Just Say No To Brownies

I often think fondly of a book that came out a few years ago in which the heroine buys brownies from the story and then brings them home and attempts to make them look home-made by smashing the edges a bit and cutting a few irregular pieces.

I was tempted to do just that yesterday when I stupidly agreed to make brownies for a teacher’s luncheon hosted by our local parent teacher organization on the same day I started reaching my college journalism class.

But rather than sensibly buying store-bought brownies, I attempted to whip up the brownies and get myself ready for school. Then I left the whole pan with my husband and asked him to cut them up, place them on a nice plate and bring them into school.

The result was a gloppy mess that my husband basically had to mold into brownie form. No one would mistake these brownies for store bought! (When I came home I popped the leftovers in the oven and they tasted pretty good).

Why do we do these things to ourselves? It’s that whole “I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan” mentality. I wanted to show that I could do it all and I only half succeeded. I showed that I might be able to do it all but I just couldn't do it that well.

I’d like to say that next time I’ll have the smarts to buy brownies and that I would even be cool enough not to bother making them look homemade. But the truth is that next time I would probably do the same thing. I seem to be determined to show that I am both a splendid homemaker and a fabulous teacher and mother. Yeah, right.

The ultimate solution, of course, is not to buy brownies at all. It's to politely but firmly refuse. After all, I was starting school on the same day as my son’s elementary school teachers and nobody was going to bake me brownies. Needless to say this option didn’t even occur to me.

Still, I would like to get to that level. It’s like some higher level of consciousness that you can only attain after years of meditation and reflection. Or maybe there will come a day when I simply can’t do it. When that day comes, I hope I will at last have the good sense and courage to just say no to brownies.

Brownie photo from piesandbass.wordpress.com