*** makey makey ***

Here's a little device that turns almost anything into a touchpad.  The video demonstrates various ingenuities such as a banana spacebar and piano stairs.  I can foresee that this will be yet another item that I will end up purchasing- just to be used once or twice and then stored away neatly on my ikea shelf (which at least has turned out to be one of the most invaluable purchases yet). But such makeymakey amazingness can't be resisted, can it? Here's the link to their site in case you have the buying bug too.

*** brownies, the eating kind ***

I've been off work for the last couple of days because I had a terrible allergic reaction to eyelash tinting- but that is a story for another day.  For the most part I was unable to do anything really, today though having better eyes, I baked some brownies, which are dee-licious.

The original recipe is from Jamie Oliver, "bloomin' brilliant brownies", but I adjusted the recipe slightly to my taste- for one I added less butter, and also half the sugar.  I find most dessert recipes I come across these days use borderline ridiculous amounts of sugar.

Here, the recipe:

200 g unsalted butter
200 g dark chocolate
50 g chopped pecan nuts
80 g cocoa powder
65 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
180g caster sugar
4 free-range eggs (keep them chickens happy!)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2.  Melt butter and chocolate in a large bowl over hot water, mix in the chopped nuts once melted.
3.  Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar.
4. Add dry ingredients to chocolate mixture and mix in the eggs.
5.  Pour your batter into a greased/lined baking tray.
6. Bake. I baked mine for 15 minutes, but I suppose ovens will vary.
7. Stuff your face with chocolatey goodness

I was a bit lazy to take process pictures (that, and my kitchen counter is quite ugly), but here two more pictures of the end result in our pretty garden.