ouch

so the biggest thing to write about for this week is.... yesterday i was supposed to teach, and i walked outside and noticed a sheet of ice surrounding our building on all sides. our brilliant apartment complex decided to put the sprinklers on in 20 degree weather. so i try to walk very carefully to my car.... and bust it, evidently breaking my fall with my elbows and butt. so even though my new sweet friend elise had just fixed my back (after more than a year of back pain thanks to a hypermobile spine that gets out of place easily), it got hurt all over again; i have a bruise on my butt; two crazy pained elbows (bruises accumulating quickly); WHIPLASH! (have you ever had whiplash? my goodness!! it hurts to yawn! i'm realizing just how many muscles are in my neck, too. i guess it's a good learning experience... i bruised my neck meat! haha); and i didn't get to teach because it hurt so bad. am i 85 for experiencing this much pain from a dang fall??? needless to say, it's pretty difficult to not hold on to anger towards the management when i am constantly reminded by my pain of their negligence. still, i know i need to forgive them. only God can help me with that one.

we got all of our nutcrackers out last night! they are so festive, and i think they are one of the most non-cheesy christmas decorations. we also played a lot of farkle last night. farkle makes my heart smile.

plans for the weekend: today- errands/clean, craft day with faith, date tonight of subway (tryin' to be healthy...) and renting julie and julia. (i've heard so many good things about that movie, so i am excited!) plus i'm sure we'll play farkle. tomorrow- shop for an angel from an angel tree, hopefully make christmas cookies, and go to my parents' house to visit with my aunt and cousin who are coming into town (i haven't seen them in about 12 years for my aunt and even longer for my cousin). i'm sure we'll play farkle. sunday- make christmas cookies if we didn't get to do it saturday, church, then hanging out with the wendorfs; i'm sure we'll play farkle.

our half marathon training has been going quite well, despite the ridiculous weather we've been having. i have been writing down everything i eat, too, which helps me stay in check. i think i'm losing weight, but i may have to wait until tomorrow to see for sure... i definitely feel better, so that is one goal achieved! tomorrow the high is supposed to be in the 50s so hopefully we won't have to go to the work out room yet again. it's so boring to run in there.

well i have got to get ready and begin the day! did i mention that next weekend is our birthday party! i can't wait! weeee!

Just Playing Along

Hello, Deanna, my loyal reader! haha :)

and in case anyone else reads this...

so deanna showed me a new blog called heart of light and oh em gee. this girl has some of the cutest stuff on there! i saw that she had an etsy site and i died. then deanna tells me that she has tutorials on her blog that show you how to make the stuff!!! ahhhhh! i seriously was getting so excited that i had to walk away from the computer. then i showed faith and she died, too. so i found a new project. if it all turns out cute enough, i'll have some new christmas presents to be giving out. weee!

let's talk about this weekend. so thursday night my love had to go out of town, which killed me. i went to girls' night at jenny's but i started crying as soon as i walked in. he was only gone one night and one day but i HATE when he has to leave. then friday i taught and finally at like 9 pm i went and got him from the airport. we were supposed to go on a date, but that didn't happen since it was so late. saturday we ran some errands and then we celebrated the four year anniversary of our first date! it technically was sunday, but we had church that night. we went to roti grill in plano for dinner. i love that place, but since we have discovered how to make our own chicken masala, i think i'll stick with cooking it here. i do love their samosas, though! then we went to a game night at justin and jenny's. it was fun. we played a new game called "funglish". it's really fun! check it out! have i ever put our recipe for chicken masala up here? well here it is:

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients

Marinade

1 cup yogurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt, or to taste

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

Sauce: (best if recipe is doubled)

1 tbsp butter (or more to thicken)

1 clove garlic, minced

½ jalapeno pepper, finely chopped, seeds removed

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 cup whole milk

Directions

In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2 tsp cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and 4 tsp salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Drain marinade from chicken. On a stovetop, heat chicken until cooked through.

Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Sauté garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Season with 2 tsp cumin, paprika, and salt. Stir in tomato sauce and milk. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. Put on top of basmati rice.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 256 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 446 Calories from Fat 104

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 11.6g 18%

Saturated Fat 3.9g 20%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 108mg 36%

Sodium 874mg 36%

Total Carbohydrates 44.2g 15%

Dietary Fiber 2.1g 8%

Sugars 5.1g

Protein 39.2g

Vitamin A 13% • Vitamin C 7% Calcium 15% • Iron 17% Nutrition Grade B

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

you may notice that i have included the nutrition information. well, i found a website that helps you find out that information. you type in your recipe and it tells you the nutrition info! so cool! you sometimes have to change how you word your ingredients, though, or it won't find the info for them. for instance, we made chili and i typed "1 chopped poblano pepper", but it didn't bring up that info. then i typed "1 pepper, poblano", and it came up. if it doesn't have the information for a particular ingredient, it will have a red or yellow flag beside it. if it does have the info, it will put a green flag! here's the site:

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

i'm so excited about this. i love finding new recipes but if the nutrition info isn't included, sometimes i'm discouraged from using that recipe. i am always at least TRYING to be healthy!

speaking of trying to be healthy, we decided to start training for a half marathon. i know. it's crazy. basically what happened was we were watching Biggest Loser over Thanksgiving break, and the "where are they now" episode came on. one of the guys was talking about doing an Iron Man, and i was saying that that is so stupid. why would you need to do that ever? i guess it's really awesome if you can do it, but i don't see a point in trying for it, at least for myself. so then i was telling matt that the only thing like that i can see going for is a 1/2 marathon. well, there was my mistake- verbalizing that dream! now we are training. as you are reading this, you may think that i really am distraught over it, but i'm not. we are taking it slow. at the end of january we will do a 5K, then another if i'm not ready for a 10 yet. then we will do 1 or two 10 Ks and then we will do the half. our goal is just a year from now to do the half, but if it's sooner then great! we have been really good with our training schedule. it's kind of fun, and it's definitely motivating us to both work out. we started last week, and so this week i am starting to write down everything i eat- just to be more mindful of it. that tends to help me eat much better. and lordy lordy i need to lose weight. i'm not saying this in a "wah i'm fat" kind of way. no, i just need to lose it to be healthier.

so here is our chili recipe. our friend justin made it on halloween and we loved it so much. it is a little spicy, so next time we make it we will change it to what i'm going to type below, but it is so good and healthy healthy!!

Justin's Freaking Awesome Turkey Chili

INGREDIENTS

2 cups chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, chopped fine or 2 tsp minced garlic

1 chopped green passillo/pobalano pepper

1 chopped green Anaheim chili pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

5 (15 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, crushed

2 (15 oz) mixed Chili Beans

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3/4 cup chicken stock

4 Tbsp of Chili powder

2 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp dried hot red pepper flakes (2 if you like the heat)

2 teaspoon dried oregano

(optional) 1 Tbsp salt, plus more if desired to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 pound 93/7 cooked ground turkey

Cooking Directions

1 In a large, 8-quart, thick-bottom pot, cook the onion and green pepper over medium high heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for a minute or two more. Add a bit more olive oil if needed.

2 Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock. beans, oregano, salt, pepper, and cooked turkey meat. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for an hour.

3 Salt to taste. Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of sugar to take the edge of the acidity of the tomatoes if desired.

Makes about 12 cups.

it's been the perfect weather for chili, huh? :) i've also been loving banana smoothies. to make a big one or to make one to share, put 1 cup of skim milk in a blender, plus 1 banana (you may want to break it into a few pieces), a splash of vanilla, 1-2 packets of splenda OR 1 tbsp sugar, 8 ice cubes. blend until no more ice chunks. YUM!

let's talk about christmas. (ok let me side track for a moment. i know my entries can be really long, but i also don't update very often, so... bah.) so at church the other week, i heard BarlowGirl's "Hallelujia (Light is Come)". BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER. it really really helped me to understand the point of christmas. i mean, of course the point is that Jesus was born, but to be honest... which maybe is a bad idea in a blog that anyone can read... i just didn't see the point in celebrating Jesus being born, because He died for our sins, and that's what we need to celebrate. well, no, that's wrong. it IS something to celebrate, because people were praying for a savior, and God sent one in His son. this song sounds beautiful, too, so check it out.

also, we put our tree up. it's very beautiful. i love justin and jenny's tree with the birds and stuff, so i got some little owls to put in there. it's a very woodsy/woodland sort of theme, and i like it a lot. we put some pine cones in the tree and we have some in a dish on the table. the ornaments are all silver/gold/bronze/glittery brown. it's great. of course before we got the tree, i had already wrapped the presents with a paper that was not matching the tree, but it's still good. those presents won't be under the tree for much longer! haha :) here's a pic of the tree.

that's duke in the way of the tree. he's so weird but fun.

oh! we also had a thanksgiving potluck with our friends. here's a picture of our costumes:

we did this last year, too, but on thanksgiving day with our families.

also i needed to say that i am loving keane's CDs. i have heard hopes and fears and i already knew about that but matt also has perfect symmetry on our computer and i'm really loving it. i titled this entry "just playing along", because i was listening to it and i just love it so much! also, i just finished reading "beautiful boy" by david scheff. it's really good. it's his memoir and his story about his son's addiction to meth. really good stuff. i knew it would be. i saw it in starbucks this past spring break or the spring break before and i wanted it but i didn't have enough money for it at the time. (it was still in hardback.) so it came out in paperback and i got it. next i am going to read "loose girl, a memoir of promiscuity" by kerry cohen. right now i have a lot of nonfiction to finish up but as soon as i have one or two of those books out of the way, i'm reading it.

well, i have a lot more to get done today, so i better be done blogging for today. hopefully i'll update more this week! weee!

it's been a while

i know it's been a while since i've written, and the only reason i am doing it now is because our friends beau and jill got a blog and it inspired me to write today! it is now november, and the last time i wrote was the first day of fall! since then, we have had bad hair cuts, celebrated halloween, met a member of my favorite band, gone to the fair, and had many many instances of spending time with friends.

so on halloween, i had written that i was going to make my costume and be a cupcake. matt was a baker. it was too cute.

at the halloween party, i made a sandwich roll that looks like a snake. (thanks, paula deen! you can find the recipe on foodtv.com.) it turned out really cute. i will add a picture of that, as well. :)

that same weekend, on sunday, matt and i had tickets to go see the hanson concert in dallas. well i love hanson so much. they are the only famous people i ever cared about meeting. well as we were walking up to the door, we took a path that no one else was taking, and i look over near the tour buses and i see isaac!! so i'm like, "matt! that is isaac hanson!" and matt says, "well do you want his autograph? we have our ticket stubs!" and so we walk over and he was so nice and gave me his autograph and took a picture with me! i was on cloud 9 for the rest of the night. it was so exciting :). plus that night they had a GREAT concert, and there was a new cd for sale! yay!

this is a pretty terrible picture of both of us, but i still wanted to put it up because it is so exciting!

of course there have been other events since then, but these were the best pictures. i will try to be better about blogging, especially as the holidays are approaching :).

first day of fall!

hello, deanna. haha you are the only person who reads my blog!!

so this morning i made pumpkin pudding in honor of the first day of fall.

pumpkin pudding

ingredients
1 large package vanilla pudding
2 1/2 cups milk (or the amount required to make the pudding)
1- 8 oz container cool whip
1- 15 oz can of pure pumpkin
pumpkin pie spice (optional)

directions
mix it all together! it would be best to mix the pudding mix and milk first, so that you get all the lumps out, then with a wooden spoon mix the rest in. if you use "light", "sugar free", or "fat free" for any of these ingredients, you will decrease the calories quite a bit. so that's another reason this recipe rocks.

tonight amanda is coming over and we are going to have a fall festival with pumpkin pudding and chili. yummmy! maybe we can watch biggest loser, also.

so i decided to be a cupcake for halloween!

i got opaque grey footless tights (because i couldn't find the silver metallic leggings i'd seen at target and made fun of before) to act as the cupcake paper. i will wear shorts on top of them, just in case my topping comes up and shows too much throughout the night.

then for the top of the cupcake, i got an off-white twin fitted sheet and cut a hole in the middle for my head. because twin sheets are much longer than they are wide, i'll have to pin or sew the front and back up inside it self to make it more even. this idea was perfect, though, because it sort of balloons out at the bottom like icing would! then i'll need to decorate that part like a cupcake with ribbon and something to act as sprinkles.

well for the top of the cupcake, i was going to try to find a red beret, but first of all, hats are at least 15 dollars and i'll never wear it again. plus i couldn't find a red one anyway! so then i thought about using a dark pink loofah or a pink wig or wrapping a pink feather boa around my neck (i just wanted the boa- it had nothing to do with a cupcake). but then i decided to just look for a fake cherry. well i found a whole box of them that you might put in a vase or something! so i got those and a headband and hot glued two of the cherries on the headband. the box of cherries was still more than i wanted to spend, but we can put them in a vase as a decoration and actually use them again. so anyway, i am really excited about being a cupcake for halloween!!

when i finish the costume, i'll take a picture. alright it is time for me to continue my day off!

get low, schwarty

the village dallas opened this weekend! praise the Lord! i know He will do wonderful things through that campus, and i'm so excited that deanna and allison get to go!!

sooo... i guess i didn't really update at all this week!

monday was labor day so that was fun because matt stayed home. we went to his parents' house and then everyone fell asleep so we just left. then luke and amanda came over for tacos and we all went to home group together. wait... i did write about this!! ha ha :)

tuesday allison and reese came over... did i say that? i baby sat him while she went to the dentist, and we made sam a bear for her first football game. she is the mascot, and she is really good. it was fun going to her game.

wednesday i went to my bible study in the morning, and i'm really excited about it. i have done four chapters in Matthew now, and God has been showing me a lot. then that night, faith came over and we talked a lot, which was fun. the boys had a cigar night, though not everyone had them.

thursday i didn't do much, and when matt got home from work we just watched arrested development.

friday, i subbed. it was so wonderful! it made me realize how much i really miss teaching every day. i had a great class that day, too, which helps of course! *sigh* it was also fun seeing all the teachers there. katie, one of my mentor teachers during student teaching, teaches second grade, which is the grade i subbed in, so i got to spend a lot of time with her. i already have three sub jobs for next week and 5 for october, so that is good. i think that i'm starting to appreciate just subbing a few times a week and then being done when i leave... as in, i don't have to take stuff home. of course, if i got a teaching job now, i wouldn't mind doing it, because i love it so much. anyway...

saturday, it was still raining. we woke up later than usual, and decided to go on a picnic in the rain with the smiths. it was so fun!! we ate leftover tacos, and then decided to go on a spontaneous sprinkles run! those cupcakes are delish, i tell you!! that night we went to church and afterwards, we went to the smiths to play some games. it was fantastic. we played imaginiff. it's so fun and funny! we laughed so much that night, you might have thought we were drunk. there was definitely no alcohol involved. some people were hyped up on caffeine, but other than that, we were cleaaan. we got home super late that night...

so sunday we woke up late! haha :) then we took all of our dvds (over 100) and took the DVDs out of the cases, put them in a DVD book holder thing, and threw away the cases. we are going to give the little shelf to allison. i'm so glad it's going to be gone!! it looks so much cleaner in here :). we also have been cleaning, which i am taking a break from to write this!

This week, I already have three sub jobs Mon-Wed. I'll be missing my Bible study (ok why do i sometimes capitalize the right letters, and sometimes not? i'm done now.) but i'll be there next week. tomorrow we are going to jason mraz; tuesday shelley is coming over; wednesday i'm having dinner with michelle; thursday doctor's appointment; friday and the weekend are free! i'm sure it will be a good time, but we'll have to see what happens! :)

now here are two recipes, one for tacos, one for amazing rice.

Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegfetable oil

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice (i used brown instant rice)

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 cups chicken broth (i used the make it yourself kind)

1-2 tbsp chili powder

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.

2. Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth: bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Amazing Tacos

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork shoulder roast (or beef roast, whatever you have)

*-[for more flavorful meat, double the following ingredients, except salt]-*

1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, drained

2 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon taco seasoning

1 teaspoon minced garlic

3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions from the recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Place the roast on top of a large piece of aluminum foil. In a small bowl, stir together the green chilies, chili powder, oregano, taco seasoning, and garlic. Rub onto the roast. Wrap foil around the roast so that it is completely covered, using additional aluminum foil if necessary. Place on top of a roasting rack in a baking dish, or place a cookie sheet on an oven rack below to catch any leaks.

3. Roast meat for 3 1/2 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until falling apart. Remove from the oven and shred into small pieces using two forks. Season with salt to taste.

What we did:

1. Put the roast into your crock pot and turn it on to cook on low for 8-10 hours... or however long before you're going to eat.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the green chilies, chili powder, oregano, taco seasoning, and garlic. Rub onto the roast.

3. When you're ready to eat (the meat will be done if you let it go the whole time in the crock pot, even if you do it on high for 4-6 hours), pull it apart with two forks!

These are so good!

the stars get red and oh the night's so blue

so serving at church on the welcome team was so fun. we got to see so many people and it was just great. after church we went out with everyone but then we went to the smiths to play games. sunday matt and i just lazed around all day, and we decided we needed to get out after dinner, and the smiths called and asked us to go to fireside pies with david and faith and luke and amanda. oh. my. word. that place was soooo good!!! then most of them came over here to play games and i made some delicious cupcakes... i just used a box mix, but added chocolate chips. and then i made this great icing recipe, which i cut in half, that jenny gave me:

Chocolate Icing by Jenny Smith

Ingredients:

5 cups confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

In large bowl, mix with mixer at low speed, adding all the ingredients, until well blended. Increase speed to high; beat until frosting is light and fluffing and an easy spreading consistency. Then eat and enjoy!

it was so stinking good. then last night luke and amanda came over for dinner before home group, and that was fun. home group was such a rich experience. the girls broke up into smaller groups of 4 and i was with faith, amanda, and jenny. God just really revealed to us how much He has blessed our friendships with trust and openness and it's just such a beautiful thing. in the whole group time, we all talked about missional living, and i was very convicted... i think a lot of us were. the whole time was just very rich... i know i already said that but it's the best word i can think of.

today allison and reese are coming over and then i'm going to go to sam's first football game- she's the mascot! we are meeting matt and the rest of my family there so i am excited. you have good life now!

ohhh man.

'ello govna!

wow. what a week!! well tuesday was nothing exciting. i didn't feel well so i watched a lot of tv, including a&e's hoarders, which then made me feel like a mega-lazy bum in a dirty house... even though i didn't feel good, and our apartment is uber-clean. also shelley came over that night and we are going to try to hang out every tuesday! i hope so.

wednesday i signed up for a bible study... "how to study the bible"... i think it will be really good. i'm really looking forward to it and growing with God through this. i also signed matt and i up to serve at church on the welcome team the first saturday of every month. after i signed up, i just got this amazing, God-given peace about everything from not having a job to realizing i was given this time off for something good. everything just felt like it was exactly how God wanted it to be going.

well, five minutes after i talk to matt about all of this on the phone, he calls me back and says that his boss wanted to put him on a project that is based out of the UK, and if it all worked out matt would have to be in london for 3 weeks... but i could go, too. work is supposed to start monday. YES. this monday! so at first we are all excited, but then i start getting this nagging feeling that we should not go because of my previous paragraph. and then i started thinking of all these other reasons not to go, like... how could we not see our friends for THREE WEEKS??? i mean i know some people could go that long, but we hang out with our friends at least 3 times a week and we are really close to all of them. plus even if his company paid for my ticket, we would be spending so much money, and i would get lonely during the day while he was working, and he'd be working probably 12 hour days, and it might get extended to a full month... so even though it does seem like the perfect opportunity, because we don't have kids, and i'm not tied down to a job, i really don't think it's what God wants for us at this time. plus... i honestly and truly have never cared that much about going to london. but anyway, that has been a big part of our week.

wednesday night we took my car over to matt's parents' house and he fixed it... i think. the air conditioner runs but it's finicky when i first start driving. it takes about 5 minutes for it to finally be consistent and that sucks. i guess it's better than having no a/c at all though. we went to david and faith's to show them after matt fixed it, and we ended up staying there for a long time... well... it was a long time for just stopping by and for 10 at night. still, it was fun :).

thursday morning jenny came over and that was so fun. we just talked a long time and then we went to corner bakery for lunch... mmmmmmm tomato basil soup and uptown turkey no tomatoes... after she left i watched plain truth with mariska hargitay that was made out of the jodi picoult novel, plain truth. it was pretty good. then i got this huge chocolate craving and i made brownie cupcakes. OMG. they were fantastic. well, the recipe only made 12, but i still didn't want 12 cupcakes lying around so we took some to luke and amanda, and stayed there for a while talking. (see? we DEFINITELY see our friends a lot!) also yesterday we went to barnes and noble and i got the first book in the charlaine harris, "sookie stackhouse novel" series. these books became trueblood on HBO. i haven't watched the show, because deanna told me there was a lot of sex in it, but i've heard the books were really good. i just got one in case i don't like it. if i do, though, there are quite a few books in this series, and she has written many other books. that will be fun :).

today i am going to go shopping with deanna, and tonight we are going to take david and faith to chuy's for dinner to thank david for helping with my car so much. then we might go to la duni for some delicious cake or sprinkles for some cupcakes. it all depends if we want dessert by then. tomorrow we are going to matt's manager's house for a work party. we have to bring something, but i don't know what to bring. it goes against my principles to go buy something for it, but i don't really want to bake- they never say thank you even when i make something specifically because i was asked. i guess i take after my grandpa with this kind of attitude. then saturday night we start serving on the welcome team at church. thennnn we will probably go to dinner with our friends. (see? this will be the 6th time with them this week, and that does not include phone calls and texts that would not be made if we were overseas because of the unbelievable charges.) i don't really know what we will do sunday- maybe visit my family- but then monday morning we are going to matt's parents' i think. i am not actually sure. it would be fun for matt and i to go on a date this weekend since it's 3 days long. there are a lot of movies i've been wanting to see.

ok here is the recipe for brownie cupcakes. it was really easy and you probably already have everything in your kitchen... i did!

oh my goodness. there is CHOCOLATE on the bottom of this cookbook!! ha aha ha. that's a good sign i think. it's 500 cupcakes by fergal connolly. matt's brother, justin, gave it to me for christmas two years ago. it has some good stuff, but some weird stuff too. this recipe was fairly simple.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (i used milk chocolate, because it's what we had)

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter (we didn't use sweet butter, we didn't have it)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups superfine sugar (i used regular sugar)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all- purpose flour

preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until melted. (i just put it in a microwave safe bowl, put it in for 30 seconds, stirred, another 30 seconds, stirred, until smooth). set aside to cool. in a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until pale and thick. fold in the chocolate and then the flour, mixing until well combined.

spoon batter into cups. bake for 25 minutes. remove pan from oven and cool for 5 minutes. then remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.

you may serve it with vanilla cream topping, but i did not think that was necessary. however...

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp confectioners' sugar, sifted

For the topping, beat the cream in a medium bowl until semi-stiff. fold in the vanilla and confectioners' sugar. place a dollop or two on each brownie.

store without topping in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

makes 1 dozen.