Splenda Brownies

John decided to go off refined sugar.
Yeah...he doesn't eat it anymore.

He's not religious about it or anything, he still gets it here and there, but he won't eat sugary sweets and treats and junk. It's for his canker sores (you're supposed to be worried if you get 3 a year. He gets 3 a month), and so far it's worked! He's bitten his lip as often as ever for the past 2 1/2 months, but only once got infected and we couldn't really say that it was a canker sore -- or at least not nearly as bad as usual.

Anyway, he doesn't eat sugar.
Instead, he asked me to buy Splenda so that I can still make him all sorts of yummy treats that he misses so much. I've been reluctant (not only because Splenda is about 5 times as expensive as sugar), but on Sunday we gave in to his cravings and made some brownies.

Don't do it.

Splenda these days is supposed to be exchangeable straight over for sugar. Well maybe sometimes that works, but in baked goods it's a disaster. Splenda apparently doesn't absorb moisture the same as sugar, which they say means it just won't be as smooth.
Does not as smooth mean that my batter will be dough instead?

They also forgot to mention that all moisture will leak out of your treats while cooking and boil out on its own.
Basically, we fried our brownies, except that hardly any of the butter actually stayed in the brownies.

In the end, it did taste like my family's favorite brownie...except it also tasted like dusty dirt.

How to Bake a Pumpkin

 Start with a pumpkin. (If you want to)

Then give a crazy man a big knife.

Then tell him to be good or else.

Slice the cute little pumpkin in two.

Scrape out all the guts and seeds and give them to Brin so she can make amazing bread.

 Water them pumpkin so it can grow.

Bake the little bums.

Smooch the crazy guy (VITAL step!)

Dance with a puppy. (also vital)

Get pumpkin goo all over your fingers.

More, private! MORE! I said ALL over your fingers!

And then promptly forget all about taking pictures because your hands got gooey.


=D

Um, if you really want to know, google it. That's what I did.

HPMM Cleanup

So yesterday finalized the Harry Potter Movie Marathon. It was a blast! Only one friend came, though, silly busy people. But I did have lots of family come. Because my family is awesome like that. And we like Harry Potter. Perhaps a little too much. Hey, when they get more excited to come for Harry Potter than to play games or simply to talk with family, there has got to be something wrong. Or I just plan things the wrong dates. Always the wrong date.

Anyhow, on our blog I will tell you all about the marathon, because it was an event and it included John. That's the criteria for the other blog. This blog is dedicated to rants, and other such things.
I said I liked details. I know what posts go to which of my blogs. How can I have two blogs if I don't determine what goes where?

But don't go rushing there yet. I haven't written about the HPMM yet. I don't have time yet.
I have dedicated today as cleanup day. Luckily for me we did a little pickup here and there throughout the weekend so it's not a complete tornado.

Sarah rinsed some dishes after lots of food was made and before the movies were started Friday. That was nice. They've been hidden in the dishwasher so I could forget about them. I don't use my dishwasher because the top rack washing part is broken and we don't have a water softener so all my dishes come out looking filthy anyway. And I enjoy washing dishes by hand :)

Joy, Hillary, John, and I did basic pickup yesterday.

I took out the garbage all weekend. We went through FOUR garbage bags in three days. FOUR! John and I fill up half of one in a week. Oh, and then the recycling was spilling all over my pantry floor when I finally took it out. Luckily there was a door to smash it all behind so I could wait that long :)

I condensed the kitchen Sunday before church. It was a disaster, but I didn't have time to do dishes. But it made me feel much much better when I had them stacked neatly in the sink corner. Not in the sink, mind you, because that's a no-no.

I don't believe I have any useful dishes left in my drawers and cupboards. Utensils are down to a couple serving and plastic ones (which is funny to me). Even though we used plastic plates more than half of my flatware is gone. Not a single mixing/serving bowl, cutting board, knife, pitcher, or bite-sized bowl is clean. Many were used over and over.

Bowl is a funny word. Bowl bowl bowl bowel bow wow
hehe

Yesterday was Christmas in July, right? Well it sure feels like the holidays. I thought I had a complete kitchen with more things than I could ever use at one time. I think I better stock up a little more before the real holidays come :)

We even used up all ten of my parings knives!

The best was when we tore down the window covers yesterday. I kind of liked the adventure of putting all the poster boards and blankets up. John was going crazy living in a cave. When we took it all down it was amazing. We do have a gorgeous house! And there is so much light! It was kind of strange, actually. :)

It makes me even more anxious to paint, though. Ugh I cannot deal with all this orange. It's awful.
But that's a post for another day.

I think I've ranted on about the cleanup I get to do today. I'm excited. It's going to be fun :)

Day 2 - Heart-Stopping Edible Memories

Day 2 – A photo of something you ate today.

Yummy. :P
This, my dears, is a Zinger. Basically, Hostess decided the infamous Twinkies were not unhealthy enough, so they added frosting. At least it's not deep-fried, eh? ;)


I explained yesterday that I got these from the Wonder Hostess Bakery Thrift Shop. Honestly, right now I'm about ready to throw them in a food storage can and forget about them for the next 50 years. And yet I am still happy I got them :) 


Zingers actually have some sentimental value to me. You know when you were in Elementary School and it was your birthday, and YOU had to provide the happy goodness? Well these were what my Mom always gave to me to bring. And, of course, it was the only time I ever got them, despite the fact that I thought they were absolute sugar perfection. Or perhaps that's why I thought that :) 

Day 1 – Me and My Day

Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

I feel...I'm not sure how I feel about it. But I had to search forEVER to get to this picture. My Bridals are the best pictures of me, which should be a good thing, except I feel like I should have a recent everyday picture of myself that I simply like...but, sadly, I do not. Anyway, the fact that I had to settle for pictures that are a year old (can you believe it!) is...unsettling? strange? not the topic I'm supposed to be focusing on right now, at least :)


My Day. 
Simple, ordinary Saturday. I woke up this morning snuggled up comfortably to my favorite person: my dog Silk. Haha, just kidding. I was snuggling with John. Silk was snuggling into his bum. And she's not a person, anyway. I love waking up next to him, especially on Saturdays when we can enjoy the laziness of waking up. We like to kid ourselves that our kids will be perfectly content watching cartoons on Saturday mornings so that we can still have those times. Hmmm...one can dream of perfect parenthood before it comes, right? =D (P.S. I have tangent thoughts on Saturday cartoons, too...we can get to those another time)  We got up eventually. Banks close early on Saturdays (and every other convenient time of the year) and we needed some loan info. Ran a few errands, cleaned house, played with the cutest puppy in the world. Typical Saturday.


Ooh, except when I went to the store I went to the Wonder Hostess Bakery Thrift Shop. Say we're weird, but John and I have been so excited to go to that store since we found out it was close. Unfortunately its hours are about as convenient as banks' so we haven't gone. I love discount sugar! Um and bread...though their loaves are not the too-big-for-toasters yumminess we love so much. I got heart-stopping live-forever Zingers and Ding-dongs. Heart stopping literally, not lovey-dovey, and the treats live forever, not you. Yay! :P


We had my family over for game night. Only Kaleb, Sarah, Joel, Joy, and Athena came. Only. :)  And the babies. I love my babies! My nieces, anyway. They're the newest ones on my side, and they're irresistible! Julia is 7 1/2 months old, and Adielyn is a month and a half. Ella was also there, and she's darn tootin cute too, if not quite a baby. Anyway, Phase 10 is really long with seven people playing. But we want family game night to happen more often so we'll have plenty of chance to get to more interesting games another time =D yay. 


Now John and I are hooked into the glowing rectangles. He's playing GTA2...wow what a crude game, and this one is the mild one of the series! But he rarely plays video games and he needs to unwind after a party. The puppy naps...wow being a dog must be so boring!!


Hmmm...bedtime!