Home-Made Brownies

I love chocolate.

I love brownies.

So what's better than making the entire house smell like freshly, baked, chocolately, delicious, homemade, (well from the box version of scratch) brownies.

There is just something that just makes you close your eyes and smell them when the aroma comes wafting from the oven.

Is it home? or does it just make you wish you were home?

No matter. Brownies seemed in order for the day when life sometimes hands you a difficult period in which to deal with. Wash it down with an icy-cold glass of milk and for a moment life seems more manageable to deal with.

So while meandering through Costco the other day, I remembered I was out of brownie mix. So picking some up was a need not a want.

Not only that at Costco you can get 5 batches of brownies for the cost of perhaps two at the local grocery store and the best part is that the recipe actually reflects making a 9 by 13 pan of them.

Ever notice the grocery store boxes only call for 4 types of recipes, the kind made in a glass pan versus non stick pan and two sizes 8 x 8, and 9 x 9 only. I mean seriously. What if I wanted to use this mix in a bundt style pan or cupcakes. I'd be lost.

Yet, Costco solves that dilemma perfectly with a big old box of Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate brownie mix (yes for all you chocolate lovers out there, Kim from The Real Me, I thought of you!)

After preparing the mix, I make sure the pan is greased because no one likes rock hard brownies they can't get out of the pan right? I mean we all fight for the crust like edges because there is something that draws us all near.

So I pop them into the pan and into the oven. I set the timer and wait.

Ever notice that you can't use the standard of measuring to ensure your brownies are done? You can't use the toothpick in the center that's suppose to come out clean, mean they are done in the middle.

Nope, directions state baking them to the time and temperature indicated and then they are done, even though it states, "they may look undone", they are done!

Every time, I prepare a pan of brownies, my family is amazing. Sometimes they aren't done even though they looked it, yet I believe what I read on the box. Did I make a mistake on the timing?

Then there are those times they are a little too done but still perfect for an extra helping of cold milk to wash them down.

But my favorite is when they come out perfect. A little hard around the edges, but super gooey and soft in the center. HEAVEN!

Too often while I am making them and that aroma gets too the family, everyone will start to check the oven as if the smell isn't a tell tale sign enough. Then I am asked how much longer til they are done.

God is a lot like brownies you know that?

He gives us instructions to make our daily lives easier to manage even in the midst of struggles. While He doesn't even expect perfection, He even shares stories in there of people just like us, that lose everything, have their faith tested beyond what they imagine they could deal with, examples of forgiveness over revenge, and patience in the midst of a storm, but most of all unconditional love.

Yet too often we grow impatient with that aroma of what's to come in the very near future, but if we jump the gun and act too quickly we miss out and have under-cooked brownies.

If we wait too long and ignore God's calling on our life, our brownies become a little too done and our hearts grow hard and we blame God for all the wrongs in our life.

Yet with perfect timing and just the right amount of pressure in our life, we have the perfect brownie. Heaven - sent just from God.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11