British Weather, Mint Loss.

Yesterday Matt was watching the British Open golf tournament from the UK, it is being played at St. George’s in Kent; what is interesting is that everyone is dressed in heavy coats whereas just a couple of weeks ago, everyone was sweating to death at Wimbledon. How the weather can change? Our weather here hasn’t settled at all; this morning when we got up it was 11°C which is pretty chilly for this time of year.  That reminds me, something we need to do is replace our outside thermometer. Our last one broke by falling off the window.

We don’t often watch ABC’s World News, but we caught the tail end of it last night. An incredible segment on the minting of millions of presidential dollar coins http://tinyurl.com/66v2k35 which nobody wants and which are put in storage. They mint something like $600,000 dollars worth a day because of some bill which was passed a year or two ago, they expected collectors to be interested because of the presidents featured on the coins. People apparently prefer paper bills to dollar coins. Funny, we have dollar coins (loonies as they are called) in Canada. These presidential dollars cost 32¢ a piece to produce and the storage facilities are so full they are talking about spending $650,000 to build a new vault to store them. This in a time when the US national debt is soaring and the President is trying to ensure something is done about it. What a ridiculous situation and waste of money. There is a video too if you want to watch it.

I loved this dessert idea from Hershey’s, I think it would be so unusual.

Brownie ‘N Fruit Kabobs

Ingredients

1 box BETTY CROCKER Fudge Brownie Mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs as called for on brownie mix box

4 cups fresh pineapple chunks

5 cups halved fresh strawberries

10 large bananas, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

21 (10-inch)bamboo skewers

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. (325°F. for dark or nonstick pan). Line 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil; letting foil hang 2 inches over side of pan. Spray or grease bottom only of foil. Make brownie batter as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Spread in pan.
2. 2 Bake 28 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side comes out almost clean. Cool completely. Lift brownie from pan; remove foil. Cut brownies into 1-1/4 inch squares.
3. 3 Line cookie sheets with waxed paper. Alternately, thread 3 brownie squares, 2 pineapple chunks, 2 strawberry halves and 2 banana slices on each skewer. Place kabobs on waxed paper.
4. 4 In small microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and butter uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring once until chocolate is melted. Drizzle over kabobs.

Have a great day