut sugar and stevia! Ok!
So that is what I did.

I used a mixture of cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate because that is what I had.

coconut sugar and stevia

Added to the eggs.

Sifting the dry ingredients.

Adding it all together.

Into the pan.

Out of the oven.

It smelled wonderful. It looked wonderful!   It was bitter and very dry!

First lesson: When using whole grain flour, you must increase the amount of shortening that you would normally use. I'm not sure by exactly how much at this point. I think double would probably be too much, so I'm thinking half again what the recipe calls for. If the recipe calls for a half cup, I  would use ¾ cup. I'll let you know how that works.

The issue of bitterness, I first attributed to the possibility of too much stevia, but that really didn't make sense. I'm thinking now that there might have been too much vanilla, because the stevia was vanilla flavored, and then I used the whole amount of vanilla called for in the recipe. I'l have to watch out for that.

So what to do with this pan of very dry brownies? I used them in a bread pudding recipe, this time using honey as the sugar replacement. It was better, but still had that bitter taste that increased with time. Still think it might have been too much vanilla.

Ok, so this experiment didn't turn out so great. I'll just have to take what I've learned and try again.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I”ll see ya Monday!

Repurposed Thursday: A Ragged Little Box

Welcome to Repurposed Thursday!

Last week I showed you how we disassembled/demolished my old upright piano. During that time, an idea came to me for a gift for Ed. Anytime we've visited an antique store or flea market and came across a valet box, he has always spent a little extra time looking at it. He told me once, that when he was a kid, he thought they were just the coolest things. So, looking at the pieces of wood from the piano, I thought that I would make him a large valet box for Christmas. The fact that I had never even attempted to build anything like that didn't even enter my mind. How hard could it be?

I had decided to use one of the side pieces of the piano because it was wide and long, and I could get everything that I needed from one piece of wood. My first obstacle was finding a time when Ed was at work, and the weather cooperated. By that time, it was fall, and this is Missouri...My original plan was to get my son Kyle to come cut the pieces for me. I never could get that coordinated either. Ok, well, I was just going to have to do it myself. Finally, in October, the weather and Ed's work schedule cooperated.  I had watched Ed, for four years, every time he measured twice to cut once. I knew how to do that. I used two out door chairs to lay the wood across, then measured and marked the wood. Piece of cake!

Now to cut them. We have a battery operated skill saw that I had never used in my life...but I had watched Ed do it. The first cut went beautifully! This is going to be great! I'll get all the pieces cut this morning, and I”ll be able to put them together tomorrow morning! There were a few things, however, that I had not considered: The battery, and the age of the wood.  About half way through the second cut, the saw just stopped. Ok, well, I'll just change the battery (we have three). Apparently that one was dead too. I would soon learn, and I later told Ed, we need new batteries! Never mind that I was also trying to cut through one hundred-year-old wood! I also encountered the problem of very old veneer chipping off.

Anyway, I got two pieces cut that day and had to quit because I had no more battery. A few weeks went by as I waited for time to work on it again. Still, I couldn't keep a charge in the batteries long enough to cut anything.  However, this time, David was outside, and I mentioned my problem to him. He offered me the use of his skill saw...a full size electric one. Well, I couldn't very well say no. I needed to finish that box! I said Ok, thanked him and waited for him to bring the saw. It's about three times the size of our little battery operated saw. Have I told you that my hands aren't very big? I could have used three of them that day, but I got it done! Unfortunately, I didn't have as much control over the larger saw, and the cuts were not all that straight.

 I didn't realize how much until I started to put it together. I used deck screws and wood glue, and my cordless drill. Thankfully, it has a great battery. After a few attempts, I finally got the box together. Then I realized that I had put the side pieces on inside out. At that point, I was tired and not about to take it apart. Next came the lid with hinges and tiny screws presenting a whole new challenge, but finally, it was done.

My original plan was to line the box with fabric, and burn his initials on the lid. Well, I didn't have any fabric that I thought would go well with the dark veneer of the box, so I decided to fall back to decoupage and dictionary pages. I also wanted to honor Ed's relationship with the Lord, and his love for scripture, so I overlaid Bible verses over the dictionary pages for the two outer sides of the box (the ones I put on backward. Inside the lid, I overlaid an original poem on the pages. Overlaying is pretty simple, most of the time. I'll explain it in a future post. This one is getting a little long.

Burning his initials presented another challenge because the veneer was thick and I wanted to get to the wood underneath. It took a few hours, and my hand was very tired, but I finally finished. By rhat time, it was about two weeks before Christmas!

All in all, I thought it was pretty pitiful, but Ed loved it! When I tried to apologize for the mistakes in it, he wouldn't hear it. He says it's perfect! I love that man!

See ya tomorrow!

Connie

Wednesday With the Word: Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

With all that has gone on lately, with so much sickness and death,  my mind has often gone to the scripture that was my grandma's favorite: John 14:1-3. She, of course, recited from the King James, and although she has been gone for over thirty years, I can still hear her voice saying:

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

When the time came for her to go, like Miss Betty, Grandma was more than ready, because she absolutely believed the words of her Lord.

The New International Version (NIV) says it like this: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. “

John 14 is part of a lengthy discourse that ends in chapter 18 with Jesus' arrest.  Jesus was trying to prepare his disciples  for what was about to happen. Of course, they were pretty clueless, and promptly forgot everything he said in the horror of the events in the following days. Even with the joy of the resurrection, they might have forgotten much of what was said that night. However, Jesus made them another promise.

 “All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”  John 14:25-26 NIV

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did come, and did remind them of everything that Jesus' had told them. The disciples, now apostles, would spread the good news which brings life to all who accept the gift of grace.

For over 2000 years, believers have held on to the promise of His return. The promise that He is coming back to take us home with Him.  For us as well, the Holy Spirit teaches and reminds us of those things the Lord would have us know.  In this life, we will experience disaster, heartbreak, and even death, but His promises still hold for us today.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV

May you find peace today in Him.

See ya tomorrow!

Connie