Pumpkin-sweet potato brownies

I know what you're thinking. How can brownies not be chocolate? Or at least peanut butter, or maybe cheesecake? Go with me. I found this recipe on Pinterest and had to give it a try. The original, found at Candy Fit looks great as is, but I decided to change mine up a bit, both for taste preferences and what I had on hand.

Pumpkin-Sweet Potato Brownies

Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin or equivalent cooked pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)
• 1 small sweet potato, cooked (I took about a cup of cubed sweet potato from my freezer stash and microwaved it for a few minutes)
• 1 cup egg whites
• 1 cup plain oats
• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/8 cup dark chocolate chips (or 1/4 cup total of your choice of chips)

1. Preheat your oven to 385° and spray a 9x9 pan with non-stick spray. I use a Misto with olive oil for my non-stick spray.
2. Put all of your ingredients, except the chips, into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. I used a blender and had to scrape the sides a few times to get all the oatmeal incorporated. 
3. Pour your batter into a bowl, then fold in the chips.
4. Pour the whole mix into your prepared pan and pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Your bake time will depend on your oven and how much sweet potato was actually used. This doesn't test the same way a traditional flour cake or brownies would. If your toothpick comes out clean but wet-looking, they're not done.
5. Remove from oven, allow to cool, then cut into 12 even pieces.

Normally I consider it a travesty to cut anything in a 9x9 pan into more than nine pieces, but these are pretty thick, so twelve pieces still gives you a hefty chunk of brownie.

I decided to go with butterscotch and dark chocolate chips since my husband will eat pretty much anything that contains butterscotch, and the kids will eat anything that contains chocolate chips. It's a win-win. They think they're getting a pumpkin-cake type treat, but I know they're having a protein and vitamin packed snack.

Your totals will vary slightly, depending on your exact ingredients, but one serving of my brownies contains:

• 83 calories
• 1.6 g fat
• 181 mg potassium
• 13.4 g carbohydrates
• 2.5 g fiber
• 3.4 g sugar
• 4.7 g protein
• 132% DV of vitamin A
• a small amount (<20% DV each) of a whole host of other vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients

Give them a try and let me know what you think. We ended up with mixed results. I actually don't find it very appetizing due to the crust the top of mine formed, but N and S wolfed it down! It's not something I'd make for myself again and V took a few bites but didn't finish hers. The big kids gave it the "you should make this again!" seal of approval, though.

Camera lessons, part one.

A few years ago when Circuit City closed we were able to get a decent DSLR camera and extra lens at a great price. I like taking pictures, but that's been the extent of my hobby - pictures. I don't even say I like taking photos because that somehow implies what I'm doing is more than snapshots, and they aren't. I have been terribly lax with learning anything about the capabilities of my camera, or how to take pictures and what to do with them later.

Once again, Pinterest to the rescue! Never before have so many great tutorials and tips been so readily available and easily organized. I've decided to start small and simple. The first thing I tried was simply using focus length to change the overall look of pictures. Nothing complicated here: the farther away you are from a subject and the more zoomed in on it you are, the more the background blurs and your subject becomes the focal point. It also eliminates the fisheye effect that being too close to a subject gives pictures. This blog post was my instruction. I happen to have a 75-300 lens, so I snapped that on and gave it a try. It was a wet, dreary day outside so we stayed indoors and these are all taken with a pop up flash (one step at a time, remember?). These snapshots, taken randomly around the house, instantly step up a level as the background blurs and the subject takes center stage. If we'd been outside where I could get even farther away and zoom in more, it'd be even better!

V, 2 years old

S, 4 years old

N, 8 years old

These next three really show how using a long focus makes it super easy to change the focal point, which can drastically change a picture. The first two, of my kids' doll house, show how easily you can change the focal point in a tiny amount of space. I did use the manual focus to take these, so give me slack if they're not perfect. The manual focus is another step in the learning process.

First, we focus on the door.

A slight adjustment of the focus and now the clear focal point, just inches away from the door, is the sink.

I think this shows the most drastic focusing. I did absolutely nothing to the foreground or background of this picture. I laid down on the floor and shot straight on at this hairband that was laying about eight feet away from me. Because of the intense zoom, only the exact plane of the chosen focal point is in focus.

Even a hairband gains interest with a long focal length.

I am really looking forward to working with my camera. I don't have any grand dreams for myself to do anything other than improve the pictures I take of my own kids, but it'd be nice to finally use my camera to its full potential.

It's treat time!

I am a firm believer that a healthy, balanced, real food diet is the absolute foundation to good health. That said... I'm also a firm believer that junk food in low moderation is pretty awesome. And sometimes you see something on Pinterest that you just can't ignore. Enter stage left: homemade donut holes! These are made with premade biscuit dough, fried, and rolled in powdered sugar. I would use homemade dough in the future to make these slightly healthier, but I happened to have a tube of mini biscuits in the fridge already. My kids wolfed them down, and I enjoyed a few as well. I'd intended to save some for Levi when he got home tonight, but I don't imagine these keep very well anyway, and the kids were practically licking their plates for more...

Directions:

1. Open a tube of ready-to-bake biscuit dough, mini biscuit dough, or prepare your own homemade dough.
2. Cut the dough into bite sized pieces. Using mini biscuits, I cut each biscuit into fourths.
3. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot to 350°F.
4. Carefully drop biscuits in, a few at a time. You want to have room in the pot for them to float around. I used my smallest pot and did five donuts at a time. I also used wooden chopsticks to maneuver my donuts, but if you're not chopstick-profficient you can use small tongs or a fork.
5. Allow the donuts to cook a minute or two on each side. I found that most of mine flipped on their own when they were done on one side, but some needed to be manually flipped.
6. Carefully remove cooked donuts to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels to drain, and repeat for the remaining dough.
7. Once cooled, roll in your choice of powdered sugar, cinnamon, granule sugar, or enjoy plain!

The holiday highs come to an end.

I spent a large portion of today taking ornaments off the tree, carefully wrapping them, and packing them away. Then the lights came down. My husband was unable to find a tree bag anywhere in stores so the tree is still up until we dig out from our shed all the random boxes that have been housing it in the off season. It wasn't until I was in the kitchen making dinner and turned to look into the living room, saw the unlit, lonely tree in the darkened room, that I realized the holiday lows are upon us.

our 2012 Christmas tree

Our family celebrates what I would call "secular Christmas." We put up a tree (which, I know, is actually an ancient Pagan tradition, and not secular at all), write letters to Santa, cut paper snowflakes, bake cookies, and exchange gifts and acts of goodwill with each other and our friends and family. It is one of my favorite times of year. The beautiful decorations, the feelings of love and generosity that tradition has brought, the togetherness that the various crafting and activities provides. Most of all, I love the tree. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there are few things more beautiful to me than a brightly lit tree decorated with lovingly handmade or thoughtfully given ornaments. We don't do a "theme tree" with color coordinating ribbons and baubles. Our tree is an eclectic collage of memories: each unique ornament has a story or a history. Even the simple colored stars and silver balls that we use as fillers are special to me, because they were purchased by my husband and placed on a little tree, ready and waiting in our first home for us to arrive together in North Carolina after our winter wedding in New York.

Seeing the undecorated tree this evening was the official sign to me that the Christmas season is over and it's back to normal life now. That's always a bit depressing. I do have some ideas in mind to keep the lovely feelings that I associate with Christmas going into the new year, though. And on the bright side, only 360 days until next Christmas!

A houseful of aloha.

Yesterday was a great day in our house!

It was my mom's birthday and I was able to be on the phone with her when she opened her present, a boxed set of Unsolved Mysteries. She loved it and told me, "You definitely know me!" That is wonderful praise, because my mom has always been tough to shop for. She doesn't have many hobbies, having devoted herself so wholly to her work most of her life. It absolutely made my heart light up to know that she was so pleased with her gift.

a beautiful protea arrangement straight from Hawaii

And speaking of my mother, a box of flowers arrived from my parents. A protea arrangement from Hawaii! They're in a beautiful woven palm basket that will dry and be something we can always keep. I remember dried palm baskets in my parents' house growing up, and it is so wonderful to have one to have in my home now. My dad is Hawaiian by blood, born and raised there, and my mom was raised there. We never lived there as a family, but often visited family still on the islands. I haven't been able to take my own family there... yet! Someday. Hawaii is such a wonderful part of my heritage and culture, and while I do what I can from where we are, I regret that I'm not able to pass along more of it to my children. I just hope the day comes before it's too late and it's lost on them!

The final aloha blessing in our house yesterday was being able to spend time with family and friends. Levi's brother and his wife were able to come for a short visit. It is always wonderful to see them! Her family is from North Carolina so they were able to move down here a few years ago, and while we don't get to see them very often, it is nice to have some family that we can see more than once a year or so. The rest of our immediate family is all located in the north east, a long 16+ hour drive away. In addition to the in-laws, some close family friends came over with their kids. We always have such a great time with them! They're also military and will be leaving the area later next year. It's been so hard to watch friends go over the years, but I will have a particularly tough time saying goodbye to this family. But enough of that now. They're not leaving yet so no point dwelling on it and ruining my good mood rolled over from yesterday's fun!

I can't help myself! Back again.

Since I have so much free time, I decided to try blogging again. The truth is that I love blogging. I first got into the online journaling community in 1999 and maintained a journal for the better part of 8 years, on various sites. I love to write out my days; I often end my day by writing a short-story-length status on Facebook, before I realize that I'm about to post a short-story-length status, and I delete it because I hate long statuses on Facebook. Why not try blogging again, and have an appropriate place to put it all? I am often asked, "Are you blogging this anywhere?" when I post pictures of the various crafts, recipes, and activities I am doing around the house, so now I can say, "Yes!"

Today was Levi's, my husband's, birthday. He had to work late, but I had a nice dinner planned for when he arrived home. I rubbed a beef roast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then soaked it in red wine for a few hours. It was cooked at 350° until it reached 140° internal, which was a nice medium rare. So yummy! I also roasted a veggie mix of sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic cloves, and cherry tomatoes, and made a fresh fruit salad. I am already looking forward to leftover steak sandwiches tomorrow. I have a recipe pinned on my Pinterest account for some easy no-knead bread I've been wanting to try, that looks perfect to slap some thinly sliced steak onto.

DIY photo transfer on wood

After dinner we gave Levi his presents: a rugged cigar humidor and a humidifier tube, and a wood photo transfer I made. The transfer was really simple to make, but a learning experience. It's made with a gel medium, a laser printed image, and mod podge. The tutorial that I used is detailed and easy to follow. The edges are roughed up because the large section of the picture over Levi's shoulder didn't transfer for some reason; I think I didn't use enough gel medium. I roughed up the other edges to make it look intentional, since they all transferred clearly. Levi was pretty impressed with it, and said if he had a desk at work he'd take it there. High praise, in my opinion! However, with a lack of a work desk, we'll have to get some hanging hardware and find a place for it somewhere in the house. I've been itching to try the process again with other photos or phrases, so now that Levi's seen this one I can get started! I wonder if he has any scrap wood laying around in the shed, otherwise a trip to Lowes may be in order.