Fudge Brownies

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Veronica

Pretty excited about these brownies! It’s my first time making a from-scratch brownie recipe that turned out better than a box mix (I’m not ashamed to admit I LOVE brownies from a box), AND had the shiny crackly top. Exciting stuff, at least in my world! These were so fudgy and so chocolatey and so delicious, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. Ultimate dessert treat! Treat yourself today…

Fudge Brownies

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 ¼ cups (1 lb) granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups (3 ¾ oz) Dutch-process cocoa (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder or 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs (cold)
1 ½ cup (6 ¼ oz) all-purpose flour
2 cups chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9×13” baking dish.

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny-looking as you stir it.

Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, if you’ve heated it in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth. Add the flour, again stirring until smooth, then stir in the chocolate chips if using. Spread the batter into prepared dish.

Bake the brownies for about 35 minutes, until they feel set on the edges, and the center looks very moist, but not uncooked. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack before cutting and serving.

Recipe source: King Arthur Flour

Other brownie favorites…

Mocha-Frosted Kahlua Brownies

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Brownies

Mocha Toffee Brownies

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Joshua at 6 weeks: Great-Grandpa’s Little Doppelganger

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Veronica

On Wednesday, my parents came over and I showed them this picture I had of Grandpa Millner (yes, my Mom’s maiden name is Millner and I married a Miller – freaky!) as a baby in 1930 and they both agreed that Joshua bore a remarkable resemblance to his Great-Grandpa. I couldn’t find the perfect picture to show how similar they are because it’s more something you can see in person so just watch the videos (esp the last one) I included at the end to get the full effect :)

Joshua, 6 weeks 4 days old

I looked at the back and it said he was 6 weeks, 4 days old when it was taken, which is exactly how old Joshua was that day I showed them the photo. Kinda creepy/cool! Also very bittersweet that Grandpa passed almost exactly a month before his little doppelganger was conceived, but also cool that because of his passing, he helped Joshua come to be (check out this post for the explanation if you missed it).

Joshua and Daddy 12/30/13

Joshua is growing up so fast already! He’s graduated to size 1 diapers, which are for babies 10-14 lbs. I’m guessing he’s about 10 pounds right now. He can lift his head and his legs at the same time while on his tummy (need to catch this on video!) doing a sort of “plank” lol. He no longer cries while getting his diaper changed, and can even endure a few minutes of bath time before he starts crying. I love this!

Joshua 1/4/14

He’s so cute during diaper changes – he seems so happy and he grunts/snorts the whole time because he knows he’s going to be fed afterward and he makes little piggy sounds. Need to catch this on video too, but for now, here’s the videos I do have. :)

Joshua 1/5/14

Oh my gosh, I just ran across this photo of my Dad holding me as a baby in another blog post, and now I finally see myself in Joshua! I’ve never really thought he looked like me until now. He looks so much like me in this pic! :)

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Award-Winning Pumpkin Bread

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Veronica

I baked this bread for the first time in 2010 to enter into the state fair pumpkin bread competition. I’d never tested it out first, I just decided I’d bake it and enter it, and it won a third place ribbon so I figured it must be good. I never baked it again until last week so I just now, over three years later, got to taste the bread I’d won a ribbon for. Yes, I know, I’m a wild and crazy kind of gal. :)

And it’s SO GOOD! Sorry for yelling, but I CAN’T CONTROL THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE WHEN SOMETHING IS THIS GOOD! It’s really good. The flavor is great–sweet, pumpkin-y, and perfectly spiced so that it’s not overly spicy, but just enough to compliment the pumpkin flavor without overwhelming it. But it’s more the texture that captivates me. It’s incredibly tender and almost delicate, but not enough so that you’d mistake it for a cake. So crazy moist! I just am in love with the texture of this bread and wish I could replicate it in every sweet bread and muffin possible. WHY DID THE JUDGES ONLY GIVE ME THIRD PLACE? Because they are even more wild and crazy than I am, obviously.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (8 1/4 oz) canned pumpkin*
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 1/8 oz) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (4 oz) water
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups (7 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, water, and eggs. Whisk until well mixed. Measure the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and cloves into a separate bowl and stir until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, beating until smooth. Spray a 9×5* loaf pan and pour batter in, smoothing the top flat. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pan, cool completely on a wire rack, and wrap in plastic wrap. The bread gets better after a day so wait till the next day to cut it if you can stand it. :)

*If you’re doubling the recipe, you can use a 15 oz can of pumpkin – there’s no need to open a second can just to make up for the tiny bit it’s lacking for this recipe. It is just as good with the 15 oz can as it is with a full 2 cups or 16 1/2 oz.

**This makes a lot of batter so if you use a smaller pan, you’ll likely have to increase the baking time.

Looking for more award-winning recipes? I gotcha covered! Here are a few of my blue ribbon winners, and you can check out the rest here.

Almond Fudge Cookies (multiple blue ribbons)

Fresh Apple Cake

Red Velvet Cake

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Thankful Thursday #122: a year of happiness

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Veronica

On New Year’s Eve, Dennis and I celebrated quietly at home, going through our memory jar. We started this last year and I think it will be something we do every year. Throughout the year, we fill a jar with paper memories, then go through them at the end of the year. It’s a fun way to remember all that happened in the last year.

If you’ve been reading my blog for at least a year, you might remember the bittersweet post about 2012’s memory jar. I have copied it below this one for you to read if you have the time or interest – it’s so awesome to read that already having what we prayed for in our arms.

Anyway, while going through 2013’s jar, we ran across this fortune:

Today I’m thankful that this fortune came true. Thank God for our little miracle! :)

* * *

Thankful Thursday #97: a fresh start – originally posted January 3, 2013

Our Memory Jar, filled with paper memories from 2012. The pictures included in this post are all things found within the jar.

Despite not doing a recipes “best of” to recap for 2012, I am a little introspective on the year. In one way, it was a hard year. Really hard. In all other ways, it was great. When I think back on this year, all I feel is happy, so I’m thankful for that. But I’m also thankful for a fresh start.

Regular readers know that 2012 was the year we really tried to have a baby–and I mean gave it our all. And did not succeed. We finally got ourselves checked out after eight years of casually trying and nearly a year of gung-ho trying (you know, with all the charting and timing and hooplah), and the urologist said it is “very unlikely” that we will ever have a baby together naturally. That was really tough to hear.

Right now our future is uncertain as far as children are concerned. We are doing what we can, including praying and taking natural supplements (there’s nothing doctors can do to help besides IVF, which we are not interested in), but our window of opportunity is fairly well shut. Haus is on the older side to become a first-time Dad (45) and knowing what it’s like for a child to be raised by older parents (my Dad was a surprise, born to my grandparents when they were in their late 40s) and how it can make them constantly afraid that their parents will die while they are still growing up, I feel it’s not right to keep trying. And yet it’s also something hard for me to give up.

I have been thinking about fostering to adopt for almost as long as we’ve been trying, and while this is something Dennis and I will have to decided between us, it is definitely one avenue of opportunity for us to raise a child if we do not have one of our own. I am finding it terribly hard to totally give up on the hope of having one of our own right now, so I don’t think 2013 will be the year for us to go into the foster program. 2013 is more likely going to be a year of transition into parenthood, Lord willing, one way or another.

Anyway, besides the trial of trying to conceive and month after month of disappointment, and the weight gain brought on by my emotional eating, this has been a wonderful year. While the photos in this post are showing our paper memories, there were many more wonderful memories made that you won’t find on paper. Lots of laughter, lots of hugs and kisses, lots of celebrations, long walks & talks, lots of love. We are happy, we are healthy, and I am thankful.

While I do yearn for children, I’m also desperately thankful for the “alone time” Dennis and I have had with each other for fourteen years. I know being a parent is really hard, and we are so totally spoiled without them, and I do count that as a blessing. I’m sure I will miss the freedom I have now if I ever lose it, so I do try to appreciate it while it is mine.

That said, I’m dreaming of what 2013 will bring. While I’m hoping and praying that it includes a child, something that I do have control over is my diet and I’m getting that back under control. No more, “This baby stuff is so harrrrrrd, whiney whine whine whine,” while shoveling in chips and sour cream dips, and squirting pastry bags full of leftover icing in my mouth. OK, so I don’t really whine like that, and don’t really squirt pastry bags full of icing into my mouth (though I have been known to do so in the past), but you get the idea. I’m not going to milk the baby stress excuse to eat whatever I want in huge quantities. Not any more. I’m ready to “give birth” to the food baby I’ve created from overeating. Especially since he’s decided to take up precious pants space and I really don’t want to buy bigger pants (I’ve already done that too many times). Food baby be gone!

That is all I have to say (finally, right?), so get ready for it. The epic ending to my blog:

Still makes me laugh. Check out the blog Den’s cartoon is featured in here if you missed it last January. Peace to you all, may 2013 bring you much happiness.

Love, Veronica

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Chocolate Mocha Punch

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Veronica

Seriously, a recipe today! :D I drafted this November 14th so it’s about time I posted it-lol. I’ve shared a few of my friend, Teri’s, recipes before (see them all here), and this one is just as wonderful as the others. She made this punch for my last baby shower and it was delicious! I’m sure once you scan the ingredients, you won’t have a hard time figuring out why. It’s very decadent! She also made it for her daughter’s wedding and the holiday party at her home last week, and I think it’s great for any occassion. New Year’s Eve, maybe? :)

Chocolate Mocha Punch

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

3 quarts water
1 cup Nesquik
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup instant coffee granules (decaf is fine)
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream
1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream
2 cups whipped cream (Teri uses Cool Whip)
Chocolate curls for garnish

In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and add Nesquik, sugar and coffee; stir until dissolved. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. About 30 minutes before serving, pour into a punch bowl. Add ice cream by scoopfuls, stir until partially melted. Garnish with dollops of whipped cream and chocolate curls.

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Posted in Beverages and tagged baby shower, chocolate mocha, christmas, holiday, mocha punch, New Years, party, punch, wedding. Bookmark the permalink.

Baybay videos

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Veronica

I so miss blogging, and am going to try to ease my way back into it. I was calculating the time I spend doing my new job and I have spent up to 16 hours in a day just pumping and feeding him (we can’t do direct breast feeding solely yet – long story) so it’s no wonder that the only thing I seem to get done besides the part of life that revolves around my boobs is the dishes and the laundry and the dinner. But another reason my free time has been lacking is that I keep taking videos of him and then I watch those videos (over and over and over) while he’s sleeping, when I could be doing something more productive. I think I need a baby intervention. I’m so in love with him!

So here are the videos I’ve taken so far. I’ve already shared the video of him at one week here, so these start at two weeks. I know it’s a lot of videos (seriously – intervention needed!) so if you just want to see the shortest and most entertaining one and what he looks like currently, watch the last one – I love watching my husband taking care of his son. :)

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Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Veronica

This year, God gave us a son, the second greatest gift we have received, with his own son being the greatest. Having a son of my own has given me an even deeper appreciation for Christ’s birth, life, and sacrifice. Watching Joshua while he sleeps, it’s hard to imagine sending him to die for a world of sinful people so that they could be saved. How that must have broken God’s heart, and how it breaks mine without even having witnessed it or having to do it. It’s amazing that God loves us that much. Perhaps even more than I love my little boy, which is hard to imagine.

Although I don’t recognize Christmas as the day of Christ’s birth since, well, he wasn’t born on December 25th, I do celebrate it secularly and I’m hugely thankful for my Christmas gift this year. I have so much to tell you guys about Joshua’s first month, but for now I want to wish you a very happy holiday and hope that your heart is filled with love and joy and your time is spent with family and friends. May God bless you in the coming year!

Love,
Veronica

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Joshua’s First Week

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Veronica

I wanted to post this Monday to replace my weekly pregnancy updates, but…yeah. First time Mom who got four hours sleep the first week after her son was born…I think you understand. And thank you to those whose blogs I’ve neglected and who continue to visit mine – I will return as soon as I get a routine established that allows a bit of time for blog reading.

Joshua’s first week was such an emotional roller coaster. My water broke two weeks , two days early and after the initial shock wore off, it’s been huge highs and huge lows.

As I was falling deeper and deeper in love with this new little man in my life, he was getting sicker and sicker without me realizing it. Joshua was not doing well with breast feeding and was losing weight so I went into the lactation clinic across from Wesley, which was free for me since I delivered there. The nurses were alarmed at his glow worm coloring (we knew he had jaundice but couldn’t tell how bad until we were outside our home with different lighting). When they weighed him he had lost a pound and an ounce in the four days since his birth, which was another red flag that our little boy was not doing well at all.

We went immediately to our doctor to get his bilirubin tested and it came back at 33, which is critically high. We had to return to the hospital and admit our precious newborn to the NICU, and they told us he may have to have his blood replaced several times if they couldn’t lower his level quickly. I was devastated and assumed responsibility since he might not have gotten to this point if I had been willing to supplement with formula. I thought I had been doing what was best for him, and almost killed him instead.

The NICU isn’t set up for parents to stay there, unless you want to sit in a chair all night, and it was so awful to leave our son after only having him for four days. He received the best of care, but that didn’t help the longing in my heart to have him home.

After two days under UV lights, we finally got to hold him again when his bilirubin was low enough and the lights were removed. Saturday night we got to move into a family room with him and it was pure bliss having our baby with us again, even if it wasn’t at home. And Sunday we got to take home a much fatter and healthier baby! I took this video at the hospital while Dennis was gone to take Jessie for a walk.

I wasn’t the typical weepy pregnant woman, but I’ve made up for it in spades this week. Even though my tears have been mostly justified, I cry at anything that makes me happy or upset in any way. Now I know how my Dad feels – after his stroke, everything makes him cry.

But now that we have our little one home, what makes me cry the most is how wonderful my husband has been. He has changed so much since Joshua was born. I didn’t think he could improve, because he was as close to perfect in my book than anyone has a right to be, but he’s become even more perfect than I could have imagined. He has been my rock, always leading us to prayer during the hard times last week, holding and comforting me when I had to ~~cry~~ sob, and loving our son so much it hurts me in a good way. I didn’t know how he would be after having a kid he took 45 years to feel ready for, and I have to say he’s surprised me in the best way.

He was beside me during the delivery, pushing one of my legs back (knee towards my head) while a nurse did the other with every contraction, giving me leverage to push against. He said it was amazing to watch another human come out of me and it just makes me weep to think about how he talks about our son with pride, describing how cute he is when he did something, etc. Dennis never thought any other kid was cute, so this is a huge deal. He actually loves to hold him! I know that seems like it would be a given, but this seems very profound for a guy who has only held babies a couple times in his life (his nephews, and probably because Joan made him – lol). He even thanked me for Joshua, because if it weren’t for me, he never would have had children, and now he’s so glad I changed his mind over the years. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.

Yesterday was a big day for me, because it was my first day alone with Joshua. Dennis, the baby-whisperer who I have totally relied on as a partner in figuring out parenthood, had to return to work because he’s already a week behind for his supervisor training. I was so nervous. I have been feeling really inadequate and inept as a mother, and this also left me in tears, but I prayed to God through them Sunday night as I fed Joshua, asking for help as I faced motherhood alone.

Well, I only had to be alone at home, because God sent me Mom to go to Joshua’s doctor appointment with me and to mail a package, and Dennis took part of his lunch to meet me at the lactation clinic (and no, I didn’t ask him to. He has been so supportive of me trying to breast feed, and supportive of our family in general, I just have to cry!). Everything went so smoothly, it helped boost my confidence immensely, especially how well it went at home without my rock. (Although of course I was leaning on God, an even bigger rock than my husband.) Joshua ate and slept well, and I managed to get the dishes and several loads of laundry done. I’m gaining ground! :)

Maybe I won’t be so terrible at this motherhood thing after all.

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Thankful Thursday #121: happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Veronica

Happy thanksgiving! I hope you’re enjoying your holiday with family and/or friends and that there’s lots of delicious food in your future.

Since time is scarce these days, I have a short and sweet Thankful Thursday today. Something special happened on Tuesday – all my Moms showed up at our house at the same time without even planning it! Phyllis came to spend a couple days with us and help around the house, bless her, Momma Donna stopped in on her way to work to meet her newest “grand-baby”, and my own mother, who just arrived in Wichita on Saturday and just in time to meet baby Joshua, came over to spend some more time with him (she also came to the hospital. And for the record, the excitement finally kicked in – she is so in love with him! So happy for that. :) )And the craziest thing is, even my foodie Mama joined us from California without knowing it, calling me to congratulate me on Joshua’s birth. I’ve said it before, but God has such great timing. How wonderful for him to orchestrate this special day. :)

I know you’d have rather seen Joshua than the nursing cover over my chest, but I wasn’t about to break his latch when we’ve been working on it so hard. And you’re welcome for me not flashing my boob! lol

Happy thanksgiving! May you find many things to be thankful for this year.

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Meet Joshua Isaac

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Veronica

Surprise! My water broke before work last Friday and although my labor started a few hours later, it was slow-progressing and I was induced later at midnight. Joshua Isaac was born happy and healthy on November 23, 2013 at 4:30 pm, weighing 6 lb. 14 oz and 18 1/2 inches long.

Praise the Lord! I’m so in love with this little man that I can’t stand it. I’m just so so thankful for this precious miracle. I have so many pictures but will share a few for now. I’ve discovered that new parents sleep on average 1 hour a day (or at least, that’s my average since my water broke), and the rest of the time is taken up with caring for baby and figuring out how to do this parenting thing. It’s overwhelming and wonderful at the same time.