It’s almost the end of the week and I am exhilarated for the weekend. After a long day at work, I decided to distract myself and bake. Granted I am not much of a baker, but I saw a recipe for brownies in my mother-in-law’s issue of Cooking Light magazine. I was surprised to find that for once I had all the required ingredients on hand. I asked if I could rip out the page with the recipe and she graciously let me.

There is a little bit of a story with baking these brownies. They are called Black and Tan Brownies. Based on the way the recipe looked (and on how inattentively I read recipes) I initially thought that it’s two recipes in one (Tan Brownies and Black Brownies). It was only after I put the tan brownies in the oven and washed all the dishes, did I look at the recipe again and realize that in fact I only made one part of the brownies. Well, lucky for me I had most of the other required ingredients, and I was able to complete the “Black Brownies” portion of the recipe as well.

There was one hick up, I used all of the butter I had for the tan brownies. I decided to take a chance and use non-fat milk instead of butter to melt the chocolate. It was a risk, and this substitution possibly altered the outcome. But I am happy to report that even though my brownies didn’t look like those in the photo of the recipe (or like typical brownies for that matter), they are fabulous! And this isn’t just me tooting my own horn. My hubby loved them, and I brought some samples to work, and got great responses there as well.

So without further ado…here they are…

Of course, what’s the point of all this blogging without the recipe to try for yourselves.

Even though there isn’t that much chocolate to call this post chocolicious, my “blond brownies” are still delicious. Enjoy!

There was a time in not such a distant past when we would meet with our friends V&I and R&M for Sunday brunch in various restaurants in San Francisco. For a while there, our tradition was abandoned due to busy social calendars and other commitments.

This past Sunday we reinvigorated our tradition of Sunday Brunch. This time however, instead of meeting in a quaint cafe in the city we met for brunch at casa la J&A. Home made muffins (blueberry and banana nut bread), egg frittata, and of course no brunch is complete without some mimosas. My cooking sidekick V blew everyone away with her delicious banana nut muffins.

After such a great re-start, we plan on keeping up this tradition.

V, you’re next!

P.S. There have been some requests for the recipe of the banana nut muffins. V kindly allowed me to share it with you. You will find it on the Food Network website.

It’s a gray, rainy Sunday afternoon. So I decided to go out to pick up some tasty treats at the local Trader Joes. I was on the hunt for the European Style Whole Grain Bread, which luckily I was able to find. But I was also very pleasantly surprised at the discovery of the Eggplant and Garlic spread. Of course I couldn’t wait to get home to taste my new treats.

After getting home, I put a slice of the whole grain bread in the toaster oven and once it was toasted I spread the eggplant spread on it. This snack was just as tasty as I had hoped.

I know, I know, there was no actual cooking involved. But it took 5 minutes to have a heavenly snack.

I highly recommend!

This year Valentine’s Day was a pretty casual one for us. We didn’t plan ahead and made no dinner reservations. In fact we had dinner with my parents at home. Instead we made last minute plans to meet up with friends in Tiburon, during the beautiful, sunny afternoon.

So we took a drive over the Golden Gate bridge to Guaymas Restaurant in Tiburon for some chips…

…guacamole…

…margaritas…

…and some tasty flautas.

It was a nice, relaxing afternoon during an unusually sunny and warm winter day, with some really tasty snacks.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

I decided to toss it up again and deviate from the regular recipe sharing post.

Our friends are about to embark on the adventure of marriage and start it with a destination wedding. And what does every destination wedding need? A very helpful and informative website. Of course what’s a website without photos. So here we are… a few photos I’ve prepared for the Mr. & Mrs. to be…

…paying homage to their dancing skills…

V & I, you were great subjects! I hope you’re enjoying your photos.

This time of year is a busy one for us accountants. Yes…you might be surprised to find out that this is what I do. Unfortunately as a result of being an accountant, cooking and photography are taking a back seat for the time being. However, I didn’t want you to think that I’ve forgotten about you, so I have another treat for you.

Tonight I present you with corn pudding. This is another creation from the awesome Food Network. I won’t relist the recipe as I followed it pretty closely. So here is a link for the original recipe of corn pudding. I will say that next time around I will cut down the amount of onion used.

This dish is extremely easy to make and is very tasty. It is also important to mention that this corn pudding received accolades from the hubby.

I have some exciting news!

If you might recall a few months ago I put out a call for chocolate challah recipes. Well after receiving zero responses, I continued the search on my own and finally came upon the recipe for a fabulous chocolate challah on GroupRecipes. This chocolate challah was very well received by the family and actually stayed fresh for an entire week.

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer, so without further adieu…

I don’t mean to boast but it is truly as good as it looks! Even my mother and mother-in-law were impressed (believe me, that means a lot).

The day before New Years Eve I was fortunate enough to have the pleasure to photograph maternity shots for a friend. This was my very first time doing a photo shoot, so of course I was extremely nervous. However, my subjects put me at ease. Y & S were very easy going and Y in particular, was looking for all kinds of adventures.

Y & S are already enjoying their photos, so I just wanted to share a few just to let you know what I’ve been up to in the last week.

Oh the love…

This is my favorite by far…

These guys are kids at heart…

Thank you Y&S for including me in this moment. Very much looking forward to meeting your little one!

I know I am a little late for Hanukkah…well let’s be honest a lot late…but I finally had time to prepare potato latkes. Might I add, this is my very first time making latkes. I am happy to report that this endeavor was a thorough success. See for yourself…

Along the way I found out that unlike myself, most people use a food processor to shred potatoes for latkes. I on the other hand…did it all manually…with a regular grater…yep, pretty proud of myself. Although, I think it’s time to look into a food processor. Any suggestions for a food processor would be welcome!

Now let’s get to the task at hand, the recipe. I recently acquired an iphone (very cool toy). With this acquisition I discovered the world of recipe apps. At this point I have about 3 or 4 recipe apps, and mind you, I’ve only had the phone for a couple of weeks.

The recipe for these latkes came from the Epicurious app. This recipe can also be found on the original website. The recipe for these delicious latkes can be found here. I will avoid rewriting it as I didn’t divert from the original.

Here is one more look at these delicious puppies…

Hope you take the time to try out these latkes (they are worth it).

Happy Holidays!

This morning I decided to treat myself to a late breakfast. What was my breakfast of choice you ask? Berry smoothie and mini blueberry pancakes.

I cheated on this one, as I made the pancakes from a pancake mix and just added water and frozen blueberries. So if you have a favorite pancake mix just add some fresh or frozen blueberries and you’re good to go. For the smoothie, I blended frozen blueberries, raspberries and fresh blackberries with ice and soy milk.

Simple, quick and delicious!