Spring Fling: Day 21, or Kristin's Birthday!

Welcome to the Spring Fling! Don't forget, I'd love everyone to join in! By the way, you don't have to do the Spring Fling this month. Feel free to start it whenever you'd like! To learn more, read this. I now have a button for anyone who's joining me for the Spring Fling (it's located on the sidebar). So here's the plan:

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

So...today is my *birthday*! And it has been an absolutely lovely day so far. This was a short school day, and I only had one class. My mom made French toast for breakfast this morning. =) I've been blessed with all sorts of amazing gifts! Like:

Seriously. Six new books! Our town has this discount store that has an amazing book section. I'm talking about relatively new releases. They most recently got a ton of Christian books in: books that would sell for $12-$15 in a bookstore. They're $2.99 and $3.99 here. I picked out all of these books for my birthday from that store!

I also got the last Andy Griffith season I needed to complete my set, an Andy Griffith trivia board game, "The African Queen" on DVD (which I'm so excited about watching again), "Snow White" on DVD, the set of the first three "Loves Comes Softly" movies (I guess you could say I collect books and movies), and some other equally awesome stuff. I am so blessed. And not just because all of the amazing gifts I got. Because of the wonderfully quirky family that God picked for me to be born into 19 years ago. =)

So today I'm supposed to post a recipe, which is sort of ironic for my birthday. Because my cooking and baking skills are sorely lacking. Something I really need to work on. If you haven't noticed, I never post recipes. Anyway, every once and a while, I'll break bad and bake something. I have this Elvis recipe book called "Are You Hungry Tonight?" (I am dead serious) that has an amazing frosted brownie recipe. It also includes a recipe for a massive wedding cake just like Elvis and Priscilla's, but let's not get distracted here. I've made this recipe several times before and it's awesome.

Frosted Brownies

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (which I don't like so I leave out)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 7 x 11-inch baking pan with butter. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and blend well. Stir in the nuts. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overbake. Let the brownies cool in the pan. Frost them, then cut into 12 bars.

Frosting:
1/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients and beat to a spreading consistency. Frost the cooled brownies.

Until next time,