Tucker on the Sofa and Pumpkin Brownies

We are a little over-run with dogs now.  Our five and the kid's two are just overwhelming...I don't even like dogs that much, at least not seven dogs worth.

The kid's dogs kennel in their own little kennels in the kid's room, and our dogs kennel in the garage when we leave.  All our dogs kennel, except Tucker.  Tucker is just a little crazy.  He has some anxiety about kenneling and he was eating the wood part of the kennel, the walls of the kennel and just being overall crazy.  So we started leaving him in the house and the rest of the dogs kenneled.  It worked just fine...until I realized that he was sleeping on the sofa while we were gone.

So, last Friday we were headed to the UAF hockey game.  We had kenneled all the dogs, except Tucker, walked out to my car and I looked through the front windows and Tucker was already on the sofa.
"Look at that damn dog, he is already on the sofa." I reported to Dave.

Dave looks up, whips out his phone, calls the house and says, "TUCKER GET OFF THE SOFA." over the answering machine.

Tucker jumps up, hops off the sofa and lays down on the floor.

"Good boy, Tucker." Dave says and hangs up the phone.

So now, at random times during the day, I'm going to call the house and tell Tucker to get off the sofa.  We will see how long that works.

My friend Donna, brought these brownies over on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  It is our annual drinking pie making evening.  These brownies were delicious!  And perfect with our coffee, Kahlua, pumpkin creamer combo we always drink that night.  I had to make more (of the brownies) so I could take some to work and share.  It is the season of eating  sharing, you know.

Pumpkin Brownies
from my friend Donna who got them from Allreipes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 eggs

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.
   Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
   
2. In another bowl, stir together the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract; beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon. Gradually add the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it's evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half in two separate bowls.
   
3. Into one bowl of batter, blend the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In the second bowl of batter, stir in the pumpkin puree, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
   
4. Spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with 1/2 of the pumpkin batter. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer, and drag a kitchen knife or small spatula gently through the layers in a swirling motion, to create a marbled appearance.
   
5. Bake in the preheated oven until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.

1 year ago:  Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread Cookies 

2 years ago: Chinook Winds- Drink of the Week

December 2, 2013  Daylight 4 hrs, 34 min, 15 sec.   Temp. H -1/ L -3°F