On a Friday, no less.
So just a quickie that we did while baking for Shabbos. We made brownie snowmen and then we dressed them up.
For the first activity, we were going to bake brownies, except we had a problem. Because we have not been to Shoprite since before the last snowstorm, we were out of sugar. This never happens to us - but I guess there's a first time for everything, right? So we made a Duncan Heinz brownie mix, which, if you ask Josh, is the only brownie that should ever be baked. When he makes one and someone asks if it's from scratch, he says yes, because this is the only true brownie. So really, if you ask Josh, being out of sugar is really not a problem at all.
Just as an aside, are we the only ones that have noticed that the boxes of Duncan Heinz brownie mix are smaller than they used to be? And that would be why, as my friend Goldie pointed out, they were on sale for 88cents the other week. They were clearing out the old stock to make room for the new, smaller sized boxes, which, I might add, are being sold for a higher price than the bigger boxes. Yeah. I know. Not cool.
Here's what we did:
1 box of brownie mix
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
Mix. With wet hands, form walnut sized balls of batter - make some smaller than that and some bigger so they can all be part of the snowmen - putting a dozen cookies on each greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 (I guess I should have started with preheating the oven but since it's Friday, I am going to take the liberty of assuming that your oven is already on) for 12 minutes. Let them cool, then line them up on plates or paper towels and let the kids decorate them.
- chocolate chips for eyes
- tiny sliced carrots for noses
- tiny soup croutons (we call them fishies even though we can't seem to find the fish shaped ones anymore. Where are you fishes*?) for the smile and buttons
- sliced licorice for a scarf
- veggie sticks for arms
- hacked up tea biscuit cookies for the hat
Decorate, make all your different brachot and yum, an erev-Shabbos-Shabbos-party.