Friday's thing: Friends and brownies

Today was the first playdate away from the house.

Well, the first daddy playdate with mommy’s friends away from the house.

We ventured to the land of nearly-no sidewalks … the land where we need traffic impact fees for developers.

It’s about a 45 minute drive, not too bad of a car stint, except when you consider we’re only going about 18 miles. Though I did find that Google maps permits you to click and drag your route so you can go the way you at least have some familiarity with. It’s a great feature.

One of the customs of these play dates is the brining of something.

Being a guy, and this being a mommy function, I could have brought a bottle of club soda, and it would have been accepted as ‘a good start’.

We’ve all know each other since college, so I knew that I probably couldn’t have played the ‘guy’ card like that. So at 7:30 this morning, with my son’s help, we performed one of those secret recipes that are so easy that you need to share it because it’s:

1. Easy.
2. Easy.
3. Good.
4. Impressive

He’d been harassing me to make brownies. Now, a four year old isn’t too subtle when they want something. I think he brought out the box of brownies at least five times in as many days for me to make more.

So, rather than crack out the fixin’s for pancakes (and today would have been from scratch, sans the buttermilk, but it would have worked), I made him his egg (scrambled with 1 cheese stick melted into it), and while he watched I began the soon-to-be not so secret process.

First, get a box of brownie mix. This particular brand (Pillsbury, if you’re reading this, e-mail or comment, and I’ll happily give you my address for coupons) calls for 1/3 cup oil, 3 tablespoons of water and one egg. I beat these together in the bowl (with a wire whisk), and had my son help by adding 1/3 of the mix at a time.

Okay, I could have done the whole by scratch thing, but realize the bar for me was pretty low, I was exceeding expectations just by considering making something.

We got those all mixed together (using a wooden spoon; the wire whisk gets too gloopy). I then folded in 2/3 cup of semi-sweet Toll House chips.

I poured the mix into an 8x8 pan that was greased with olive oil.

And then it was into the oven at 325 for about 37 minutes (I set the timer for 33 and let it remind me twice it was done).

These sat for about an hour before we were ready to go. I then drizzled some chocolate on a plate, placed the now cut brownies on that and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Like I said, easy, easy, good and impressive.

The only complaint was that I cut them too small, so they were “pop-able” and that there was too few.

The first time new momma certainly enjoyed them, as did the “I’m done being pregnant with my second child” momma.

Kids had a great time, and all fell asleep on the way home.