In case you missed the excitement at the Division Street Fair today — here are a few highlights!

Started playing around with the Google Maps API this weekend which seemed a bit daunting until a coworker pointed me in the direction of the “static maps API.”

For those of you who can decipher what these markers refer to…isn’t it funny how it’s turned into something of a starburst away from Utah?

hmmm…

You’ll see how ridiculously decadent these brownies are when looking at the recipe.

• 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter (3 sticks) cut into 1 inch pieces
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 2/3 cup superfine sugar
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 4 1/3 cups cake flour
• 1 11 ounce jar of think caramel sauce (I used Fran’s).
• 1 1/2 teaspoons flaked sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 9×13 pan with butter or cooking spray.

Line pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving a couple of inches on either side to use as handles when removing brownies from pan.

Melt chocolate & butter over a double boiler. Whisk together. Set aside.

Beat eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt together on high for 5 minutes or until the batter is thick and holds a ribbon when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.

Gently fold in sifted flour. (Be sure to avoid flour pockets,)

Quickly fold in the chocolate mixture. (Make sure you get all the way to the bottom, this is a lot of batter at this point and it’s pretty thick and heavy.)

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan.

Dollop half the caramel sauce onto the batter and swirl into the mix.

Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the flaked salt over the top.

Spread the remaining batter into the pan. Dollop and swirl the rest of the caramel sauce. Sprinkle the rest of the salt over the top.

Bake until the top has a thin, flaky layer the sides begin to pull away from the pan and is slightly domed. The recipe I had said this would be about 50-60 minutes, but I think mine were in there for about 1 1/2 hours and it never quite got to that point. I finally got impatient and took them out. The recipe also says a knife inserted into the center will come away with just a crumb or two.

Cool and refrigerate to set before attempting to cut.

Serve at room temperature.

I plan to add a bit more salt to the top of the baked & cooled brownies because for me the salt flavor doesn’t come through quite enough with the amount provided in the recipe.

Enjoy!!

A friend was mentioning the other day one of the advantages of having actual prints is accidentally running across old pictures, whereas with digital images, you have to go looking for them.

I agree — it’s easy to lose track and forget about old images, which is what led me to use a set generator program to create a new set of pictures each day from random selections from my Flickr stream.

I’m really looking forward to see what comes up! I’ve already seen images I feel like I’ve *never* seen before! Fun!

The images below are a handful of snapshots taken on our walks over the years.

This morning I was looking back at some video I took last year at the World Cup Dressage & Show Jumping last year in Las Vegas and I wanted to share.

“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.”

“I’m standing on the moon, with nothing left to do, with a lonely view of heaven, but I’d rather be with you.”

“The moon, like a flower
In heaven’s high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.”
-William Blake

Every year in February we get a nice break from winter with a burst of sunshine and warm temperatures. Yesterday, Shannon and I went for a walk around town; first to Stumptown Coffee, then through Laurelhurst Park, a stop at Staccato Gelato and then some smelling and shopping at The Perfume House.

After the first time with a live model in drawing class a few weeks ago, I felt beat-up, demoralized, and completely ridiculous. I was a little worried that I would have a similar experience tonight when I heard we had another live model … but … I kind of think I kicked that model in the ass and showed her who was boss.

It was the last night of class and I had a number of personal victories throughout the course of the two hour session. Feeling good … feeling exhausted. Good night.