No Superheros for this Boy - just Cookie Dough Brownies

Our oldest, Jacob, turned 11 on July 1st.  If you've met Jake, you know two things quickly stand out about him.  1 - he has a smile that lights up his whole face!  2 - he is rather small for his age.  While height is a trivial thing we can do nothing about, there are days when it is tougher than others to be "the little guy".  When people first meet our family they are often surprised that Jake is 2 1/2 years older than Keeley - they have been asked if they are twins on several occasions.  The other time it is particularly hard is when it comes to sports - try as hard as he might, his size sometimes holds him back.  It's hard to have a pitcher that has 2 feet on you hurling a ball towards you or a linebacker coming at you that's double your weight.  As parents Scott and I can only continue to cheer him on, work with him as much as we can, and not let him give up.  That said, there are also some other unique traits about Jake that make him unlike your "typical" boy.

Jacob lives for Thursdays because it is newspaper day - how many other tweens can't wait to read up on the local news?!?!  He uses it in conversation with people for the rest of the week, "Hey, did you see that there were guys arrested for stealing cattle?!?"

You will not find any Superheros in our house - Jake has never gotten into Superheros, Pokeman, Digiman, Minecraft, Skylanders, Clash of Clans or any other trend I'm sure to misspell.  He loves tractors - both RED and GREEN - despite his clothing and farm being dominantly RED.  Jake does play a few video games but usually sports or Mario.  His favorite game of all time is Farming Simulator - Yep, you build and run your own farm!  Buy/sell equipment, crops, land...he can "farm" for hours!

 His other love is Legos - but only Lego City so he can build and control his own town, mainly transportation, construction, and mechanic sets - no Star Wars or Pirates here!  He also is kind enough to let his sisters store their "girly" Legos in his room as they have no place to in theirs.  (Any Lego storage/display ideas welcome as we are drowning in them and even when they're "set up" in never lasts for long!)

I have my great-grandmother's dining room table in our basement and Jake slowly took it over with tractors, grain set-ups, and a machine shed among other things.  This worked fine - until we wanted the table for holiday entertaining!  Right after Christmas Scott had the idea to build Jake his own farm table where everything could be displayed and played with and it would all be self-contained.  He did an amazing job building and finishing off a "L" shaped double-decker table which I happily snuck out to the shop to paint to keep it a surprise for Jake.  Scott was surprised when were ready to bring it home and he realized it would not fit in a pick-up bed!  Luckily Uncle Tom has an enclosed trailer we could borrow or it would have come home in a reefer!  The biggest surprise was when Scott, his Dad, my brother, Zac, and I were trying to get it down the basement stairs and make the turn over the open side of the staircase - it got a little stuck, the stairs got a little paint, and we lost a little spackling, but with a little pushing and shoving we made it through and it now happily has it's acreage in the corner of our basement.

The Runge Farm :)

This is Jake turning 11!

Lunch at Jake's Pizza with Runges and some cousins, including my sister's oldest, Damion, who turned 13 on the same day.  Birthday Boys!!!

One of Jake's favorite foods is kabobs.  We ran tight on time so I improvised and made hot dog, brat, mushroom, pineapple, and cherry tomato kabobs - ironically the spur of a moment meal was a hit and there was nothing left!

We had been discussing cake for weeks because he usually has a particular passion each year be it farming, tow trucks, baseball...  When it comes down to it I guess he is still stuck on his tractor pull cake from last year (which is really simple but has been re-pinned on Pinterest over 80 times since last year) which you can see here:  Case IH Tractor Pulling Cake.  I finally explained to Jake that he didn't HAVE to have a cake just because mom decorates them, he could have whatever dessert he wanted - I would be TOTALLY fine with it.  He thought about it and finally told me the day before his birthday that he really wanted the Cookie Dough Brownies I haven't made in over a year.  They are ALWAYS a hit and I'll share my recipe at the end!  Back to the presents!

Scott and Jacob are really into customized replicas of their real life passions.  For Jake's birthday Scott had a custom builder make him a 1:64 replica to scale of the actual G&M Runge, Inc. shop.  Kicker was that the little stinker has watched so many videos of custom builders that when he saw the return address on the box he already had a good idea what was going on!

G&M Runge, Inc. at the Runge Farm

Jake had his birthday party with some extended family on July 5th.

This time he had me make him a mint ice cream pie with a chocolate crust and a cool whip and Andes Mint topping - simple but perfect!

Later that afternoon we had some Slip-and-Slide fun!

Sure are a lot of girls compared to boys!

Another party for supper with our favorite neighbor girls who couldn't make it for lunch, Barbara & Sara!

We had to put a candle in Barbara's pie, too, because the boys were at livestock training and missed her birthday party on June 15th.  All HAS to be fair!!!

COOKIE DOUGH BROWNIES

I had originally tried this recipe from The Recipe Girl, but have adapted it to the way our family prefers them as shared below:

For the Brownies: 

4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate

1 C. Butter, melted

2 C. Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Flour

1/2 C. Chocolate Chips (mini, semi-sweet, whatever you want!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with nonstick spray. In a small glass bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave in 30 seconds intervals; stirring after each and remove from microwave when melted and smooth. Set aside. In a larger mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract and then the melted chocolate. Whisk in the flour and mix just until combined (don't over-whisk). Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Watch closely and remove from oven when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

For the Cookie Dough:

1 C. Butter

1 C. Brown Sugar

1 C. White Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 T. milk, cream, half & half - whatever you have on hand

1/4 tsp. salt

2 C. flour

1 C. mini chocolate chips

1/2 C. mini chocolate chips (optional)

Cream the butter and sugars with a mixer.  Add in vanilla and milk.  Combine salt and flour in a small bowl.  Add flour mixture to sugar mixture.  Add the 1 cup of mini chocolate chips and mix until even.

Evenly spread the cookie dough layer over the top of the brownies using your hands to apply light pressure to ensure the layers stick together.  If desired top with the additional 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips or as many as your heart desires ~ ENJOY!   (Cool in the refrigerator for easier/quicker cutting.  Yield 48 brownies-although the one shown in the pic is at 24 servings!)