Mississippi Mud Brownies, Leila & Janice

I was dragging my heels Friday morning (12/29) about making Mississippi Mud Brownies. They are Ralph’s absolutely favorite dessert, and he and Candyce are up visiting from Florida, AND it was his birthday, so I really did want to make them even though half of me was dreading it. The last 2 times I made them for Ralph….I also really procrastinated about it because of 2 problems….I could never get the ganache to come out right…and cutting them was a NIGHTMARE as the marshmallows kept sticking to the knife and then they would rip off the top of the brownies. My brain is dead now because I can’t remember what I made ganache for recently, but I thought it was way too thin (oh wait…it was those chocolate, peppermint cookies, with the chocolate/peppermint ganache centers), and after a bunch of tweaking….I created the proportion of chocolate to heavy cream that I think is perfect. So…one problem solved....it's really important to get the right consistency, especially since the ganache helps to hold all of the pecans on top of the marshmallows:

Then, when I went to cut them this time, I sprayed my knife with PAM spray every 2 – 3 cuts and it worked like a charm….no more procrastinating! They cut beautifully and fit absolutely perfectly in the box I had set aside. After I was finally done (and had ground cat up cat food to help Ethel’s digestion), I made it to the studio to start the binding and labeling for my LAST QUILT of 2023!!!!

Michael was out having lunch with his men’s group….and Ralph stopped by after the lunch to enjoy a brownie:

and talk for a good long while…it was a nice visit….and to take home his care package (and that package was HEAVY!!!):

You know, I LOVE putting the really soft stuff on the back of quilts, but I HATE doing the binding on it as it slithers all around :~(. I worked on that while Michael was walking the dog, then doing errands (the pet store, the grocery store, health food store and CVS), but felt good that I could stop when he got home…I have 3 days to finish this last quilt so I feel calm about taking a break!

We had the last of our Chinese for dinner, and got stamps and return address labels on all of our Christmas cards while we were watching TV…it felt good to have that task completed.

And you know Janice & Dennis are in Connecticut, visiting family and friends. Janice also took back a quilt for Leila, that had been quilted by June...and Leila and Janice finally got together for lunch to do the exchange....isn't this just a FABULOUS picture????

*** I’m opening a gym called Resolutions. It will have exercise equipment for the first 2 weeks…and then it turns into a wine bar for the rest of the year! ***