Dinner with friends ...

I woke up this morning to find this sushi platter pendant sold from my Etsy shop; nothing nicer than waking up to a sale, yay! I think I have one more of these left and I'm not sure I'll make more, so it may end up being a limited edition version. I'll see how my schedule goes this week.

... Hmmm, upon rethinking, I've made the decision to continue making them. Yes, I will. I think my first coffee of the morning helped me come this important decision.

Last night we went to dinner at a friend's house. He and his girlfriend moved into this great appartment a few months ago and after lots of hard work painting and sanding and decorating - wow, it looks amazing! What a gorgeous place to live. They overlook Parc Lafontaine, a beautiful green space in the midst of Montreal - actually a white space in the winter (the photos on that link are on a blog by some French expats now living in Montreal). I should've taken pictures of the view. If I lived there, I'd just be sitting in the bay window looking outside all day and never get a thing done (even lovelier at night).

We had raclette and fondue, mmmmm! It's frightening how much food you can keep scarfing down when you don't start out with a plateful of food in front of you, and you just keep putting little veggies in the fondue pot and cheese & potatoe on the raclette grill. After around two hours of talking, raclette, fondue, chitchat, raclette, fondue, more raclette, blabla, cackle, fondue, bit of raclette, talking - ♪ ♫ la dee da dee dahh ♫ ♪ Time flies and oh lala, you've eaten waaay too much. Did I take a photo of this lovely feast? No.

I did take a photo of the brownies I made for dessert though. Not terribly exciting, but so yummy. It's the recipe for brownies on the Baker's Chocolate box. Here it is, so you can try it (I added in my modifications in brackets):

Baker's One-Bowl Brownies:
4 squares (4 oz) Baker's Unsweetened chocolate,chopped
3/4 cup butter (I like demi-sel)
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 and a 1/2 cups - plenty sweet!)
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour

Lightly grease a 9"x9" or even 8"x8" baking pan (package says 13"x9", but this would make the flattest brownies in town). Microwave chocolate and butter on medium for 2 minutes or until melted. Stir in sugar until well-blended; mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, and if you like, some chopped pecans (I prefer smooth brownies). Spread in pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven, for 30 to 35 minutes, or until done; unlike cake, your toothpick shouldn't be dry when you test a brownie - it should be just a little sticky. I would even check it at 25 minutes since all ovens are different - you definitely don't want them overcooked! I threw on some dark chocolate chips as soon as it came out of the oven so it all melted - made it even more evil. You could also ice them or sprinkle icing sugar on them when cooled.

Sooo yummy and the easiest thing to bake!