Mid-summer

I won't complain anymore about not being able to bake during the summer.  My oven just heats up the  house so much (we have a window unit, behind Hannah in the picture below, but it still gets too hot without central air conditioning to use the oven)!  So...my husband gave me $100 for my birthday to buy a toaster oven (it's actually called a counter convection oven...and was only $39.99 at Aldi's).  I ♥ it!

The first thing we made in it was homemade pizza.  Since, I've made blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies and brownies!  Do you have any suggestions on what else I should try making in my NEW toaster oven?!

Monday, we celebrated Hannah's namesday.  Her patron saint, St. Hannah, is the mother of the prophet Samuel.  We read from the Bible, about how she was unable to have children, and prayed to God, who answered her prayers.  We read more about Samuel, and how he made Saul the king, and the ark was stolen out of the temple...

To honor the day, we had ice cream sundaes with Grammie and Peepaw.  First, we put brownies (yep, ones that I'd baked in the toaster oven) in the bowl.  Here's the brownie recipe I used (I made this twice already! Mmmmm...I think this would be a nice little gift in a jar):
1 cup sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup cocoa
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder 
You can store this dry mix in plastic bags or Mason jars. At baking time, add: 
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes in an 8×8 or 9×9 pan. 

Then, ice cream, caramel sauce, fudge, homemade blueberry sauce, whipped cream, and real cherries on top.  It was so good!

Later, that day, we met up with my sister and her girls at the pool!