There is still snow on the ground (and in the forecast) but it is officially spring and trash picking season has begun! woohoo! thrifty may be good, but free is better. I picked up this beauty from the curb in a frozen rain the other night. And I might have spent all my good trash karma on it (trash picking is my thoroughly unglamorous hobby). I mean seriously, who throws good danish chairs away?

I’m thinking about recovering it with oil cloth, because my children always seem to be covered in peanut butter. All the cool kids are coming out with oil cloth lines these days too. Naomi Ito has a beautiful one, of course, but it might be too matchy matchy with my pillows (which I was going to link to, but I guess I never posted about them-oh well). I know Anna Maria Horner had some little folks oil cloth a while back. Any other good laminated fabric you know of? Not too girly, not too theme-y. Something just right.

-a metal container with a beautiful wooden top; I want to say teak because it sounds fancy, but really I have no idea.

-a slightly creepy bunny tin.

-a basket to put the baby my yarn in

-a super awesome stripey blanket

grand total: 10 bucks. I forgot how awesome the thrift store can be, how did that happen?

We went to a old fashioned sap boil last night. No fancy, shiny evaporators, just a wood fire and an old cake pan filled with sap.  And lots of beautiful food– even brats boiled in sap! which is genius and ridiculously delicious.

After running and talking and drinking and shivering, we came in from the cold and had some delicious, smokey and sweet maple syrup on our yogurt for dessert. It doesn’t get better than that.

I’m going to sneak in a little rainbow before the end of the day. While I was tiding up my studio I came across a couple fitted sheets I cut out a long time ago but didn’t sew up. I ran this one through the serger and 10 minutes later I had a fitted sheet. My kids’ beds are funny sizes, so don’t think I’m crazy for making sheets, it’s kind of necessary.

We’re slowly changing up the kids’ room–see that little sneak peek up there? This weekend it will get painted, but I’ve been saying that for the last four weekends, so maybe not. Oh and now you know: there is a panda at the end of the rainbow or a white tiger, depending on which way you go. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

I wanted to make a little something for all the people who helped us out while we were gone on our trip (thanks guys!), so I made two big batches of brownies. Nick Malgieri’s supernatural brownies have been my basic recipe for a few years, mostly because it has a ton of chocolate in it and not very much flour–because really it’s not about eating cake it’s about eating chocolate buttery goodness. They were good, but not as good as I remembered. Luckily I just found a brownie recipe with just as much chocolate and even less flour (1/4 cup) in David Lebovitz’s new book Ready for Dessert. These I might not share at all.

And I found these perfect little plates to put the brownies on while I was at the thrift store. They look Dutch, don’t they? but they actually say Lad n’ Lassie on the back. So, Happy St. Patrick’s day I guess? Now go make some brownies.

Supernatural Brownies

from the New York Times

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, such as muscovado
1 cup granulated sugar (I would say 1/2 cup is probably enough, unless you use super crazy dark chocolate)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional.

1. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.

2. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour just until combined. If using chopped walnuts, stir them in. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.