The perfect brownie: found. Only if you like mint.

I have the most incredible brownie recipe for you - if you love mint, you will love this brownie.

Purchase your usual brownie mix and all the necessities you need for them. And a bag of Andes mints - whole or crushed. Either works.

You simply make brownies as you normally would. Once they're done, I usually let them cool for a little under 10 minutes so that they're still pretty warm. Then spread almost the entire bag (or the entire bag, depends on how much you want) of Andes mints on top so that they create a top layer. Then place in the refrigerator until the mint layer has cooled and hardened. This usually takes about 30 - 45 minutes.

And if you want to lighten the brownie a bit you can buy Duncan Hines brownie mix - they're the best anyway. You can substitute the water, oil and eggs with 2 tbsp of water, 1/3 cup of applesauce (in place of the oil) and one egg - or 1/4 cup of egg whites/egg substitute (the equivalent of one egg). This reduced fat version is on the back of the Duncan Hines box.

Less calories and I PROMISE you, you cannot tell the difference and they're fabulous. Then dump a load of chocolate mints on top! :-)

Yummy eating!

UPDATE: This recipe needs a more credible source than myself - thank you Jane Dennis for your yummy brownie recipe.

Comments

I've been told people cannot leave a comment unless they have an account. I didn't realize it was on that setting. I've changed it now to where anyone can post a comment.

Peace.

Razorbacks! All kinds of Razorbacks!

The very first game day weekend brought a lot of fun tailgating, good friends, a disappointing game (sorry if you disagree) and a sighting of JERMAIN TAYLOR!

Friday night consisted of pre-partying with Katie, Elise, Liz and crew that lasted until the wee hours - I haven't had that much fun on a Friday in a while! Then came game day - and tailgating started at about 2 in the afternoon. Even though Katie thought we were getting out way too late! :-) Tailgating was fun and all over the place - and by the time the game started at 6, I'm pretty sure we all had our hair stuck to our skin and our make-up sweating down our faces. Wow it was hot. Seats for the game were good - thanks Michele - but the Hogs, not so much. We won yes, but we should have obliterated the Western Illinois Leathernecks and that was not so much the case.

Sunday consisted of hanging with the pups and seeing Mama Mia with Kim and Liz. It was good - DON'T take your male significant other. And we were the youngest people in the theater.

Going back to Jermain. Saturday night his pimped out, black Rolls-Royce just pulled up right behind Stir and Busters and parked on the curb. When I realized Jermaine was getting out of it, I flipped. I'm not a boxing fan - but I am a Jermain Taylor fan, and I have never missed him fight. I think he's fantastic and gorgeous and fantastic again! And he was so sweet. I asked if I could take a picture with him, he just smiled and yes "sure." I also of course decided to profess my love. Then he went into Stir, but not before I got a picture.


Kim and I post game and post tailgate at Busters Saturday night.


Kim, Elise and her two sisters, Erica and Jessica, and me.

Oh, it's on! Introducing Ms. Alaska!

Oh, it's laughable! Wow - forget about her oh-so-boring, irrelevant speech that had zero substance and sounded more like a high-schooler pleading with her fellow classmates to "please vote for me", but the woman isn't even qualified! The former mayor of a town of only 9,000 and Alaskan beauty queen - who participated in beauty pageants to earn money for college - probably spent more time prepping for her stint on the catwalk longer than she's served as the governor of Alaska. Telling Vogue magazine "They made us line up in bathing suits and turn our backs so the male judges could look at our butts. I couldn't believe it."

After running on a platform of "heavy reform" this governor has decided to (potentially) abandon her state - and promises - only 20 months after election. This only shows that John McCain's doubts about his presidential run have now turned into sheer desperation.

This is too good to be true.

So, I bet a majority of us can safely say that McCain has chosen this "surprise pick" in order to pick-up a few Hillary voters. Good to know that the McCain camp and the Bush administration can no longer shout "inexperience" in Obama's direction.

Besides the fact that she's a woman - and this is thought to bring many new faces to the McCain side - her supporters argue that she is "arguably the only candidate who has the necessary expertise to address the single most pressing issue in this election: gas prices. As Governor of Alaska, Chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (America’s largest interstate organization), and a former Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Sarah Palin can run rings around almost anyone when it comes to oil."

Well, puh-lease. This is like asking for a third helping of all the slop President Bush has served us for the past eight years. But, even with her looming inexperience, she is the quintessential Republican. McCain hopes she will claim the female vote; she's pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-family - whatever that means.

Go Obama!

Fantasy Football!

As many of you probably know Cole is oh-so-into football. Subsequently, I've had football introduced into my life and I never thought I'd ever be this knowledgeable about it. Ever. And this year I've entered my first fantasy football league - and today was the day to draft. Today was also draft day for Cole and Kyle's league - so it was a big football day for us. Below is my team. Pretty nice, huh?

Quarterbacks
Donovan McNabb
Eli Manning

Running Backs
Marion Barber
Clinton Portis
Selvin Young
Ricky Williams

Wide Receivers
T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Plaxico Burruss
Laveranues Coles
Kevin Curtis

Update: I've traded Kevin Curtis for Jabar Gaffney due to injury and that he might not play until October.

Tight Ends
Dallas Clark
Alge Crumpler

Defensive Teams
Jacksonville Jaguars
New York Giants

Kicker
Mike Nugent

I am exhausted!

This weekend was jam-packed, and I mean jam-packed! But it was jam-packed with lots of fun! Kate, Kyle and their dog Abby came in town from St. Louis to visit and stayed with me. And the fun began Friday night around 10 and didn't stop until Sunday afternoon - and then I crashed and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Much needed.

So, what all did we do? Well, if you're friends with Cole and me, you've heard us talk about Fast Lane. The Lokomotion/Chuck E Cheese for adults/Dave & Busters all rolled into one in Northwest Arkansas. That was Friday night. We played games, played laser tag, ate fried pickles and bowled all night long. And I have to throw in - I bowled a 181! I wish I had taken a picture! Then we all went back to my house and had a big sleep over. So much fun!

Kate and I discovering Dance Dance Revolution - who knew it was so fun?


Kate enjoying her 150 tickets from the Deal or No Deal game. This proved to be a very popular game among us.


Bo and Bailey hamming it up in the bowling alley - AKA Cosmo's Corner.


Cole working his magic. This is also a good picture of the bowling alley - there are big screens behind the lanes constantly playing music videos.


Saturday night was wedding time. Marlena Sweeney, a friend from college and a great fellow debater, married Michael Bond - coincidentally enough he's my boss Michele's brother. The wedding was at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Springdale. Cole and I made it through the hour-long full Catholic mass complete with communion. The reception was at the Towne Center on the square. I saw a lot of old debate friends and my former debate coaches Leah and Keith Peterson.
Leah, Emily Story and I at the reception.


And Sunday was all about Fantasy Football drafting - next post.

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

This is not what the Westboro Baptist Church wants you to believe. This hate-filled group is well known (not for anything that positively impacts the world or themselves or their congregation) for picketing certain events, specifically funerals of fallen soldiers and well-known politicians or family members of politicians.

First of all, it makes me sick to enter their site http:www.godhatesfags.com. - please know I had to google this, I do not visit this site. But it also makes you want to laugh out loud that they use the words "God" and "hate" together so much on their Web site and in their everyday language. They do not preach love or tolerance or forgiveness - you may remember this is what the Bible talks about. Ironically enough, they preach the Bible by preaching hate. Below is what I would consider their pathetic "about them" section found on the homepage of their Web site:

"Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious from the vile, and is therefore as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC took her ministry to the streets, conducting over 34,000 peaceful demonstrations (to date) opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth."

Seems to me they cannot come up with anything better to bitch about besides the fact that there are people who live their lives openly gay and there are people who support it. I bet a few are just pissed off that they're gay themselves and are unable to admit it or act on it. Think about it, I bet some of them are gay. But that's not the point. Before I start a rant that is just as ridiculous as theirs I want to try and give you insight as to why they do the things they do. BUT I BARELY CAN! They're preaching is really just judging others and disrespecting millions of families.

I'm not going to preach - not my style - and you're not asking for it. But, it's so humorous (not really, but what else am I supposed to say?) that they cannot make a case for themselves except for "we live disgusting lives and God hates us for it." So, in turn they find it appropriate to picket Bill Gwatney's funeral and say that God sent the shooter because of his sins. And one of his sins is that he's friends with the Clinton's. Well, sign me up then. I just find it so inappropriate, weird, disgusting and bothersome.

If you feel like getting sick to your stomach you can visit their schedule of terror here. It lists Little Rock as one of it's stops before they scoot on to terrorize Isaac Haye's family. No that's not a joke. Check it out for yourself: http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html.

Do something good for the environment AND the water supply today

Fluorescent light bulbs and batteries contain toxic chemicals that are dangerous if they get into groundwater, air or soil and are absorbed even in small quantities. These products contain substances such as mercury, lead and PCBs and cannot be thrown out in your kitchen trash can - or your bedroom trash can. A single broken fluorescent light bulb (whose hazardous culprit is mercury) can contaminate as much as 7,000 gallons of water!

Light bulbs and batteries need to be recycled or treated as hazardous waste! So, the solution is below. If your city is not listed, you can google your city name and "solid waste" and I'm sure this information will appear. Also a great resource for finding a location near you is http://www.Earth911.org., which enables you to search by item and zip code for a recycling center.

For Fayetteville:
Bring them to us! We recycle ink jets and batteries at the Solid Waste and Recycling Facility for no charge. We are located at 1560 Happy Hollow Road in southeast Fayetteville and are open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. Please take regular batteries to the Washington County Household Hazardous Waste trailer on Brink Drive. Their phone number is (479) 444-1725.

Also, many places such as Radio Shack, Office Depot and Best Buy will recycle these hazardous items.

NEW CAR!

Finally! After our scary wreck, the Vibe had to go! About three weeks ago Cole and I drove to Kansas City and picked up my new Nissan Altima! I did A LOT of research to find the car I wanted. It had to have everything on my list - and this one does plus more! It's an 06 with 23k miles, fully loaded, leather, sunroof, spoiler, ground effects, they tinted my windows, the coolest navigation system with screen that is not any extra a month, satellite connection and 6 disc Bose stereo system!

It's so wonderful and nice - I cannot wait to show it to my family next weekend!

Summer Treats

I've had the biggest sweet tooth lately! The last two Fridays at work we've had cupcakes from Rick's Bakery here in Fayetteville - they have the best ever. The icing is piled so high and the cupcakes are always moist and yummy.


And below is a picture of a cake I purchased from Cold Stone. Last Sunday I was craving it and decided that instead of waiting in the huge line I would purchase a small cake. Then I decided to be an airhead and think the "time" labeled on the cake (when it was made) - 9:33 - was how much it was. I assumed I'd spend that much anyway and I'd bypass the line - genius move, right? Not really, the cake was $25 but I was too embarrassed to put it back! You should have seen Cole's confused face when I was walking back to the car - I had gone in for ice cream for me and a milkshake for him! As you can see we have polished it off quite nicely.

What a disappointment...

I almost feel silly for being so disappointed in Edwards - obviously, we're not close friends. And although I never thought he should be our next president I felt he was an important figure in bringing the Democratic party back into the White House. I also felt he was a wholesome and moral Southerner who tugged at our heartstrings when he and his wife Elizabeth publicly discussed her terminal battle with cancer.

It's such a shame. And I think there's more to the story, and I'm really interested to know the outcome of the paternity test.

"And the days went by like paper in the wind. Everything changed, then changed again. It's hard to find a friend. It's hard to find a friend."

The last couple of weeks have been a little different for me. This year I've had three good friends move away from me for good. Not to mention, I'm still not over Sarah P moving back to Memphis! I'm happy for them because they're moving on to big and better things but I miss them so much! It has been a little lonely and I'm adjusting...I guess.

First Kate, who just finished getting her masters in Hospital Administration at UAMS, and Kyle moved to St. Louis at the beginning of the summer. Kate is starting her fellowship at the Barnes Jewish Hospital. This summer my family went to St. Louis while my grandmother was in town and I got to see Kate. I can't wait to go again.

And Elise! Elise who just got engaged and we have to help plan her wedding from SO far away! Elise and Ricky just moved - like last week - to New Orleans. This is good in that we have a free place to stay when we want to go to NOLA! Elise and Ricky moved so that Ricky can begin his four years in dental school. Then hopefully they will move back!

And a couple weeks before Elise and Ricky moved Nick and Amanda moved to Enterprise, AL (nice!) so that Nick could attend Flight School.

But, on a brighter note, Katie and Ehren moved back from Dallas to finish their last year in law school. They also got engaged - and job offers to Baker Botts Law Firm in Dallas! Alas, they will be moving at the end of next summer - after their lovely destination wedding, of course.

I miss my friends!