Fudgy Chip-eriffic Brownies

Brownies are just about my favorite thing. I love a good fudgy ooey gooey brownie. I mean really. When I see a plate of brownies I immediately see hearts and daisies and hear angels sing. I skip towards them slowly in a dream like state. Then I happily and deliriously devour one, then two, then....well we won't go on.

I tend to like box brownies better than homemade. Homemade turn out a little to cakey. I ran across this recipe on a new-to-me food blog, See Jane Cook. I tweaked it barely, just made a change in the chips. I LOVED these brownies. They were pretty darn lovely to eat. They were also super fast and easy to make.

So if you heart brownies as much as I do. Give this recipe a whirl.

Fudgy Chip-eriffic Brownies

1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or regular flour)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350.

In small saucepan melt butter completely over low heat. Stir in sugar and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly...do not let mixture come to a boil.

Pour butter mixture into a large bowl (or mixer) and close your eyes so you don't feel bad that it has that much butter and sugar. Okay open your eyes or this will get messy. Beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

Stir in flour and chocolate chips. The original recipe called for all-purpose flour but I used whole wheat...not because I was trying make up for the 2 sticks of butter, it was all I had...but hey it worked! Bonus. That made me feel better for eating two brownies.


Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Less for more gooey, more for less. The tester should come out mostly clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Now serve yourself up a lovely little afternoon treat.

Giveaway, Let Me Get a Woohoo

Aren't these dinner plates just about fantastic?

Would you like some of your very own?

You would?

Well of course you would!

These plates can be found in the Modern Dining Room Furniture section of a little store called All Modern on a little site called CSN.

These plates happen to all be part of line by Thomas Paul. Not only are these plates, which are part of his dining collection, great, but his whole collection for All Modern is FANTASTIC. How much do I want this rug?

Pretty bad. Yes, sir.

Okay back to the plates. These plates would be awesome for just about any occasion. The checkered ones would be great for a birthday party...like a fun circus theme. The brown and tree plates would be perfect for a bridal shower. The nautical ones, well I would LOVE to have those at an outdoor summer picnic..ooh or a nautical themed baby shower. 

Seriously HEART them.

So how can you get yourself some plates?

CSN is kindly offering one of my readers a $25 gift card.

You can put that toward purchasing a set of plates OR you can put it toward anything at All Modern, anything by Thomas Paul, or anything at any of CSN's many stores.

Okay so here is how you can get yourself that gift card-

1. Leave me a comment telling me which set of plates is your fav and what you would do with them.

2. Go visit All Modern Dining Furniture and tell me what catches your eye.

3. Follow Just Another Day in Paradise...you know over on the side bar where is says "thank you for being a friend"

That is a possible three entries. Woohoo.

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. 

Giveaway will end Saturday, January 22nd at 11:59 pm est.

Good luck!

Fabric Basket: A Home For My Rags

You guys might remember that at the very beginning of this brand spankin' new year I decided to redo our laundry room...no it is STILL not done. Close, oh-so-close.

In said laundry room I had a serious cleaning rag problem. I had all of these shoved into an old laundry basket.

Yikes.

I did find this though. Yeah!

So I rounded up some old fabric I had laying around: a couple different knits and some burlap and I fashioned myself a bin type basket thingy to put all my lovely rags into.

Ahhh...so much better. I will have you know I had to throw quite a few rags out from their sheer disgustingness...

My new rag basket has a lovely home on my new shelving in our almost done new laundry room...

So much better! LOVE it...mismatched stripes and all.

PS...just thought you might want to know there will be a giveaway tomorrow...

Our Week in a Nutshell: Movies on the Couch and Sunday Goals

It has been all cold here, which has led us to being all snuggly. I love this about cold weather. In freezing desperation I can get my Little Men to sit calmly on the couch under a ginormous blanket all cute and cuddly together...sometimes I can even budge my way in.

I know in this picture it looks like I am getting the stink eye from two of the three, but really I am crouching down just beneath the tv, they are simply that engrossed in the movie they are watching. 

I am pretty sure the only thing that broke their concentration was the popcorn I brought out about 10 minutes after this picture was taken.

So speaking of my three Little Monsters Men, I have a new goal, and I think Sundays might be the day it all comes to pass. Sundays in our home are set aside for calmness, family, church, and focus on our Heavenly Father and His Son. I LOVE Sundays (well except for when my boys don't get the memo on the the whole calmness thing). It gives me time to just be. For awhile I have wanted to use some time on Sundays to keeping up on the "journaling" of my boys' lives.

When I first started this blog it was just that...a journal of our lives. My primary readers were family and close friends. As I slowly made the switch to a how-to blog of craft-o-rama proportions the journaling of our lives, by default, were kept to a minimum. Not only did this blog slow down on the family posts, but my individual blogs tracking the milestones and daily hilarities of my three Little Men practically disappeared. In fact I am sure that my family and friends who read these have all but given up hope of their ever really being posted on.

So to all of my family, and to anyone else who might care...I am setting aside Sundays to highlight our family goings on. Here on the main blog I am going to pick a couple things that have happened in the week to highlight....a Our Week in a Nutshell. 

I am also going to use Sundays to update the boys' individual blogs. Again, this is primarily for our family members and friends. You know who you are...the ones who grow weary of the craftiness and sewing and long for an update on my oh-so-cute Little Men. So my dear sweet family, aka Grandmas, you will get a full dose of all things grandkids every Sunday.

Hopefully this will help me keep track of all our family drama fun. Hopefully you will enjoy getting a peek into our dramedy of a life. You will laugh, cry, and relate. Hopefully I will stick to my goal.

Snooderdoodle Pie

Did I get your attention with the title? Do you find yourself thinking, "What the heck is a Snooderdoodle, and how do you get it into a pie?" Does it matter? I mean doesn't it look GLORIOUS?

Okay so this pie is actually called Snickerdoodle pie. So how did the whole Snooderdoodle thing come about? One of the Little Men of course.

Middle Little Man was with me the whole time I was making this. He was beside himself waiting to have some. When I finally pulled it out of the oven, he excitedly asked, "Mom now can I have some snooderdoodle pie?" Insert a goofy adoring grin on my Momma face here.

I will now  be calling it this FOREVER.

I came across this recipe while drooling over my new favorite site The Noble Pig...yes I that is what it is called. This site is filled with a never-ending drool-fest of the most delightful recipes. I practically cheered when I came across this recipe for Snickerdoodle Pie. I mean I ADORE snickerdoodles. To put them in pie form seemed genius. I woohooed when I realized I had all the ingredients already in my house. So yes, I literally made it the very same day of finding it.

This was an easy pie with a delicious outcome. It is a little cake like inside, so basically cookie, pie, and cake all rolled in one. Perfect!

So check your pantry, make a quick run to the store and make your family some Snooderdoodle Pie...they will love it.

Snooderdoodle Pie a.k.a Snickerdoodle Pie

1 rolled refrigerated unbaked piecrust
1 Tablespoon raw sugar or coarse sugar (I used regular sugar because that is what I had, it still turned out delightful)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup butter plus 1 Tablespoon, divided (some softened, some melted)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons light colored corn syrup
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350^o F.  Prepare pastry and line 9" pie plate.  In a bowl combine raw sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.  Brush melted butter over crust.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set aside.

For syrup, in saucepan combine brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, the water, corn syrup and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.  Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Boil gently 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Set aside.

In mixing bowl beat 1/4 cup softened butter with electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Beat in granulated sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar until well combined.  Beat in egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Gradually beat in milk until combined.  Beat in flour.  Spread evenly in crust-lined plate.

Slowly pour syrup over filling in pie plate.  Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Cover edges of pie with foil.

Bake pie 25 minutes; carefully remove foil.  Bake 20 minutes more or until top is puffed and golden brown and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool 30 minutes on wire rack.  Serve warm.