Ye Olde Rennaisance Faire and one hungry girl

I'm a sucker for a good rennaisance festival, so when Monica from Bibliophilic Book Blog invited me to one in Maryland I didn't need any convincing. I mentioned our planned outing to Tess, a friend and bookseller at Fountain Bookstore, and what she said really kicked started the excitement, mostly because we wanted to see if she could do it.

"I'm going to eat my way through the Rennaisance Faire!"



Monica and The Thomas Schroeder
ft. his Robin Hood hat.



And she wasn't lying. My boyfriend (Apologies that there is no photographic evidence of his existence.) and I picked Tess up that morning and drove to Monica's house where we started out day with homemade waffles. When we arrived at the fair we immediately got caught up in the costumes. Pirates and wenches and fairies, oh my!

After exploring a bit and finding Monica and her husband, THE Thomas Schroeder, some grog (because that is the only term appropriate to a renn faire), we played Dunk the Wench. The wench Tom tried to dunk was particularly surly, mocking his feathered cap. "Are you Peter of one of the merry men?"

Tess and I.

We played the game where you toss ping pong balls into cups and win things, and Tess scored a cool renn faire mug. Next came our first stop for food. I went with my traditional renn faire food - ribbon fries. Monica got the same and cheese bites because, no matter where we eat, she has to get cheese sticks/fritters/balls/etc if they have them. But Tess, she started slow with the familiar and broke into a run. She's kind of a skinny mini, so I have no idea where she put it all!

Over the course of the day Tess ingested fried mac n' cheese, spicy nuts, a pretzel, sausage on a stick, chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick, and a turkey leg. I was duely impressed and I bow to her intestinal fortitude.

Tess with her sausage.

Later came sword, star and axe throwing. I was awful at sword throwing and adequate at star throwing, but I excel at axe throwing! Out of the gate I stick one in the the wall, and teh next I put one in the target. YES!

Hack & Slash, a comedy show on one of the stages was the next order of business. It was a hillarious mix of quips and physical comedy. Things they promised we would see during the show:

• High altitude beaver punting.
• "I will do a back flip and land in my own navel."
• "And I will solve the hurricane problem by giving the entire Louisiana Purchase back to France."

It was an awesome day with awesome friends, and totally worth the drive. Renn Faires! HAZAA!

Brain Food: Oreo Brownies

Ask an author, blogger or most any sane person on earth what food cures all ills and

they'll all give you the same answer: Chocolate.

If they don't say chocolate they'll probably say something sweet. Cake, cookies, ice cream, candy...

It doesn't really matter. It's all brain food that fuels the fire and keeps you going at

all hours of the day and night.

That's what I needed tonight, so I decided to make ooey gooey delicious Oreo Brownies and share the recipe with  my readers. And as a bonus, I'll even show you how to make them. So let's get started....

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 double stuff oreos, crushed
• 3/4 cup flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Dump the oil, butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk it all together until it looks like a goopy yolk colored mess. (I promise it will get better. Then add the cocoa powder, and do it in small bits or you'll wind up with a cloud of cocoa flying around your kitchen. You can see these steps below.

3. Add the flour and salt and keep stirring. Now, you should have a chocolately mess.

4. Find your package of Oreos and a plastic bag big enough for about 6 or 7 cookies. (Yes, you can eat one or ten during this step. I won't tell.) Once the cookies are in the bag, CRUSH! Large pieces of cookie and cream are good, so don't go too crazy. When you're finished mix the pieces into the batter.

                                                              

 

5. Grease an 8x8 square pan. Pour the batter into it and place it into the oven. Bake for 30 mins or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Note: Clean here is a relative term as these brownies are gooey.

6. Let them cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting. Yes, I'm serious. These are full of delicious, chocolately goodness, but they will be less delicious if you cut them to early and the brownie falls apart and plops on the floor of your kitchen. Do yourself a favor and wait.

7. As a friend of mine says, eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner until they are all gone.

Hopefully you enjoy these as much as I do. They are the perfect palette pleaser for chocolate lovers. The Oreos add texture and a little taste of vanilla, but if you're not an Oreo fan you can use 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Happy baking!