Brownies

So in a fit of ..... something I decided to make brownies from scratch the other night and they turned out sooo good that I figured I'd share the recipe with you.

I got it from Luscious Chocolate Desserts, then tweaked by me
Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I couldn't be bothered to find a conversion table so I put in ca 230grams of chocolate and hoped it was about right, erring on the side of too much chocolate)
1 cup sugar (I put half a cup of white sugar and half brown for extra chewiness)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I upped this to 1 tsp)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I like my brownies slightly more cake-y so I made it about 1/3 cup, added 2 tbs of cocoa and 1/2 tsp of baking powder)
1/4 tsp salt (I used maldon salt flakes because they are extra yummy)
1 cup walnuts, chopped (I skipped this, don't like nuts in my brownies)

Pre-heat oven to 325 farenheit, butter and flour an 8 inch square baking pan (I used a silicone baking pan).

Melt butter and chocolate until smooth. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla (I beat the eggs and sugar together for a few minutes) and whisk until well blended. Whisk (I used my trusty kitchenaid for this) in the flour and salt until well blended. Stir in the walnuts. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out sticky, with just a few crumbs clinging to it, do not overbake.
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack (ehm.... you were supposed to wait?). Chill if you have the time, then cut into 9 brownies. (I left them in the pan and just cut as needed).

these brownies came out perfectly chewy on the inside with the crisp flakiness on the outside and were INSANELY good. I could have taken a picture but I was busy.

But look! Cute baby photo!

El dios de los muerte turkeys!

One of my best friends here in Iceland is an American. We first met in high school (well not really, but its the closest school type... or possibly junior collage? Nevermind) when he was an exchange student. We became best friends following a night at a cafe where rather large amounts of cheap red wine and tequila shots were involved. It was as they say, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
In any case he ended up coming back and staying.

Now Iceland is seriously lacking in holidays during the fall months and with Sam's Halloween/Thanksgiving homesickness, we started the now traditional Thanksgiving potluck.
Up until now we have held this party at my parents house due to none of us having room for such a big fiesta. But this year, we finally have a place to throw a big dinner party.

I am incredibly excited about having this here... to imagine that I now am grown up enough to have a real 12 person dinner party! Although I'm thrilled that we're still keeping this a potluck. Its always fun and people bring all sorts of amazing food (because there is only one American involved, mostly bring non-traditional Thanksgiving food).

My first real dinnerparty... Yay!

What I did this fall

I've been gone from blogging.... well, since Ísabella was born, so here's a photo recap:
This is where we were last time we spoke :)

Then Askur turned 3

And we used the same occasion to name the new baby,

She got the name: Ísabella Ýr
Ísabella was our international pick, it works just about everywhere, and its Denmarks newest princesses first name :p and Ýr is an old family name (like dating back to 900 AD and also my sister's middle name)

Then, we painted our new house, and moved!

and slowly went from that, to this....


and eventually to this



As for Ísabella, she has grown by leaps and bounds. She keeps trying to hold her head high to keep a good eye on what is going on around her




And me, well, I've just been enjoying every minute of it :)

New girl!

This little girl was unexpectedly (that is at 38 weeks 2 days)born on Tuesday night
She came into the world at 1:23am, weighing in at 3710 grams and 53 cm- a very average size for an Icelandic baby :) (Her brother was born at 40 weeks 4 days and was 3765 gr and 52,5 cm)

A very short birth-story:
I started having rather painless contractions at around 8am on the 17th. But I had some spotting and couldn't feel any movement so we went to the hospital for a check. Baby was fine- and we were told that I was almost fully effaced and 2 cm dilated- so we were actually in labor.
I didn't really believe it since it was so painless... so me and Klaus went to a cafe, had some brunch, went to a home-depot type store and bought garden furniture for our new place. Then came home... I had a nap and chilled out.
We then had a friend over for dinner and around the end of dinner I started having to breathe through my contractions. Still not all that painful- and 10 min apart. I watched tv (Criminal Minds for those who want to know), by the end of the show my contractions were down to 5 min apart and getting to be painful. So I called to hospital to let them know we were on the way. Called my mom who came over to stay with Askur, kissed our dinner guest goodbye and we were at the hospital at 10:45pm.

Because I've had an uncomplicated pregnancy, and was having normal labor we went to the hospital birthing center where we got a huge birthing room complete with hot-tub, kingsize bed, yoga ball and such. By 11:15pm labor was in full swing and I got in the tub. At around 12:30 I got out of the tub and into the bed and with a lot of screaming and grunting managed to give birth there at 1:23.

It all happened so fast that there was no time for painkillers .... but on the other hand it all happened so fast so I didn't really have all that much time to worry about that :)
By 4pm yesterday we were home and all is well :)