Some Sweet Treats

I've got a few sweet recipes from the past few days to share today. First off - a baked banana with coconut:

 

For those who can't stomach the strong flavor of banana - look away now (mom). I found tonnes of recipes for this method on the internet. Some included marshmallows, chocolate or even peanut butter. From all the different recipes, I took what interested me and made my own baked banana. All mine had on it was some melted margarine, lemon juice and coconut. It was simply baked in the oven @ 375 for about 15 minutes (until soft and coconut browned). I did not wrap mine in tinfoil but some websites suggested that as well. Jason drizzled some chocolate sauce for the finishing touch. 

 

I could tell this was not really a hit as Jason kept repeating "I'm eating a hot banana" and "this is a hot banana" the entire time he ate it. It was definitely a bizarre flavor and I can't say I'm eager to make it again. It was kind of baby food meets ear infection medicine - in a bad way. 

Now onto something a little more successful: Bomb-Chelle Brownies! The recipe comes from my good friend Rachelle - hence the "Bomb-Chelle". It's a long story, but I had been presented with the challenge of making brownies that were more magnificent than the Daytona 500 for my dad. He has yet to taste them, but with the help of Rachelle, I'd say I owned this challenge:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs (make sure you have 4 before starting or you might have to run to the store in the middle of this recipe! that would suck... i imagine...)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish. (I made mine in individual silicone mini-hearts)
2. Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish (or plop into your mini-muffin tin/cups)

4. Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting. (I found that about 15 minutes did the trick for mini-brownies)

These brownies were very good - Jason and his sister ate the broken ones and gave them 2 thumbs up. The true test will come tomorrow though when we find out how they stack up against the Daytona 500. 

Now speaking of Jason's sister, she came by and delivered these Valentines cupcakes for us today:

 

So cute! Thanks Kate - we're saving them for dessert tonight. 

In other news, I'm drinking this interesting beverage as I type:

It's beer mixed with cherry juice. I can see this tasting very good on a hot summer day! 

Also - a question for Edmontonians. Have you ever seen individual sized bread bowls anywhere? I made chili for this evening and really wanted to serve it in some cute bread bowls! I could not find any so I settled for some longish crusty buns.