Texas (!), part 1

Happy friday friends! I wanted to share with you one of the fun things we've done lately. Because despite working a million hours each week (I'm only slightly exaggerating), we've been having so much fun too.

We went to Texas! And it was green!

Really green. In fact Chris looked out the window when we were flying in and said *wow, it's really green*, and I didn't for a second believe him.

 In my defense, last time I was in Texas it was brown. It was a very different time of year.

Relaxed and enjoying the WARM sun.

We went to the Fort Worth botanical gardens. They were beautiful!

I'd be worried too if giants were tapping on my home!

You guys, not only do I know what Biosphere 2 is, I've been there! Weird.

We stayed in downtown Fort Worth. Have you all been there? I was a little surprised, I'll admit. It's super charming!

Across the street from our hotel.

And we ate lots of really awesome food.

All this was fun, but it was not the reason we visited Texas. Monday I'll give you the why of it all!

where I've been ...

Phew. I have I been MIA lately, or what? Thanks for hanging in here with me guys. I'll be back to a more routine schedule soon.

Today, though, I am so excited to be a guest blogger! I am over at my good friend Becky's blog to share some tips about incorporating the tropics into your every day style.

Make sure you pop on over. You can find my post at: It's All About the Mochaface.

mmmm. minty.

Oh goodness. What a week/month. I have never had work intrude so forcefully on my personal life as it has these past few weeks. I'm just happy that it is for a fun and challenging project, which I already feel completely rewarded for having worked on. And, I'm not even close to finished!

Today thought I'd share with you one of my favorite brownie recipes. I don't know where I originally found the recipe. It was years ago. I've been asked to bring these brownies to three different celebrations lately and they've been a huge hit each time. Recently, my dad requested them for his birthday. I wrangled  them a bit and turned them in a brownie cake. I have this thing about making an actual *cake* on someone's birthday.

Although, after seeing these pics, I think they might be more attractive as brownies :).  Looks aside, these are super fudgy and super minty and so. darn. good.

My copy of the recipe is a gnarly old piece of paper. I did a little searching and found the recipe on Tasty Kitchen. I just a made a couple changes:

• I did not use food coloring. Although that would be fun on St. Patrick's Day. Or red on Valentine's Day. You get the idea.
• I used Hershey's special dark cocoa and it was amazing.
• To offset the super dark brownie, I used milk chocolate. It was perfect.
• You could probably use white chocolate for the ganache and that would be lovely as well.
• I recommend serving them right out of the fridge. Yum!

Full recipe here: Famous Mint Brownies.

The little flag helped dress the cake up a bit. Read: we were out of candles!

Make these soon, but I caution, make them for an occasion when others will be joining you. They're dangerously good and addictive.