Gamine-esque Brownies

Lately, the days have been looking like the picture looking above. Don't mind the curtains that LML custom made for us, but it was THAT gray outside. Of course, I use these magic-inducing days for baking! So...

I trekked over to my parent's little cottage on the hill, and prepared brownies just in time for my nephew to come home from school & decorate them with Halloween sprinkles I purchased.

Now, I'm not an expert at baking...at all. I can cook up a storm and have people salivating from the aroma of my dishes...but baking? I've been working hard on perfecting my technique for the last two years. A trick a friend taught me? Use pure extra virgin olive oil when you're baking!

I gather that the olive oil is the reason why my brownies came out shiny and moist. We're in luck because we get our olive oil shipped directly from a farm in Greece, which we got to see when we were living there. The saddest story: it's so beautiful on that farm that catering halls harass the owner to use it for events and weddings. And of course, when we go to it...luck would have it that my camera would die a horrible death.

Results of brownies? LML, who is my greatest critic,  said they were good (yay!) but he likes them more fudgy. Any ideas as to how to make them fudgy?? My family enjoyed them, but we'll eat anything :)

That last brownie there is the one I allowed myself to eat. Why frosting? My nephew will eat anything when there is frosting on it, and it just looks pretty :)

I took my pup into the backyard to look around today. I look upon my backyard with pride. When LML and I purchased this house, the yard was as much as a hot mess as the house was. But we finally got the yard to look like this:

taken from our bathroom window.

Also: 2 of my favorite shots from my yard:

More to post in a little while...it's going to be a long day!