Theme-parties

Theme-parties are one of my favourite kind of parties, I love how the guests are challenged to find a costume to fit the theme and to surprise them with fun and game in the spirit of whatever theme is chosen. I have hosted a few theme parties in my life and I plan on many more, a classic is the bad-taste party, everyone has some ugly outfit in the closet or can put several items together to clash completely or if none of the options are there, there are always second hand shops filled with items that had their purpose along with a reason why they were discharged. Halloween parties are another of my favourite and as the American holiday makes it's entry to the European marked a lot of new ideas for decoration and games are shared and invented. One has to love the internet for giving us the ability to share such things and ideas with each other, across oceans and continents. If I had the chance I would make all my parties theme parties, every birthday and holiday. I find that when people are pulled out of their normal comfort zone they tend to open up in different ways and enjoy them selves on a whole new level. Not to mention, the pictures taken will bring smiles for years to come.

Brownies

100 gr of butter
100 gr of walnuts (can be replaced by 50 gr of walnuts and 50 gr of chopped chocolate)
75 gr of flour
2 eggs
200 gr of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
½ a teaspoon of baking-powder
2 tablespoons of cocoa-powder

Put the oven on 175 degrees (Celsius) and melt the butter in a pan or microwave and let it cool a bit.
Chop the walnuts sparsely (chunky is good)
Whip egg and sugar until fluffy
Mix all the dry ingredients and stir them into the mix of sugar and eggs gently
The melted butter and chopped walnuts gets stirred in gently
Pour the batter into a square baking pan (20x30 cm) a good idea is to put baking paper in the bottom and bake it at 175 degrees for aprox. 30 minutes
Let the cake cool before cutting it into small squares, normally I get 30 out of that size of pan
They do not decrease in yummi-ness if you put a bit of melted chocolate on it before that :P

My Biscotti

200 gr. brown sugar
2 eggs
½ of the vanilla from one vanilla-pod

Whip the items good until the batter is nice and thick

100 gr of whole pealed almonds

Mix them inand try to avoid them clumping together too much

250 gr flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
½ a teaspoon of salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and add them slowly to the batter while stirring, the batter is rather sticky but with wet hands (use cold water) you can shape them into to long 'loafs'
Bake them for about 30 minutes at 150 degrees (Celsius) before taking them out and slicing them into 1½ cm slices (for looks I slice them diagonally)
Turn the slices to their sides and bake them for another 10 minutes.
If possibly, let them cool off before putting them in the cookie-jar (warning - these are extremely good and especially when warm so keep husband and children out of the kitchen and try to control yourself if they are being baked for a special occasion)