Award Winning Chocolate Chunk Brownies

~ Grace ~ 31 Comments

Brownies 4In the past I have tried to share only recipes that are on the healthier side…this is not one of those!  I feel compelled to share it with you though, because they REALLY are award winning brownies (not to mention easy and delicious).

Brownies 5In 2009 when Little Chef was 6 years old I asked her if she wanted to make some cookies and enter them into the fair.  She said  “no, I want to make brownies”.  So we found a brownie recipe that looked easy enough for a six year old and she went to work (with a little help from mom).  That year she brought home the huge purple “Top Of Show” ribbon.  Over the past four years that recipe has become our “go to” dessert.  If I need a dessert quickly this is the recipe I grab.  I usually grab my daughter too and have her make them! (lots of grabbing going on, sorry)  She never says no to making “her” brownies. 😉  So when her 4-H leader told us about “Food Activity Day”  the natural recipe of choice was………..you guessed it,  Chocolate Chunk Brownies.  On food activity day the kids pick a recipe and bring everything they need to prepare that recipe (or meal).   They set to work while the judge watches.  When they are done and the kitchen is clean they get to share their food with the judge and answer any questions they have.  My daughter was so excited about this day, and she had soooo much fun!  She was asking if she could do it again next year before they even handed out the awards. 😀  She received reserve champion in the Junior class for her brownies and brought home another purple ribbon and a blue ribbon!

Brownies 2They are soooo soft, gooey, and chocolaty rich, and they just melt in your mouth!

Brownies 3

5.0 from 2 reviews
Award Winning Chocolate Chunk Brownies
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter - melted
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 eggs - slightly beaten
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup simi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl add the sugar, vanilla, and eggs to the warm melted butter and blend well. Add flour, cocoa and salt; mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour into a greased 13X9-inch pan.
  2. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until set. Let cool for at least 1 hour or until completely cooled before cutting into bars.

As you can see this is not a healthy recipe but definitely worth sharing. 🙂  Well….maybe I just wanted to brag about my Little Chef, that’s not so little any more.

Raising Cornish Cross Chickens – Week 5

~ Grace ~ 12 Comments

I think the two words to describe week 5 would be ugly and messy…….I might throw in smelly too!

Week 5I’m moving their pen two and three times a day now to keep them on fresh clean grass.  Sadly we had our first casualties this week…..yes, not just one but two.  🙁  I went out early Thursday morning and there was a dead chicken??  We don’t know why it died, but this breed is prone to heart attacks so I’m guessing that was it.  Saturday morning I went out and a barn cat had some how reached under the pen and snagged one of them and had managed to eat half of it……super grooooss!!  I also lost two hens this week….it was NOT a happy chicken week around here…..sigh.

He obviously wanted the rest of the food to himself!
He obviously wanted the rest of the food to himself!

The eight remaining Cornish cross are doing well and gaining weight FAST.  We are now taking extra precautions to make sure they are cat proof!!!!

5 Weeks Old

If you would like, you can read about the first four weeks of our meat chicken experience….they were much cuter on week 1 and 2!  😉    Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4

Here is a link to Week 6

Healthy Homemade Blueberry Muffins

~ Grace ~ 14 Comments

Blueberry Muffins 3Berries seem to be everywhere right now, and muffins are a weakness of mine so we’ve been eating lots of them lately.  A couple weeks ago I shared a Fresh Raspberry Muffin recipe that used our homegrown raspberries.  The girls and I made several batches, but now the bushes are pretty much picked clean.  Sadly we don’t have any blueberry bushes (yet), but I did find some for a very good price the other day so I bought LOTS!   I  found this blueberry muffin recipe about a month ago and they looked sooooo delicious I couldn’t wait to try them!  I made a few minor alterations to the recipe and oh yum, yum, yum!

Blueberry Muffins 1In a big bowl stir together the milk (any kind will work), melted butter or coconut oil, egg, vanilla and sugar.  Then mix in the flour, baking power, and salt.

Blueberry Muffins 2Gently fold in the blueberries.  We used fresh berries but frozen would work too. Fill greased muffin tins two thirds full (this makes about 10 muffins).  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins 4They went really well with my iced coffee. 😀

Healthy Homemade Blueberry Muffins
 
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Author:
Cuisine: For breakfast or a snack
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup milk - any kind of milk will work
  • ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil or olive oil if you prefer
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • ⅓ cup organic sugar or sucanat
  • ¾ cup unbleached all purpose flour
  • ¾ cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
Instructions
  1. Stir together the milk, butter, egg, vanilla, and sugar. When it's nice and smooth mix in the flours, baking powder, and salt. Then gently fold in the blueberries. Fill greased muffin tins about two thirds full. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. This will make about 10 muffins and can easily be doubled if you want more.

I’m going to make a dairy free version of these for my mom and sister by using almond milk and coconut oil.  I love recipes that you can easily substitute ingredients for people with allergies!

This recipe was adapted from Angela at Hickory Trails.  She took some amazing pictures of her muffins; you should check out her blog!

Raising Cornish Cross Chickens – Week 4

~ Grace ~ 3 Comments

Our 10 Cornish Cross meat chickens are now a month old…..one more month to go!

You can read why we chose this breed and see pictures of their growth on these posts:  Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3

24 Days OldThey are outside full time now and love to munch on the grass!

26 Days OldThey are still much more active than I expected.  I have read that all they do is stand or lay down at the feeders and eat all day.  Ours are not like that at all, maybe it’s because they have room to run and fresh grass to eat, or maybe they just haven’t got to that point yet?

4 weeks OldThey are ugly little buggers and not very bright!  I weighed one a couple days ago and it was almost 2 pounds.  They are going through the feed pretty quickly now, I think it’s going to cost more than I originally expected to feed them.  But I also expected to loose a couple and so far no casualties.  The five that my mom took to her house are also doing very well.  Thanks for following along on our meat chicken journey. 🙂

Here is a link to Week 5

July 2013 – A Month of Photos From the Red Double Wide

~ Grace ~ 6 Comments

July was a month of bbq’s with great friends, many 4-H meetings, baby chicks, HOT weather, gardening, and allergies!  Despite the sneezing, runny noses, and watery eyes it was a wonderful, busy month.

We started off the month by celebrating the 4th of July with a family trip to the beautiful San Juan Islands.  It was a great trip and so wonderful to see family that we hadn’t seen for a while.  Visiting the beach was also wonderful!

Two days after we got home from our little vacation our meat chicks arrived!

3 Days OldThey are the girls 4-H projects.  To read more about our meat chickens click here.

chick Collage

Butterfly
Front yard visitor
Spinich & Raspberries
First harvest from the garden

We have an AWESOME group of people from our church that came out and joined us for a taco feed and go-kart party.  Our go-cart track goes through our hay field and it’s about three-fourths of a mile long.  As you can see from the picture this is not a clean sport!  Everyone was sooooooo dirty but it was a blast!

Go-Karts

Garden 5
My weed filled garden! The corn is taller than me now. 🙂
Garden 2
Squash plant
Garden 6
Baby Tomatoes
Painting
The girls painting the new chicken pen for their 4-H meat chickens.
Chicken pen - 1
The finished pen!
Harvest
My dad getting ready for harvest….I can’t believe it’s that time of year already!

Hope all of you had a great July!  In August I’m looking forward to our county fair and preserving the harvest from my garden.

Raising Cornish Cross Chickens – Week 3

~ Grace ~ 8 Comments

On to week 3!  Click here to read about Week 1 and Week 2 of our meat chicken raising experience.

They are still growing fast and their feathers are filling in a bit more.  We have moved them outdoors and changed their feed from chick starter to a flock raiser.  They are still fun to watch jump and run around, and every once in a while they make a “big chicken” noise. 🙂

16 Days OldNot so cute anymore.

18 Days OldFor this picture on day 18 I tried to pick out the biggest one and the littlest one. The one standing in the back weighed 11.4 oz. and the bigger one sitting down weighed 18.4 oz.  What a huge difference considering they hatched the same day and arrived at our house all looking identical.  From everything I’ve read the small one is a female and the big one a male.  That explains why the roosters are more expensive from the hatchery.  The male kept plopping down and trying to sleep, the little female was more active and alert.

20 Days OldWe built them a bigger pen so they can be moved around on the lawn and always have grass to eat.  The girls painted it and I thought it turned out cute!

Chicken pen - 1They love having more room!

3 Weeks Old - 4

3 Weeks OldWell, so far so good!  We still have 10 healthy growing chickens.  I’m glad they are outside now and not in the shop, (they were getting a little crowded and allot STINKY!).

Here is the link to Week 4

Raising Cornish Cross Chickens – Week 2

~ Grace ~ 10 Comments

If you missed Week 1 on Raising Cornish Cross Chickens click here, to read why we chose this breed and how our first week went, plus lots of cute chick pics!

We have not suffered any casualties as of yet and they are growing remarkably FAST!  They are about to outgrow the brooder and will need more space soon.  My mom took five of them to finish raising them at her house, so that helped to make some extra room.  I’m hoping they will have enough space until they are 3 weeks old and can go in an outside pen during the day.  I want them to be able to free range as much as possible once they are big enough.  It’s been so warm we haven’t used the heat lamp since they were 11 days old.  They are such messy little things we have to check their water every few hours because it gets full of bedding and poop very quickly.  I seem to remember the same thing with my egg laying chickens when they were little.

Here are pics of week 2:

10 Days OldSome of them are a little bigger then others, which is what I expected when I ordered a “strait run” (some male some female).  I got a strait run so they would vary in weight and we could pick the right chickens at the right weight for my girls 4-H projects.

12 Days OldAs you can see they are starting to out grow some of their cuteness!  Oh well, I didn’t get them to be cute…..right?

14 Days OldWe enjoy watching and laughing at them running at each other and flapping their wings. They are pretty comical!

Here is a little cost break down so far:
Each chick cost: $3.83; so for our 10 chicks it cost – $38.30
The chick starter cost $10.45 for a 25# bag. After 2 weeks there is still some feed left and  I subtracted what my moms chicks ate and ended up with $6.10 feed cost for 2 weeks.
We also bought a bale of pine shavings for $7.95 and I figured we have used about a dollars worth so far.

This comes to $45.40 for the first 2 weeks for 10 chicks.

Of course this doesn’t include the cost of a brooder, heat lamp, heat lamp bulbs, waterer, or feeder.  We are using all the supplies from last years egg laying chicks.  So if you were raising chickens for the first time you would have to add in these expenses.  As you can see, the first year is the most expensive!

So far we are still pleased with our decision to raise Cornish Cross!

Here is the link for Week 3

Raising Cornish Cross Chickens – Week 1

~ Grace ~ 10 Comments

Why are we raising Cornish Cross chickens?

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what breed of meat chicken to raise this summer. I did lots of reading about the good, the great, the bad and the ugly aspects of raising the hybrid Cornish Cross chickens.  There are so many opinions out there and I didn’t want to make an uninformed decision, especially since a couple of these chickens are to be my girls first 4-H market projects.  I finally came to the conclusion that I need to form my own opinion and I can’t do that until I have had hands on experience raising them.  So I decided to start with Cornish Cross vs. a heritage breed.  They are the most cost effective breed to raise, and if it goes well we will continue to raise Cornish Cross.  If not, we will try a different breed next year.

For the next 8 weeks (that’s how long it takes for them to be ready to butcher) I will be sharing our meat chicken raising experience with you.  I will be posting pictures and giving updates weekly on our little adventure!

Here is Week 1 of Raising Cornish Cross Chickens:

We ordered our chicks from McMurray Hatchery to arrive on the week of July 8th.  This will make our chickens 6 weeks old for our County Fair, and hopefully the correct weight which needs to be between 4 and 7 lbs for my girls to be able to sell their chicken at the livestock sale.  I had never ordered from McMurray Hatchery before, but they had the right breed available at the right time.  The ordering process was easy; they kept us informed of shipping (with emails and texts) and their website was very informative.

Early on the morning of July 8th we got a call from the post office that our live birds had arrived.  Of course I wasn’t exactly prepared (I’m such a procrastinator).  I very quickly cleaned up our brooder  “play pen”, washed up the chick feeders and waters and headed to town.  We first went to the feed store to buy bedding and chick starter, then picked up the peeping box from the post office.  When we got in the car I bent the lid back and was pleased to find 15 live peeps!

15 Cornish Cross chicks arrived safe and sound.
15 Cornish Cross chicks arrived safe and sound.

They were all active and looked healthy.  As quickly as we could, we prepared their pen and got them settled in…..sooooo cute!  Am I really going to be able to eat these guys in a couple months??

Cornish Cross Chicks 2 Here’s the pics of this weeks growth:

2 days old

4 Days Old6 Days Old8 Days OldWe have had a fun week watching these little birds grow. (Notice the growth of their feathers in these consecutive pics!)  Contrary to what I have read these little guys seem to be hearty, active, and very curious.   So far I have no regrets picking this breed.  We will see what happens in the next few weeks!

Click here to read about Week 2