Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about a recent evening at my house...
Now, my husband had been out of town for four days. I love him. Oh goodness I love him. I am grateful that his job provides me the opportunity to stay home with the kids even if that means a few times a year he has to travel for work.
That being said, a few days into his trip I get a little...frustrated. Jealous of freedom. Rundown by single parenting, a very active daughter, and a son with autism.
Oh I had such great plans for that night! I was going to be like...Pinterest Mommy of the Year or something. You know, all rainbows and unicorns and happy childhood memories.
My daughter came home from her after school activities and immediately showered and got into cozy PJs. Homemade double fudge cookies were baked. Homemade chicken noodle soup was consumed. We had a girly evening styling our hair and painting our nails. We piled into the car to drive aimlessly and enjoy Christmas lights. Upon returning I popped delicious popcorn, started the fire in the fireplace, and we all curled up together by the tree to watch Peter Pan live on TV. Then we headed off to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing through our heads.
Well, that's how it was supposed to go. In reality, we only made it to the cookie part.
I poured myself a glass of wine and was about to sit down with my soup when...
The kitchen sink backed up.
Both sides.
The plunger did not help.
My daughter was extremely hyper.
My son was extremely weepy.
My husband...with whom I had to share the sink situation from across the country...started throwing around helpful tidbits like, "you need to disassemble the drain and clean it out."
Yeah...um...I don't even know what to say to that.
Time to at least try some Drano.
I rushed my daughter through her bowl of soup.
I prodded my son into his coat.
I loaded the kids in the car and...
My son lost it.
Total meltdown, right there in self-check.
Tears rolling down his cheeks, screaming.
Why? Well, he likes to push the buttons on the self-check machine thingamajig for me.
And for some reason, he selected the Spanish instructions.
*sigh*
Of course I fixed it, but it was too late.
My routine loving son.
My sleepy, autistic, routine-loving (especially at the grocery store for some reason??) son had checked out on me.
The stares were following us out the door.
We stopped outside, I calmed him down.
I decided not to let the evening be a total bust and we headed on down the road to take in the lights before going home.
The car was warm and he was in his coat, so I pulled over and asked my daughter to take his coat off.
*sigh*
He is normally SO mild mannered, so easy going, so smiley and wonderful.
Except when he's tired.
Except when things don't happen at the grocery store like they normally do.
Except when his sister (whom he adores when she does sisterly things) does things Mommy or Daddy normally do.
Cue meltdown number two.
I got out of the car, into the cold. I walked around to his side, removed his coat, and calmed him down.
Goodness that girl is an awesome big sister.
She gets so upset when her brother is upset.
So I had two upset kids.
Thank goodness he fell asleep almost as soon as the car started moving again!
My daughter and I continued on our way, enjoying the lights.
Little Man stayed asleep, thank goodness.
He promptly passed out in bed and his sister and I enjoyed Peter Pan as she nibbled on double fudge cookies.
This night turned out ok after all. :-)
Anyway, back to those cookies...
I'm one of those people who says "raw eggs be darned" and can't help but nibbling a little.
I have never- never ever ever ever ever- had a cookie dough as difficult to resist as this stuff.
Soooooo good. I chilled mine for a couple of hours before baking, and it turned into this fantastic cool brownie goodness.
I don't normally keep brownie mixes on hand, so if you're in the same boat as me go ahead and mix up a copycat brownie mix like this one from Crazy for Crust.
You can really mix this one up, too...use a dark chocolate brownie mix, use white chocolate chips, use orange extract/liquor rather than almond...whatever suits your fancy. Just know that these are crazy delicious, insanely easy cookies to make and they're SO worth a try!
1/2 box brownie mix (for 13” x 9” pan), 18 to 22 ounces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
1/4 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Almond Extract
1 eggs
2 tablespoons Mazola® Corn Oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine brownie mix and flour in a mixing bowl. Stir in extracts, eggs and oil; blend thoroughly. Dough will be stiff. Add chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes; cool on rack.
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