Learning Tower in Action

My Mom and sister found this thing called a learning tower and kept talking about how great it would be. Except it was something like $170 for it everywhere we looked. So, using the magic of the Internet, Mom found an exploded drawing of it and when I was home last week we made three of them. All it takes is a sheet of plywood, some dowel rod, and some screws, or if you want it to be collapsible for easy transport across an ocean those tricksey little metal inserts and bolts that are used in knockdown furniture everywhere and require the nerves of steel of my father to drill a 1/2 hole in the side of a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood.

Anyway, last night Silas was recruited to help make his birthday brownies. (Recipe posted below, yeah there is lots of sugar and chocolate in them, but they are 100% whole wheat and have 1/2 a cup of spinach in them.) In a few more years he won't want to make his own birthday cake, but for now he thinks it's great fun and I still can't think of a better birthday present than eating brownie batter. From the confines of the learning tower, he stirred the cocoa, flour, butter and sugar, cracked the eggs, dumped the chocolate chips in, and spread the batter into the pan, tasting every step of the way. Although he declared the cocoa powder, salt, and flour, were "spicy."

I went on to frost them after Silas was in bed, even though Orrin said you aren't supposed to frost brownies. I think if it's a birthday cake, especially for a two year old, you have to have frosting. Although, true to last year, Silas didn't eat any birthday cake or frosting. I guess he had his fill from the bug cakes at the island last week.

Whole Wheat Spinach Brownies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed, (finely minced in food processor or use handblender as below)

2 cups packed brown sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 pan. Melt butter and add sugar stirring to combine. Return to heat, or microwave until hot and bubbly to dissolve more sugar, which gives a shiny top crust to your brownies. Use a hand blender to puree the spinach if it is stringy. Stir in cocoa, baking powder, salt, espresso powder and vanilla. Cool until it feels like comfortably hot bath water. Whisk in eggs, stir until smooth. Add flour and chips stir until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until tester reveals wet crumbs but not raw batter. Cool and rack and cover when cool. Brownies are much better after sitting overnight to soften the bran in the flour, if you can wait!