baking is messy, but delicious

it was a good thing that joey wasn't home on this night:

because i kind of made a mess of the kitchen.

every day in each of my classes i ask a current events question.  i want my students to pay attention to what's going on in the world, and competition seems to help foster this.  the team in each class that answers the most questions correctly throughout the semester gets a little prize that always involves food.  this semester i made:

mini smores, from a real simple idea - AREN'T THESE THE CUTEST THINGS YOU'VE EVER SEEN?

melt chocolate chips.  dip big marshmallow in chocolate.  top with a little piece of graham cracker.  bite sized smores!  (you also get to see my purple nail polish in this photo...)

raspberry cookies, but the baking of these failed miserably - so they were out...

apple muffins, from a duncan hines mix, and

chocolate chip cheesecake brownies WHICH WERE SO GOOD I COULDN'T BELIEVE I'D MADE THEM MYSELF.  to-die-for good.  at my last meal, please make me these brownies.  it involved a double boiler, which i'd never attempted before, but was so easy and i felt so professional.  and i definitely recommend putting the brownies in the fridge for a bit before serving them because they're really soft and crumbly if you don't.  but i will totally be making this recipe again the next time i can think of any reason they'd be appropriate.  (shout out to rachie for introducing me to the blog where i got this recipe!)

and my kids loved their treats, i think, and it was a nice way to end the semester.  yes, that's right.  i said END.  because my students took their AP exam yesterday and are done-sky.  we'll be watching episodes of the west wing all week, and then they graduate.  CRAZINESS.