ksquared's chicago

I saw a story about a local bakery that had a Patron XO donut, which made me wonder why I never tried making an actual dessert with it instead of just dessert cocktails. 

I decided to convert a mint brownie recipe from my childhood that is just a regular brownie recipe with mint icing and chocolate on top, but replace the creme de menthe Patron XO Dark. To increase the coffee flavor, I also modified this Martha Stewart mocha brownie recipe for the base. 

Patron XO Dark Brownies

1 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt 

8 tbsp butter

8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp Nescafe Cafe de Olla

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp Patron XO Dark

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine. Add Nescafe, cinnamon and Patron XO Dark. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
3. Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. 
4. For topping, beat together: 2 cups powered sugar, 2 Tbsp. Patron XO Dark, 1/2 cup butter. Spread topping over cooled brownies. Melt 6 oz. chocolate chips and 6 Tbsp. butter. Spread over Patron icing. Cool. 
5. Cut brownies & enjoy.

80s Party Food Ideas from the 80s-themed birthday party I threw for my husband. When I was looking for ideas, it was hard to find stuff. It turns out 80s party foods are pretty much the menu at TGIFridays - potato skins, spinach and artichoke dip. So I did some food from the 80s and then also made labels to make most of them more 80s with photos for the labels. 

Here’s what I did:

- Oregon Trail Mix (Chex Mix)

- Seven-Layer Taco Dip 

- Potato Skins

- Book It Personal Pizzas (mini pizzas)

- Where’s the Beef? Sliders (mini cheeseburgers and veggie burgers from a local burger bar)

- The Breakfast Club Fruit Sushi (in the movie, Clare brings sushi in her lunch - we don’t eat fish, so I made the fruit sushi like they serve at Orange)

- Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man/Pac-Man ghost sugar cookies

- Ghostbusters Rice Krispy Treats 

- Personalized M&M’s

- ET Phone Home Cupcakes - dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting topped with Reese’s Pieces

Cookies for my husband’s 80s themed birthday party. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man ghost cookies. Oddly, Ms. Pac-Man has an eye, but Pac-man does not. 

Latkes for Chanukah

I’m running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday to raise money for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. During the month of October, all donations to the Food Depository are being matched, so if you donate to my page, they’ll actually get double whatever you’re able to give. Thank you for your support!

We adopted Mac the Puggle from One Tail at a Time, so she’d like you to vote for them to win $20,000 in food & supplies from Kriser’s Pets so they can save even more wonderful dogs like her. You have to vote from a computer - the voting app doesn’t show up on iPhones, iPads, etc. Thanks! https://www.facebook.com/kriserspets/app_416637245046514

I’m running the Rock ‘n Roll Chicago Half Marathon on Sunday, July 22, as a Marathon Mutt to raise money for the dogs of One Tail at a Time. 

One Tail at a Time is the wonderful dog rescue group that we adopted our dog, Mac the Puggle, from almost two years ago. In fact, she came to live with us during the “foster-to-adopt” timeframe the week before I ran my first Rock ‘n Roll Chicago Half Marathon (and first half marathon ever). 

Here she is checking out my medal: 

With just a week left, I’m $50 short of my fundraising goal of $150. Before a dog is eligible for adoption, One Tail makes sure that it is spayed or neutered, microchipped and up to date on vaccines. $150 will help to defer these costs for one dog. If I can exceed that goal, even more dogs will benefit. 

In order to help generate some donations in the last week for the race, here is an added incentive: Donate at least $10 to my page. When you make your donation & have the option to comment, guess my finish time for the race. I’ll give the person who guesses closest to my actual time their choice of one of the following:

* Your choice of One Tail T-shirts. I have both the Team Billy and V-Neck shirt, & both are awesome.

* Your choice of merchandise from the Marathon Mutts store up to $30. 

* Donation on your behalf of $30 to your favorite local dog rescue. 

You can donate online at my Marathon Mutts page here 

People who already donated to my page can still guess my time for a chance to win.

To help narrow your time guesses, my two previous Rock ‘n Roll Chicago Half Marathon times were 2:43:43 in 2010 and 2:36:03 in 2011. Although last year, I did twist my ankle in a pothole and spent a good 5-10 minutes at the side of the road getting it iced by a pair of race spectators before limping/walking/jogging to the finish so that slowed my time down some. This year the course doesn’t go on the stretch of Jackson where I fell, but there’s likely to be other potholes in the city. 

If you’re not able to donate, please take 1-2 minutes out of your day to vote for One Tail at a Time in the Kriser’s Christmas in July contest: https://www.facebook.com/kriserspets/app_416637245046514

Last year, they won $20,000 in food & supplies that helped them to feed 150+ dogs. You can vote every 24 hours between now & July 23.

Thank you for your support! Mac & all the dogs of One Tail at a Time appreciate it!

Virtual foster dog for One Tail at a Time and designed and donated by www.rzfolio.com

It’s the perfect way to help real foster dogs if you live somewhere that you can’t have a dog or aren’t able to foster for another reason … like your dog might like being an only dog & knocks the head off the virtual dog and runs off with it in her mouth. 

http://www.onetail.org/foster/virtual-fostering/

Help One Tail at a Time

Watch & share this 3-minute presentation about One Tail at a Time and some of the happy, wonderful dogs they have saved to give them a chance to win money from SlideRocket so they can rescue even more dogs who deserve it. Unique views count as votes, so you only have to watch it once

Running for charity

I’m running the Chicago Marathon for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. I’m also donating 25 cents per mile for every mile that I run this year leading up to the marathon. So far I’ve been slacking a little on running so I’m only up to $13.75. But I have more races scheduled in the coming months, so I should be back to racking up miles again. 

Please donate to my page if you can. Your donation will help feed the 678,000 men, women & children served by the Food Depository every year.