Rolo Brownie Cupcakes

The other night I was in a baking mood, and after tweeting about it, got a request from a friend for cupcakes. However, I wasn't really in the mood for something with frosting, so I decided to do something with brownies. Remembering a recipe for Rolo Cookies I found on Pinterest from The Nerd's Wife (an awesome site- check her out!), I ultimately decided to bake brownies in a cupcake pan with Rolos inside.

I bought a box of Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix, followed the directions for "cake like brownies" (which essentially just has an extra egg), and stuck two Rolos in each "cupcake".

The result? Pure deliciousness! I think the only thing that could've made it better would've been if the brownie part was homemade too. Even then, it's definitely a recipe that I'd try again.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

One of my favorite forms of "art" (though I certainly wouldn't consider myself an artist) is photography. With how busy student teaching had turned out to be, I didn't pick up my Canon DSLR from the first weekend in October of 2011 to January 6, 2012. That is the longest time, since I first had a camera of my own in 3rd grade,  that I had ever gone without nature photography. When you're tired and stressed enough, sometimes you lose joy in your old pastimes...

We had an unusually warm winter day for WV, and with ice still on the river, I headed down to Prickett's Fort State Park to eat lunch. I ended up going back about an hour after I left and ended up there at the perfect time to take pictures at sunset. The only "retouching" I did was to adjust the curves in Photoshop so the colors were more true to reality. Enjoy!

For more information on Prickett's Fort, please click: HERE

A Time to Create

The days of Pinterest are upon us, and in this spirit I decided to begin a blog dedicated to different creations. When trying to develop a name for the blog, Ecclesiastes 3 came to mind. Commonly cited in various forms, verses 1-8 say:

 ¹ There is a time for everything, 
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

In other words, there is a "season" for everything that happens in our lives. With that being said, welcome to "A Time to Create". I hope if you're happening upon this the recipes and whatnot are of use to you. =)