What's Cooking: Brownies

I'm not being conceited, but I make FANTASTIC brownies.  Many people can confirm that they are AMAZING! 

The last batch I made I forgot to spray the pan and it was this jumbled mess and I was so mad that I shoved it all into a Tupperware and told Danny to take it to work.  He came home with about a third left.  He told me he had it in the lunchroom and told guys to help themselves, no one really minded the mess of it since it was so good. 

A few weeks ago I bought the "key ingredient" (as I only buy it when I plan to make brownies in the near future) and today I decided I would make them.  Did I mention they are Fantastic and Amazing?

Brownies:

1 cup of butter, melted
3 cups of sugar
1 tbsp of vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of chocolate chips (this is the "key ingredient" and I use chocolate chunks, chips are for wimps)

Combine butter, sugar and vanilla (I use my mixer for this recipe).  Add eggs, one at a time.
Sift together flour, cocoa and salt. 
Gradually add to wet ingredients.
Stir in chips (again, I use chocolate chunks and I add the whole bag -  they are not healthy in any way so I figure go big or go home)
Spread into your pan (even if it's non stick, spray it or line it with parchment paper, which is what I do.  It's hard to spread it evenly but I don't trust the spray)
Bake at 350 for 35-40 min

(I have no idea where I got this recipe, chances are it's another allrecipe.com recipe)

Lynden loves to help me in the kitchen, especially with baking.  He was such a good helper that he was rewarded with licking the mixer spatulas (in hindsight, I'm going to highly regret letting him to do that an hour before nap time).

A Proud Mommy Moment

Today the kidlets and I spent the afternoon with my dad, step mom and youngest sister (I spent the morning tell Lynden we'd go after his nap).  After visiting with them at their house, Lynden playing with playdoh and Alyssa getting fed, we headed out to the park for some outside fun.  Our hopes was that the sun was going to come out so we could play at the water park, but no such luck.  We settled on the regular playground, which Lynden was perfectly content with since it had slides. 

While Lynden and my sister, who is 8, were playing my step mom and I were talking about how Lynden is fairly shy about playing with other kids.  She told me kids were funny in how they decided who to play with at a park, she said it was all about "the little girl look".  She said kids will not play with another child unless someone gives them a look or a slight nod (usually not noticeable to grown up eyes) and then they play together.  If they don't get the look or nod they go their separate ways. 

While she was telling me about her theory my sister had run into a girl who was friends with a friend of hers and you could tell she no longer wanted to follow her 2 year old nephews demands to go down the slide over and over again (I don't blame her, I don't enjoy doing it the whole park visit either) and play with this other girl.  Well, it just so happened while Lynden was sitting on one side of a double slide a little girl gave him "the nod" (my dad was watching Lynden slide and said it was this tiny little nod) and, as they say, the rest is history.  Lynden made his first random park buddy. 

They went back and forth from slide set to slide set, they took off together to the big kid swings (well out of my eye sight, so they were told to come back), the teeter-tottered (she sat on one side and Lynden bounced the other side), the chased each other, and did the slide circuit again. 

At one point I was munching on some sun chips and Lynden came running over and asked for some.  He took 3 - 1 for my dad (since he was watching him slide), 1 for him and 1 for his new buddy.  He refused to eat it after she declined it.  He even came back over to where we were sitting with Alyssa and placed it on the blanket while his new friend was talking to her dad.  When she came back to play with him he ran over picked it up and tried to offer it to her again. 

Eventually we had to start getting ready to leave, it was just about dinner time and the wind was picking up.  I went over to her dad and asked about his daughter (name, age, etc) and thanked him for letting her play with Lynden. 

It was a very proud mommy moment for me, as it really is the first time he has played with another child at a park (that we didn't know).  I'm hoping with all the outings we've been doing it's opening up his shell a bit and he will be more inclined to play with more children. 

My Canucks Story

My story as a Canucks fan starts many many moons ago (23 years ago to be exact).  In 1989, at the age of 4 (it's weird to think I was not much older than Lynden is now when I discovered hockey.  He's almost 3 and loves hockey too),  my sister and I were being watched by a woman who had teenage kids.  Her son was 16 (I think) and was a huge Canucks and Trevor Linden fan (I can still remember the poster of #16 on his wall) and every day after he got home from school we would play hockey in his room.  He was the goalie, using his open closet doors as the goal posts, and I was the forward.  He influenced my views on hockey, as he was my first real introduction to the sport. 

My dad and grandpa are big hockey fans as well and they helped reinforce my love for the game.  My dad and I didn't have the greatest relationship when I was younger and I used hockey games on our weekends together to bond with him (although he is an Oilers fan., I used to call them the Aliens). 

My grandparents took me to my first hockey game in 1992 against the San Jose Sharks.  I still remember walking up the path under the awning heading towards the Coliseum (not knowing where I was going) and realizing where we were when we walked up the stairs and finally seeing the ice.  A couple got married at centre ice before the game and after the warm up my sister promptly asked if it was done and if we could go home now.  We beat them 2-0.  My fate as a Canucks fan was sealed that day.

I was 10 in 1994 when the Canucks made it to the finals against the forever hated New York Rangers.  I don't remember a lot of the run for the cup, being 10 and all.  I do very much recall being sent to bed after the first overtime in game 5 against Toronto.  I begged my mom to let me stay up for the next overtime, but she stood her ground and sent me to bed.  She told me the next morning she wishes she had let me stay up since the overtime hero, Greg Adams, scored 14 seconds into the second overtime.

I can still recall sitting in the computer lab the morning of game 7 against the Rangers and arguing with a classmate of mine about who was better, Linden or Bure.  After the devastating loss that night my silver lining was the fact that Linden scored the 2 Canucks goals and Bure scored none. 

In 1997 when Linden was traded I was devastated, I'll admit I cried.  My good friend, who lived 30 seconds from me, can attest to that.  She still reminds me that she thought someone had died when I called her.

I managed to survive the horrific reign of Messier and Keenan (oh, how I hate Mike Keenan) and stood by my team when they sucked (a huge understatement) for what felt like an eternity in the late 90's.  Every year, for many years, I was given tickets to a Canucks game every year for my birthday.  If the Rangers came to town, it was to that game and if not it was the last home game of the year.  In the years that Linden played for other teams I opted to go to games that brought him back to Vancouver.  Eventually, the Canucks out priced themselves and I switched to Giants games. 

The Vancouver Giants games are a lot of fun and a great chance to see up and comers.  Sadly, we had moved to the Okanagan the year they won the Memorial Cup.  But I was glued to the TV that final game and cheered loudly when they won, probably the only person in the Okanagan who cared.   Now that we're back in the lower mainland (and my grandparent's have season tickets) we'll start going to Giants' games again.  It's an affordable way to enjoy a hockey game and Lynden (who has already been to 3 games - 1 that he remembers) can start to learn the game from a young age. 

I know a lot of Vancouver fans don't like Brian Burke much anymore, but he did a wonderful thing for our hockey city.  He built a team that gave us hope (granted, they choked, many times over) and started the foundation for the team we have today. 

In 2008 Trevor Linden retired, he played his final game 5.5 months before Lynden was born (yes, he was named after our beloved captain) and his jersey was retired 2 weeks afterwards.  I always said I was going to be at the game when they retired his jersey but Danny didn't approve of my plan to take a 2 week old to a hockey game.  He wasn't impressed with my second suggestion of me just going for the ceremony and leaving (I would have done it).  I'm not thrilled he decided to retire in 2008 as I've known I was going to name my first son Lynden since I was 16 and with his retirement there was another wave of boys named after him (as there was in 94). 

Since Lynden's birth I haven't had as much time to watch hockey as I once did.  As he's gotten older I have been following it less and less, most nights not even knowing there was a game on (games start at 7, which is when I start Lynden's bedtime routine, get him in bed around 8, do what I need to do and remember around 8:30-9 there's a game on and by then the third period has started (or half over) which isn't enough time to get involved in the game. 

But that has not stopped me from being beyond excited about the playoff run this year and the very real potential about the Canucks ability to win the Stanley Cup (in hindsight 1994 was never going to happen since they were the cinderalla team and they never win).  I was nervous about Chicago (the last Canucks game I was at was against the Blackhawks), skill wise we were the better team but it was a mental game and that scared me.  I wasn't worried about Nashville (the only team I don't have a side story about).  San Jose was a concern (my first Canucks game ever was against them) only because they are another team that wants the cup as much as we do.  In theory Boston shouldn't have been a problem (after Trevor Linden was traded back to Vancouver I was given tickets to the home game following my birthday.  Linden hadn't scored a goal as a Canuck yet and I kept saying he was waiting for the game I was going to.  Instead, he scored against Boston on my actual birthday) but Tim Thomas is proving to be more spectacular than we were expecting him to be (seriously, are we sure he's human?).  I do believe we will beat them, in 7 games (which scares the bejesus out of me).  Then I will go to the parade and check another item off my Bucket List.

Until next Wednesday I will watch the final 2 games, biting my nails, cringing at every shot the Bruins take and waiting with anticipated breath every chance the Canucks get on net.  After that my team will be the 2010/2011 Stanley Cup Champions!

Friday Fill-Ins

As Alyssa is playing in her exersaucer, Lynden is sleeping and his sweet little cousin has snuck out of the bedroom to play (she's suppose to be napping, but she's quiet so I'm going to pretend I don't notice) I'm at a loss as to what to blog about.  I found a great Friday blog meme from here that I'm going to do on the Friday's I have nothing to blog about.

1. I remember when I first heard __Lynden's heartbeat___.

2. __I want confetti___ showering down __on us on the Stanley Cup Parade route___.

3. Most humans __poop (we're still fighting with potty training and don't you know, Everyone poops?___.

4. _Not again??????____...sound familiar?

5. I was inspired by __my kids, it's a lame answer but they inspire me everyday to be a better mom and person___.

6. _I am the one____ who knows where!  (most things in the house are)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _those pesky Bruins to get what they have coming to them, Go Canucks Go!____, tomorrow my plans include _visiting with my dad, stepmom and sister____ and Sunday, I want to ___sleep in and then enjoy the Teddy Bear Picnic and Parade__!

Differences

When Lynden was born we used different babies born around the same time as him as markers for what we "should" be expecting him to do soon.  There were A LOT of babies born within 2 months of Lynden (8 that I can think of off the top of my head) so we had choices. 

There was one little boy, who is just over a month older than Lynden, who seemed to be developing at the same pace Lynden was.  I found myself very excited every time his mom posted something on facebook that her lil guy did because it meant Lynden would be doing it soon.  It still didn't (and doesn't) stop me for worrying about how he was developing. 

As I've mentioned before, Lynden took his sweet time rolling, one of the first movement milestones, and it drove me nuts.  He was around 6 months when I tricked him into doing it and I was thrilled.  Now I knew that he could do it, not that he continued to (much).  He, honestly, rolled over a handful of times until he learned to sit on his own, then he had no need for it.  He was quite capable of getting around on his back, so why bother? 

I've always said (after he refused to roll) he will not do something until he knows he can do it.  Very rarely does he try the trial and error way (there was very little with crawling or walking, he was quick to pick it up).  He's a lot like me where he'll sit back and observe until he's confident enough that he's got it.  (He also uses this approach when meeting new people, like me, so I am trying to expose him to more people so it won't take him as long).

For example, today we went to a new park (a very cool park) and Lynden didn't want to try anything.  Eventually, I was able to get him to go down a slide, once, and then walk around other parts of the playground.  We moved over to a smaller slide and said that Alyssa and I would go down it too if he did.  After that, he was okay with going down the slide and was able to play for a bit.  (Prior to this I had called my grandma to get her to give me some encouragement since Lynden just wanted to go home, and it's hard to motivate me to get him out if all he wants to do is go home.  So, she offered to meet up with us at the park in hopes he'd play more, which he did.)  At one point I had to feed Alyssa so I sat on a bench and told Lynden he could sit with me if he wanted.  He wanted to continue to play on the playground (running across the bridges) as look as I watched him, which was fine for me.  At one point I watched him as he watched an older kid go up a ladder, then another and another.  By the end of our park trip he was a master at going up the ladder on his own, something he's never done before. 

Alyssa, on the other hand, is going to be a much more adventurous child (and I predict more trouble).  She's been trying to roll since 2.5 months, and succeed by 3.5 months.  Now, just before 5 months, she's rolling tummy to back, back to tummy and all around the house because of it.  She spots something she wants, usually a toy of Lynden's, and goes for it.  She's also better with her hands than Lynden was at this age.  Grasping things is not a problem for her and has figured out shaking certain toys make noise.  She grabbed her toes sooner and is gnawing on them now, also sooner than her big brother.

She's also a very observant baby, but in a different way.  Lynden is the type to watch something in particular, where Alyssa seems to be observing the world as a whole (and she seems to be very concerned). 

I've heard many times before about girls developing faster than boys, and from my short experience with both sexes it seems to be true.  But it seems to be more than that.  Their brains work in different ways, which is not news to any woman who has lived with a man.  (A good friend of mine has a daughter who is a month younger than Lynden and it's fascinating to watch them play together.  Lynden is scattered and his friend is more focused.  When they draw Lynden scribbles, all over the place, where she will draw circles in one spot.)  It's been interesting comparing Lynden and Alyssa, in their milestones, their temperament, and how they approach things.  In some cases they are similar (not many) but for the most part they are very different people with very different personalities. 

Alyssa will be the type to jump in, head first, with no directions and see where the current takes her.  Which is fine by me, since her brother will have looked over everything and be sitting on the shore with a boat to go get her.