February, 2008

Weekend in Review

This weekend was pretty uneventful.  I did a thorough cleaning of the household on Saturday morning and basically hung out the rest of the day, making Valentine’s Day decorations.  Last night Luca went out with the buds so I watched Anne of Avonlea and made cookie dough (again for the Vday party–making the same marmalade-filled linzer hearts I made for Aunt Joan’s wedding).  Anne makes me cry every time!  You’d think I would be immune to this film after having watched it as many times as I have, but no.  Man, it’s so good. 

I saw another, almost-Anne-quality film while I was at home over Christmas.  It was Masterpiece Theater’s Jane Eyre.  I had never heard of Toby Stephens before (perhaps because he’s British).  What a hottie.  In fact, considering the fact that Mr. Rochester is supposed to be an older, somewhat unattractive character, I’m surprised they chose Stephens for this part (though who could resist him?).  I need to get a copy of this movie, even if it doesn’t accurately follow the original piece of literature, it’s highly entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, we went to Aosta two weekends ago to get away.  Visited our friends who work at Gros Cidac, the best (Italian) grocery store ever and went to our favorite restaurant, Aux Plaisirs Demodes, in Saint Marcel.  The first night we were there, we went into Aosta city center to get a bite for dinner.  Luca’s hands were so chapped they were starting to bleed.  I fortunately remembered that Rosanna (Luca’s Mom) had given me two mono-portion samples of hand cream a while back that I had in my purse.  So while we were waiting for dessert, I took one out and gave it to him.  He was in such a rush to start healing his poor hands that he didn’t read the label and just started spurting it all over. 

Turns out it was liquid body soap.  With an extremely powerful rose scent.

Oh my god, I was dying.  We were both crying we were laughing so hard.  The whole restaurant (which consisted of one small room with tables too close together) smelled like roses.

Just goes to show you, haste makes waste.

Dad’s Favorite Brownies

Well, I officially started baking for the big Valentine’s Day party the night before last.  I swear, I think this is the first time I’ve made a dessert and managed to freeze half of it before eating it all!  Willpower.  I made my Dad’s favorite brownie recipe, which is incredibly quick and easy:

Dad’s Supreme Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup (8oz, 2 sticks) Butter, unsalted
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Baking Cocoa, superior quality
4 Eggs, beaten
2/3 cup AP Flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
Salt, to taste
2 tsp. Vanilla or other flavoring, optional
2 cups Chocolate Chips/Chunks
1/2 cup Nuts, optional
Method

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 13×9 pan.
1. Barely melt the butter in a small saucepan; remove from heat.  Add sugar and cocoa; mix well.  Add the eggs & mix.

2.  Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Form a well in the middle, and slowly add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients.  Mix just until all the flour has been incorporated.  Stir in the chips and nuts.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the brownies pull away from the edges of the pan.  Do not underbake.

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