Happy 4th of July to everyone here in the states!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy being together with family &/or friends.  To those of you in other countries, hope you have a great weekend too!

I wish we could sit down at my table and have some homemade chewy fudge brownies and fresh-made lemon tea together.  I would tell you about the Mickey Mouse high chair that you can see in the picture.  It was our daughter’s and then our son’s high chair many years ago.  The last couple of years, it was used by our grandson “J,”  and then baby “C” came along and “J” graduated to a booster seat.  So now, “C” sits in the place of honor where his mommy sat 28 years ago.

Then I would probably show you the blue pottery between the plant and lamp.  Our son-in-law made that for me one time, I think for my birthday.  It’s one of my treasures because it was handmade by him.   There are a lot of other things we could talk about and I would love to hear about you!  That’s one thing I miss about the internet.  Everything is usually so fast paced and people are so far apart.  But I’m thankful that I’ve gotten to make new friends, and at least we can “talk” to each other online.

Here’s an easy recipe for the reduced-fat brownies you see pictured.  You cannot tell they’re reduced-fat. Our son (college age)  even commented that they were good brownies! (I used to always make things from scratch, but this past year I have gotten to the point sometimes of needing something easy and quick.  Walmart had these mixes on sale for 75 cents a while back, so that was really a great deal.)

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge Brownies mix for 13″x9″ pan
• 1 egg  (instead of 2 eggs – these were gooey brownies so you might want 2 eggs if you prefer a more cake-like consistency)
  
• 1/6 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 3 tablespoons water (instead of 1/4 cup)
  
• 1/4 cup oil (instead of 1/2 cup)

Mix the above ingredients until well mixed, about one minute.  Bake in greased 13″x9″ pan at 350 degrees according to directions on the box.

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