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V-V Day!

Today was Valentine's Day at our house. Pretty much by accident.

I finished up the first part of the huge job. Early! The client was happy. I was happy. I took the afternoon off and went to the bank and grocery store. Since there's more of this job lurking in the pipeline, I figured I'd make my Valentine's purchases today, because who knows when I'll get to the store again?

I picked up a pot of red tulips, because Oz likes tulips, and a package of strawberries, because Oz likes strawberries.

It was cold and nasty out, so instead of taking my constitutional I baked these "Man-Catcher Brownies." Note how most of the ingredients go two by two? Two cups of cocoa, two cups of sugar, two cups brown sugar … I added a cup of chopped pecans and had to add fifteen minutes to the baking time, but other than that I followed the recipe.

I don't know, though, I think I would call these "Woman-Catcher Brownies." If I was planning to catch a man, I'd use beer and onion rings. A heterosexual man, I should say. The gay men I know would totally go for the brownies, if not for my fabulous self.

The house got smelling all good and chocolaty by the time Oz rolled home, bearing bunches of red and pink roses. The bouquets even had some baby's breath for the cats to snack on. Aw! He had needed to run by the store for bananas and decided to do his Valentine's shopping early too.

We had our dinner (spinach tortellini with basil pesto, sprinkled with grape tomatoes and pistachios) surrounded by flowers.

And the brownies? They taste as good as they smelled while baking. Super rich with a nice chewy crumb. I lined the pan with parchment as instructed and the brownies just popped right out. We ate the brownies standing up in the kitchen, hovering over the pan. Oz agreed with me about "man-catcher" food. Deep frying is a must. But considering how his manliness didn't stop him from munching down a bunch of brownies, I think we could call these "man-keeper" brownies.