Madison Desk and Yummy Brownies!

Oh no, its already the last day of Christmas break! Where did all the time go! And I didn't get nearly as much crafting done as I wanted to. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to waking up a little earlier for work and getting in some crafty time before I leave. I was doing that when I first started, but I really like sleeping in too!

But, I did get some scrapbook related organizing done over break!

For Christmas, I got the Madison desk. Except I found out about it before Christmas! Still, I didn't set it up until we got back. It was quite the adventure, one of the pieces had fallen off the top of the table, and I had to go buy wood glue and reattach it! So, that's why all of these pictures were taken at night!

I love all of the storage available with this desk!

And there is so much room to put out a layout and keep my most used supplies on the desk too! I'm hoping to get some crafting time in today, before work starts again :(

I also wanted to share this recipe. I really wanted to make brownies for the Cowboys-Giants game Sunday night. I figured they could be celebratory brownies for AJ if the Cowboys won, or he could drown his sorrows in brownies if they lost. Win win for me!

Except, what I thought was brownie mix turned out to be cake mix. I started looking up brownie recipes online, although I've never made brownies from scratch. This one seemed really easy, so I figured I would try them out. Look how pretty they came out (if you ignore the toothpick holes from when I was trying to tell if they were done!)

You need:

1 stick of butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's, because that's what I had!)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (which I left out because I didn't have any nuts in the apartment!)

What to do:
Heat the oven to 350. Grease a square baking pan - they recommend a 9 inch, I used an 8 inch and went with the longer baking time.

You are supposed to stir together the butter, sugar and vanilla, then add in the eggs. I did them all together because I don't always follow directions well :)

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a different bowl. Gradually add this mixture to the egg/butter/sugar mixture. Doing it in two parts seemed to work out well for me!

Pour into the baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. You could frost the brownies after they cool, and they gave a recipe for brownie frosting, but I was impatient. And I figured after the macaroni and cheese I had for brunch, and the pizza I had for dinner, adding frosting to the brownies would just be way too much. I am supposed to be eating healthier and getting down to a more comfortable weight this year after all!

But these brownies are just so yummy, very gooey and fudgey, and would be perfect topped with some vanilla ice cream!

I hope you have today off to rest and relax just a little bit more before going back to work! I'll be here, hopefully crafting and definitely eating some more of these brownies!