Cars and Chocolate

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I made an unexpected tv appearance on the local news.  It wasn't as bad as I expected.  We taped the news because last night we were car shopping.

We are trading in our minivan - we've wanted to do this for a while - and getting a smaller car. My dh had his heart set on a sports car. We took out a Subaru WRX STi and he loved it. For the family...meh. But this car is basically for HIM so I was on board. That being said...we didn't get it. His love for it only went so deep. The deal wasn't one we could live with so we scooted out for some fast food on the way to the Auto Mall.

We went to another dealership as our second choice was there and we asked for a salesman, browsed, waited, and drove away...no one seemed to want our money last night.

Then we drove into one more dealership, as I remembered that they had ONE of the car we were looking for. We ooohed. We aaaahed. (I might have done the majority of oohing and aahing until the kids settled into the leather interior of the back seat, and then they were in the royal carriage.) We took it for a test drive. We got a better trade in for our van. The customer service there was really good. Our salesman had candy for the kids. Bottled water. They had a look at our van...and ran it through their car wash for pete's sake! We bought it. We should be able to pick it up later this week.

I couldn't get the pic from the dealer site as it's flash player, but I google imaged it and this is very close to what it looks like....we don't get a spoiler but we do have a sunroof.

It's an Infiniti G35x. I'm happy as it has all wheel drive. And leather interior. And gadgets. I think the dh really enjoyed the drive too. I know I'm looking forward to it and I'll have a better time driving it than I would trying to get used to a performance car.

So in other news today, Natasha Oakley is the new SPOTLIGHT IN SIX on the Harlequin Romance Author Blog...I'm going over there to post it right now.

She's also issued a chocolate challenge over at the Pink Heart Society.

Without further ado...my choccie recipe for FANTASTIC FUDGE BROWNIES

1 Cup Butter

2 cups sugar

4 heaping tbsp cocoa

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter, sugar and cocoa. Add beaten eggs and vanilla. Add flour. Add nuts at this point if you want nuts...(pecans are my favourite...between 1/2 and 1 cup depending on how nutty you are).

Bake in a 9x13 greased pan at 350 until done. I know this sounds nebulous but my guess is it's about 45 minutes. Then you have to test...you do not want your tester to come out dry, but not with gooey batter either...there should be fudgey bits on it, or it comes out clean but with a coating of moisture.

Frost right away (because then it melts to a glaze) with: 2 cups icing sugar, 2 tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp boiling water and 2 tsp vanilla.

YUM YUM YUM.

FALLING FOR MR DARK AND DANGEROUS, Romance, August 08, Aus/NZ Sept. 08
THE RANCHER'S RUNAWAY PRINCESS, Romance, January 09
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