Caramel Brownies

Today over at Kelly's Korner, her Show Us Your Life Topic is favorite desserts. I have loved to bake for a long time, probably since my parents told me I made the best brownies ever (they were being nice, it was just a box mix, but I appreciated it!). I have made many desserts I really like, but this one sticks out as something slightly different, and something I have had many other people make. It takes a little bit of work, but they are so worth it!

(I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

1 18.25 ounce German Chocolate Cake Mix w/ pudding

3/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1 cup chopped pecans (I do not use these)

13 ounces individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray one 13x9 pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Combine the cake mix, butter, and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Mix well and pour 2/3 batter into pan.

3. Press pecans into batter and bake for 8-10 minutes.

4. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Stir until melted and smooth, pour over cooled cake mix.

5. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of caramel and top with spoonfuls of remaining mix. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, cool and cut.

These definitely take some tweaking to make them your own. Have fun and enjoy!!

Recent Activities

As usual, I've been slacking on the blogging, but in all honesty, things haven't been too interesting. Just the usual good times with a 3 year old!

We've had a really good potty week around here (please knock on every available piece of wood), so I'm hoping we've finally finished climbing that mountain. And what a mountain it was. Ugh, no fun, that's how they should punish criminals, make them potty train kids for eternity. That would prevent me from even thinking about committing a crime...if I was a criminal that is.

So here's some pictures from the last few weeks...enjoy!

This is nothing about things that are going on, but I just thought it was so cute. Now that Quinn can get out of bed himself, he often shuffles into our room and gets in our bed at some point, usually in the early morning. I know its probably not the best habit, but its better than getting up at 5 in the morning.

On my birthday, we ended up going to Bern's to eat, which I loved. I appreciate that Ross took me, as he knows I enjoy the formality of it all. He also got me a gorgeous dress from White House Black Market and a purse at Coach (which was exchanged, but he figured that was coming). If you aren't from the Tampa area, you might not have heard of Bern's. It is a pretty famous local steakhouse, known for their extensive wine collection, fabulous food, and amazing dessert room. The food didn't disappoint and the dessert room was spectacular as always. Below is a picture of Ross with our dessert, peanut butter banana pudding. We did take pictures of me with it, but they didn't come out well. Doesn't Ross look happy to be eating dessert?

We went to Epcot last weekend, the last weekend of the Flower and Garden Show. It was also Pixar weekend, so it was packed. Fun, but packed.

Whenever we go to Epcot, we go in the back gate and Ross usually stops in at the pub in the UK first. Often the "Hat Lady" is playing. There are several different Hat Ladies, but there is one in particular that always remembers Quinn, which is so cool. She always lets him sing with her, which he loves. He can be such a ham!

I love all the pretty topiaries they put out at the Flower and Garden show. Below is a picture of Quinn with one featuring Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto on a picnic. It was adorable!

Here is Ross and Quinn by the Toy Story 3 display at the front gate. They were blowing strawberry scent into the air by the Lotso topiary. Disney and their details!

I swear I'm trying to be more consistent! Hopefully there will be more interesting things to blog about during the summer.

An Object of Beauty - Reviewish

So this isn't a full on review or anything, so don't get too excited. I had a few people tell me they wanted to know my thoughts on this book once I was done, so here it goes. It wasn't the best. The writing is good, the tone and all that stuff was good, but I just couldn't get into it. The main character was just not likable. She had a few redeeming qualities, but overall she just irritated me. I did enjoy learning about the art pieces and the museums and how the art world functions, but other than that, I was over it. On a good note, it was short.

Happy Birth/Mother's Day to Me!!

As the title suggest, I'm wishing myself a Happy Birth/Mother's Day! Mother's Day was Sunday and my birthday is today. Now that I'm a mom, its not always the best that they're so close, but since I can't change either, I'll go with it. On Sunday we had a nice, calm day and I even got to go to Target by myself, which is oddly exciting these days. We made dinner at home and had a nice time.

So far today I've had some wonderful songs sung and kisses given and a great time at lunch with some great friends. Birthdays definitely change as one gets older, but they're still fun and I enjoy being celebrated. Is that egotistical? Oh well if it is...Happy Birthday to me!!

"I Love You Princess"

Like many of you, I was excited about the recent British royal wedding. I do love some well-placed pomp and circumstance, and no one does it like the Brits. While I was not so excited that I felt the need to get up at 4am, I did DVR a lot of the coverage and watched it during the day. I loved the dress, the guests, the kisses, everything. I'm sure the little girl in me was squealing with glee.

Since I don't have a girl of my own, I tried to get Quinn interested. He had recently seen Tangled and really liked it, so I was telling him about the real princess. He watched for about 2 minutes (and that was probably just the horses) and was gone. But this morning they showed another shot of Will and Kate (or Princess Catherine I should say) and Quinn very excitedly yelled out "The real princess!" Then, with as much sweetness as his little 3 year old self could muster he said "I love you princess". How adorable is that? He's just the best, even though he's a stinker and is currently having some listening issues. Its moments like that make me so happy to be his mom.

Happy Easter!

I know its a little late in the day, but hey, better late than never. We have really had a great Easter weekend. As you can see in the above picture, the Easter bunny came and delivered some "fabulous" blue Peeps and some new cars to Quinn. I say "fabulous" because I personally think Peeps are the most disgusting thing and I don't understand how my child can tolerate them. Blech. We had a great time hanging out as a family today. Church was very nice this morning too.

Yesterday we had a family party at Ross' cousin Debbie's house. Quinn had an absolute blast. He got to play with his cousins all day, swim, eat, have an Easter egg hunt, and he got to skip his nap. He was in heaven. It was so nice to see family, some that we don't get to see all that often, and just have a relaxing day.

Daddy and Quinn headed out to find eggs. (Ross hid them, so I guess Quinn had an advantage here).

Debbie helping Quinn locate another egg.

This picture has nothing to do with Easter, but it was so cute I had to include it. Ross was shaving yesterday before we left and I guess Quinn wanted to try it too!

I hope you all had a great Easter and remember what we are really celebrating - Matthew 28:5-7. Check it out.

Ugh....3 year olds

Look at that face...so sweet, so adorable, right (thanks to Kate for the picture)? Yeah, he's fooling you all. A few weeks before he turned 3, its like a switch was flipped and my wonderful, loving boy became somewhat of a monster. When he turned 2, I noticed some changes, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. It was just independence/finding self kind of stuff. This is a whole other ball of wax.

He whines all.the.time. About everything. Just now we were walking up the stairs and Ross was carrying my purse and Quinn flipped out that he wasn't able to carry it. Now, under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even think about carrying my purse, even if I asked him. But it was just something to whine about. He whines about food, the potty (don't even get me started on that), toys, going places, not going places, the list goes on and on. And on and on.

He also think he should be allowed to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, and he's not afraid to let you know he doesn't like what is on the agenda. I don't know about you, but I'm not one to let a short, somewhat spastic person who can't quite yet control all their bodily functions make the rules in my house. But boy does he think he should.

I know this kind of ties in with the whining, but he also enjoys throwing fits. They often include throwing himself on the ground, kicking, throwing things, and the most enjoyable thing of all, screaming. I usually leave him alone when that happens, and he often quickly forgets what he was even throwing a fit about.

But even through all that, he is the best boy I could hope for and I'm proud he's my son. I just welcome breaks even more now!!