Brownie bites/balls

Okay, so yesterday I blogged about making churros for work....well, I decided due to time and money, I would just bake brownies. Needless to say, they did not turn out the way I expected! I baked according to package directions and let them cool then cut them up. As I was taking them out of the pan, they fell apart! I cannot take a pile of brownie chunks to work, not when I have been dubbed "Martha Stewart!" (This is what was left when I was finished rolling, just the "crust.")
Luckily I had some white chocolate left over from my Twilight party so I started rolling the pieces into balls. These turned out perfect! I was going to fork them but did not have enough forks left so luckily I had enough sucker sticks (I always have plenty of those on hand!) I put the balls in the freezer just long enough for me to melt my chocolate
and while I was doing that I fished through my pantry for something fun to "decorate" them with and found fun little sprinkles! Who doesn't love sprinkles....of course my 3 year old son saw the sprinkles and he wanted to dive right in helping Mama.
Once my chocolate was melted, I took the balls from the freezer and inserted a stick and dipped them in the chocolate. I immediately sprinkled with the sprinkles and placed them on wax paper. I repeated this process until all 20 were finished!
I let the chocolate harden on the wax paper on the counter and once they were set, moved them to the tray I will take them to work on. Wha La! Brownie balls! This is my third attempt at making these, each time I get better. My secret is the cheapest brownie mix I can find (.99 cents) and then just roll the brownies bite size. The bigger they are, the more difficult they are to work with. They are more heavy and fall off the stick. I made these small and they stayed on the sticks perfectly!

Churro or NOT to Churro, that is the question!

New shifts start Monday, July 12th and we have decided to do a Mexican theme potluck at work tomorrow. Kind of like a send off for those of us going from swing shift to days. I have been debating what to bring and this morning I got the hair brained idea to make churros. So I searched online and found this simple recipe:

Churros
Ingredients: (Makes one plate full)
Vegetable or Olive Oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Prepare to fry the churros by heating oil in a pan (1 to 1&1/2 inches) to 360 degrees F.

To make churro dough, heat water, margarine and salt to rolling boil in 3-quart saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from heat. Beat eggs all at once; continue beating until smooth and then add to saucepan while stirring mixture.

Spoon mixture into cake decorators' tube with large star tip (like the kind use to decorate cakes). Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. (Mix Sugar and the optional cinnamon); roll churros in sugar or dump the sugar on the pile of churros, like the pros. That churro taste will take you right back to your favorite summer days walking the paseos of Spain.

Note: REAL churros in Spain are made without cinnamon mixed with the sugar, but the cinnamon adds an extra nice flavor.

Now I just need to go to the store and buy some flour and see if I can do this.

Team Challenge

So each team at work is given the challenge of doing a "4th of July ice chest" and they are raffled off and the ice chest with the most tickets wins either a pizza party or ice cream party. We never win and so this time I took matters into my own hands! Here are a few pictures of the theme I put into play today:

We all know Vampires like baseball so here are some seeds to enjoy during the game

Eclipse popcorn bags

New Moon mini moon pies

Framed quote, a must have for any Fan-pire

Some snacks, different "types" of course

Some thirst quenching beverages, perfect for satisfying the burn

Here is the finished product. There were New Moon band aids, Eclipse Edward key chains, an Eclipse Edward bookmark and Twilight conversation hearts. There is also a Forks city limit sign