Happy 21st Birthday to Sarah

This has been an incredibly busy week, so on Monday we all pitched in to make Sarah's birthday dinner. I tried to find a picture of Sarah to post, but she always had a funny look on her face. And right now we are cleaning out the basement, so I can't get to the bin of family pictures.
Finally we got dinner on the table. I see by the clock that it was 6:40 pm. But it was worth it...dinner was delicious.

We had a family favorite, shish kabobs. It was a real feat to grill these because we were in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.

We also had fruit kabobs. I didn't expect to enjoy these because of the glaze on them, but they were so good! The glaze had honey, brown sugar, cream of coconut, lemon juice and pepper. Yes, black pepper, and that made it.

Maggie made Texas brownies which are chocolate brownies with caramel icing. Everything was so delicious.

This morning, Sarah, Maggie and Anna, are off to voice lessons. We are so excited. Hopefully I will talk the girls into taking a picture there. They are taking lessons from Audrey who taught Sarah several years ago. She's the best!

As I mentioned, we are busy cleaning out the basement, so hopefully I will show pictures of it tomorrow morning. Sorry...no "before" pictures, just after pictures! Hopefully when we are done, it will be easier to keep dustfree.

We are enjoying beautiful weather this week. Our raspberries are prolific, but the deer are keeping the rest of the garden well trimmed, much to the children's dismay.

It is hard to believe my baby has turned 21. Sarah was born in San Diego, CA. She enjoyed the outdoorsy California lifestyle and found it hard to come back east to the land of heat and humidity. Sarah has one more semester to finish for her English degree.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

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Recipe for Sourdough Chocolate Brownies

1/3 cup Butter or margarine
1 cup Sugar
2 (1oz) squares Semisweet chocolate
¾ cup All-purpose flour
½ cup Starter
½ teaspoon Baking soda
½ teaspoon Salt
½ cup Chopped Walnuts or pecans

Grease a 9 inch square baking pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 375F. In a small saucepan, melt butter or margarine and chocolate over low heat; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar; set aside. Stir egg, sourdough starter and vanilla into cooled chocolate mixture.

Beat until blended. Stir into flour mixture until blended. Fold in nuts. Spread in prepared pan. For a more even surface after baking, make batter higher in center of pan than on sides. Bake in preheated oven 30 to 35 minutes or until edge begins to pull away from pan. Cut and remove from pan. Makes 12 to 16 brownies.