Best Friends and Brownies

Dear Mom,
Few people are blessed with all I have been blessed with.  Two of my blessings are best friends.  My first best friend is my BFF, Brooke.  I met her several years ago at the yarn store.  She was an employee and I was only just a customer then.  After searching for a very long time for a knitting friend, she spoke to me about a hat she had designed in "short rows".  She had me at "short rows".  It was love.  There was no going back.  Now we both work at the yarn store and she dances with me to Mmmm Bop (by Hanson).  She is extremely funny.  She shares my love of knitting and Burn Notice.  She is an encouragement to me in ways that are unbelievably incredible.  She loves me in spite of who I am!
My other best friend is my neighbor, Joey.  I met him a few years ago when they moved into our neighborhood.  I couldn't remember his name so he said, "Doughy Joey cuz I'm not done yet!"  Okay.  He had me at "Doughy Joey".  We have kids the same age; one of each of our children share the same birthday.  He shares my love of coffee and baking.  He is also extremely funny and very much reminds me of Daddy.  Which is why I like him so much.  He travels often so there are stretches where I don't see him. (I do, however, see my third best friend, which is his wife, Kim!  And she is fabulous that she even tolerates me.  And Joey and me together?!  Remember--he is like Daddy!!!)  He was home on Friday and asked if I would bake these brownies with him.  I think he really just wanted my cake flour!  I decided they would be the perfect "cookie of the week"!!  We are snowed in, after all; who doesn't want a fluffy brownie?!?!
So.  We decided that we should double the recipe (which turned out to be a very wise decision!).  So we (and when I say "we", I really mean "he" because he kept reminding me that I needed to take pictures for the blog!) beat the eggs whites until stiff; gently folded the egg whites into the chocolate mixture ("very gently otherwise the egg whites will fall" . . . . says Doughy Joey.  Up to me, I would have added everything all at once and had flat egg whites!!!  Chocolate is chocolate; brownies are brownies!)  We licked our beaters.

We (again when I say "we", I really  mean "he") gently poured the chocolate batter into our mini-muffin cups.

We baked the mini cupcake brownies for 12 minutes.  They were light and fluffy.  And as we were taking them out of the oven, we (and when I say "we", I really mean "HE") DROPPED THE PAN OF BROWNIES!!  All. Over. The. Oven.  (I reminded him that I had to take a picture of it for the blog!)

See?  Good thing we decided to do a double batch!  Because we (yes "we") were able to make our second batch, bake them successfully and dollop each of them with melted chocolate frosting.

They were extremely yummy brownies and I will bake them again.  Admittedly, most of the fun was baking them with my best friend, Joey.  BUT, if we (I mean "he") didn't drop that first batch, maybe my BFF Brooke would have been able to have some of these brownies, too.  She has been patiently waiting for a cookie of the week cookie and hasn't been able to have one yet.  Soon, BFF Brooke!

Thanks for taking your Friday afternoon to bake and giggle with me, Joey.  And thanks, Kim, for letting us bake and giggle!!  My blessings are huge!

Love,

Wendy