Brownie at one hour

Thank You Everyone especially Dave, Babs, and even Pete.

-Lil

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Groundhog by Seth W.

So today is Groundhog Day, which was more apt than I thought as earlier this morning I didn’t get six more weeks of pregnancy but rather had contractions!

Big thanks to Babs who came to my rescue and with her new ‘pants’ friend Dave (I don’t know his last name) drove me (as well as a BOJA lamp and a GRUNDTAL mirror – seriously his car was full of IKEA furniture) to the hospital, where it turned out I wasn’t having a baby (well not now) but rather was having something called Braxton-Hicks contractions (which I have nicknamed – fakey fakester contractions)

So now like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day I have to live my life over again and experience the wonderful panic and fear of contractions and the manic rush to the hospital (yay me!)

However, in the madness of this afternoon I found my latest hero. It’s not Dave or Barb or even Punxsutawney Phil. Rather it’s EGGPLANT BROWNIES.

After returning home from my affair de hospital (and a nap) I made a batch of these most delicious treats and decided to post the recipe below for all you wonderful people who have been helping me out on twitter! It’s really just a modification of this recipe:  http://baking.about.com/od/brownies/r/texas.htm I just replaced the coffee with  eggplant:

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• —Brownies—
• 2-3 (depending on the size of your “vessel”) large, fresh eggplants, peeled and sliced crosswise into 3/4″ slices. Choose ones that are firm and unblemished, this dish deserves it.
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup coffee, strong brewed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• —Frosting—
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoon cocoa
• 1/4 milk
• 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease an 11 X 17 inch baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, shortening, eggplants and cocoa. Stir constantly until heated to a boil. Pour boiling mixture over flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Mix well, using a wooden spoon or high speed mixer. Pour batter into baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until done in center. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting combining butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until heated to a boil. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool and cut into squares.

Let me know what you think AND post your own recipes for brownies or eggplants!

-Lil

Boy or Girl? Keep it to Yourself!

So today was a big day. It was ultrasound day! Time for a new picture of my baby and another game of ‘I don’t wanna know the sex.’

You see, imho, ultrasound techs always seem to want to tell you the sex of your baby – I can understand, it’s probably a really awesome part of their job but some people – myself included – like the surprise involved in, well, birth (and I really don’t mind dressing the baby in yellow for the first few months.)

So today, I go in and get the cold gel on my now massive stomach and the tech takes a look and tells me that everything is fine and asks if I’d like to know the sex, I tell him, no thank you, and he says he understands. Two minutes later he’s checking on the baby’s heartbeat and goes, “oh what a strong heartbeat he has…” Now that could just be how he identifies things like how every cat I don’t know is a she and every dog I don’t know is a he or he could have ruined the surprise. Should I buy blue booties now? I don’t know.

So that’s my little story from the ultrasound. Nothing else happened. Nothing at all….

Except it turns out I forgot how to count to nine, which is my roundabout way of saying that the baby isn’t due on March 2nd as I thought but rather is due THIS FRIDAY, Feb 5th!

But that’s okay, it’s not like I have anything planned this week other than my best friend’s wedding – one in which I’m serving as  the Maid of Honor and if being a pregnant bridesmaid isn’t enough of distraction I now have to worry about plopping out a kid during the wedding march!

But no, that’s STILL NOT the big news. You see the BIG news is that, that one month kind of, sort of, changes who the dad is…. Now I know that sounds like something out of Jerry Springer but it’s really not that bad, I met (let’s call him Mr.X) Mr. X at a convention and there was a spark and we had a wonderful night filled with wine and um tacos and more wine and ended up, well, pro-creating it seems. He seems like a nice enough guy (though he did ask that I let the baby listen to Boys II Men tonight – his favourite ‘band’)  but what I’m slightly worried about is it means I’m going from a situation where I had an absent Dad who didn’t want to have anything to do with his progeny to a complete unknown…. this should be an eventful week…

-Lil

shot glasses by cole24

This is going to be short as I’m tired and spent most of the night on my feet… but some first hand tips for those Maids of Honor and Bestmen when it comes to the bachelor/ette parties.

• DO go to age appropriate clubs. There’s nothing worse than being the oldest group of people in a club. Except being the oldest AND pregnant.
• DO budget, apparently sparkling water is more expensive than cocktails at most hipster bars.
• DO order a stripper.
• Do NOT give the stripper the wrong address causing you to get a phonecall from your neighbour telling you to come pick up your chapless Stripper.
• DO wear a nice outfit.
• Do NOT wear the same outfit as the bride forcing you to go home, change, and arrive at a bar just after we’ve left – sorry Cheryl.
• Finally do NOT let the Bride and Groom meet. They’ll just mack (do the kids still say mack? – see above) on one another while they whisper how much they love each other and are so happy they never have to do the dating thing again.
• Oh and something Laurence told me to post but I have no clue what it means – always have an extra pair of pants?

Pass on your own tips in the comments.

-Lil

2010 Printable Calendar Parenthesis Design by redstamp.com

Things that excite me  about this coming weekend and next week:

• My Best Friend’s Wedding (Not the movie but forever, forever you’ll be in my heart…)
• The FINAL season premiere of LOST (DesmondxPenny 4ever!!!!!)
• My Best Friend’s Bachelorette Party (NSFW)
• My next ultrasound (Baby’s getting big)

Things that don’t excite me about this coming weekend and next week:

• -15 Celsius without the wind chill… (who decided this was a good place to build a city?)

Post your own…

-Lil (getting warm by the fire and by that I mean space heater)

Angry Tiki Pineapple by SanFranAnnie

So the time is steadily approaching and that means that the all important step of naming is coming up too. Now usually this is a process one agonizes over with their mate but I being sans husband/partner/boyfriend/astronaut Mike Dexter have just now come to the realization that I have no safety net – no back up. For I could easily name my baby: Bradgelina, Chewbacca, or Sarah Palin and no one would be there to stop me.

Now most of you can see how that could be a problem in the immediate future but I’m also worried about eighteen years down the line when little ‘Pineapple’ Green grows up and asks how I could be so mean to name her/him after a fruit and I’d just be standing there with no one to blame but the fine people at Dole.

So I throw the torch to you – help me name my baby-to-be so I can blame the internet if he/she hates their moniker. I don’t know the sex so feel free submit both boy and girl names but some things to keep in mind:

• It should be unique (No Johns, Bobs, or Janes)
• It should be cool (Ex-nay on the Ethels, Mavis, and Mables)
• It should be easy to pronounce – no one wants to be that kid whose name the teachers always mispronounce  at rollcall (Niemh I’m thinking of you)
• Avoid stripperfication of old classics (Lynsi, Salli, Cristal)
• Try and think how kids will warp it  on the playground ie: Bart -> Fart or my own hell of being called Lilypad and Lily Goat Gruff.

-Lil

Disclaimer: No I’m not actually making the internet come up with a name for my kid but I’m also not disregarding good suggestions.

Whatever you can:

http://www.cbc.ca/haitirelief/

-Lil

tape measure by TheTruthAbout...'s

Yeah, yeah, I know you’ve already heard it before but next month I won’t just be celebrating the birth of what I’m sure will be the most beautiful/smartest baby (I expect him to figure out that Hadron Collider thing in between naps) but also the wedding of my good friend Barbara.

As such, I will be serving as a bridesmaid. Now I know you’re all going, “she’s going to complain about her dress, yawn, heard that before.” And I am but I have a particular grip (aquamarine notwithstanding) – I keep needing to visit the tailor. For you see women in “my condition,” as the tailor put it, have a tendency to erm….need to be refitted.  Multiple times.

I have just returned from my second and I am sure there are more on the horizon. I’m starting to think he should just sew in an elastic waist. But what say you? Should I just go naked? Rock some comfy pants? Chime in with some advice.

-Lil

New Year by Sally M

Goodbye 2009 with your swine flus, recessions, and Susan Boyles and hello 2010 land of the future – home of portable jukeboxes, electric cars, and robot dogs. Also soon to be home to my son or daughter. Yes, I Lily XXXX (protected for your privacy not mine) will be “pro creating” this quarter – March 2nd to be exact, which is the same birthday as spiritual leaders Pope Adrian VI, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XII, and Jon Bon Jovi. So of course I expect him/her to either head up the Catholic Church or rock out.

Anyway, this blog is to be my New Year’s resolution. It’s to be a bit of scrap-book (digital in the year twenty-ten!) and I’ll be updating it throughout the year as I watch my child-to-be learn to walk, speak, and drive stick.

So hello to anyone who stumbles upon this mess and the friends I force to read it! I wish you all an excellent twenty-ten and as this thing should be slightly more interactive than me talking to myself in the shower, please share your own resolutions for the coming year.

-Lil