Let it snow...

Ugh, it has snowed over a foot in the past week. The first snow was 1/2 foot and this city was not prepared! There were lots of issues with streets not being plowed quick enough, and many people downtown park on the side of the road, so the snow had no where to go after plowed! Not to mention we had an ice storm the same night of the snow, so all the snow is now stuck under a layer of ice. Yuck! I don't see this snow going away until spring. Right now it's 1 degree out. 1 DEGREE! The other day as Ellie and I left in the morning it was below zero. I have some snow pictures that I will try to put up later today or tomorrow. There is also snow predicted 3 times in the coming week. A gigantic thank you to my great friend Autumn who sent me her down jacket to use this winter! If it worked hiking the mountains of Nepal, it definitely works here. Welcome to winter! We can't wait to get to Arizona in a week and a half...

So, I made the brownies from Deceptively Delicious. In case you didn't know, these brownies have spinach and carrots in them. Yep, sounds disgusting. Tara was interested in these as well, so I bit the bullet and began steaming the vegetables. The first thing to mix together is the melted chocolate with the pureed spinach and carrots. As I held the bowl of steaming green spinach soup poised above the bowl of chocolate, I thought "What a waste of good chocolate." It was not a pretty sight! After mixing together all the ingredients (with whole-wheat flour and some flaxseed meal thrown in, these brownies are quite healthy!) I couldn't resist tasting the batter. Hmm, not too bad... The recipe warns not to eat the brownies warm, but to let them cool completely so the spinach has a chance to disappear. Well, of course I couldn't resist at least tasting them straight from the oven. Wow, still not bad! And after they cooled... let's just say Ellie did not resist gobbling her large brownie right up after dinner. I wouldn't say they are the best brownies I have ever had, but I definitely wouldn't think there were vegetables in them! If you like cakey brownies over fudgy (I prefer fudgy, but I'll take my chocolate either way), you'd definitely like them. And if I added frosting, there's no way you would be disappointed. Well, who wants me to bring brownies for their holiday dinner???