Birthday Brownies

It's never too late to say "Happy New Year!" Sure, we may be 17 days in already, but I haven't had the chance to upload my pictures onto my computer. This term is shaping up to be super-busy.

I spent New Year's Eve and a significant chunk of new Year's Day at a log cabin in the southwest tip of rural Nova Scotia. My friend Sare's birthday is on January 2nd, but since she was going back to her college that day, she decided to celebrate the New Year and her birthday jointly.

I went out to her house on a crisp, cool December night. We packed up two 4-wheelers (one with a wagon attached to carry our copious amounts of stuff) and drove through beautiful snow-glazed forest trails as the starry sky stretched out above us. As we drove along, I couldn't think of a more perfect way to spend the last hours of 2006. The generator at the cabin wasn't turned on, so we relied on candlelight and a wood stove to suit our needs. We played board games, missed the official countdown (we shouted "Happy New Year!" at about 5 past 12 and marvelled at how loudly our voices echoed over the lake), set off lovely fireworks, got my New Year's kiss from my friend's dog, and snuggled up in the loft, warmed by the wood stove's heat, to sleep.


A few days prior to this, Sare had visited my house and we baked brownies together and took kooky pictures, some of which are in the previous post. We came across a recipe for "Gourmet Mint Brownies" in a Pillsbury cookie cookbook, but didn't have all the ingredients to make them. Sare joked that she would love to have some for her birthday, so I obliged. After days of agonizing at supermarkets trying to find peppermint extract, my father brought some home on December 31st. I was ecstatic; I had nearly given up hope. I then set to work and baked those suckers.

As they were being cut up and put onto a tray to take to the party with me, my family descended, rather like vultures, on the brownies. I managed to distract them by taking lots of pictures and blinding them with camera flashes. As you can see, it works wonders.