Brownies For Boys

Ten years ago, like most people in their early 30s, I assume, my life was much different than it is now. I was single, living downtown, working as the music editor at an free urban weekly, and hosting a campus radio show. I had been through my first big real heartbreak, went out almost every night and relied very heavily on my very close-knit group of friends. I think everyone goes through a phase in their life where the friends they make will be the friends that they'll have for the rest of their life -- for some it's high school, for others it's their first few years of working in an office or a bar or a store. For me, it's the people I met during my last few years of university and the year or two after I graduated. Not surprisingly, I didn't talk to them daily when I was living in Toronto for those five years, but, for the most part, they were all still here when Aaron and I returned.

When we first got back to Calgary I thought "oh my God, no one has changed a bit!" But that wasn't really true. Some of them still live downtown, but others have settled down, bought houses on the outskirts of the inner city and stay in way more than they go out. While we all used to obsess over the Gintastic (an invention of a bartender at our favourite indie rock club), we now have wine tasting parties. Most of us now know how to cook (my goodness!) and when we get together, we go to expensive restaurants and order fancy meals. And now, we're getting together with our babies.

I made the brownie that you see above (from Jamie Oliver's Cook With Jamie) to take to a get together today featuring four of us who have had baby boys this year (there's another who also had a little boy very recently who is still recovering from her C-section). Four baby boys. I really never thought I would see this day, and it makes me so happy.

P.s. Okay, and as for the brownie, I don't think I would recommend it -- it's too much. The recipe urges you to undercook it -- which I did -- and it was way too gooey. Like pudding. I popped it back in the oven (after I let it cool, since I trusted Jamie when he said it would firm up), and it got a bit more solid, but it was almost too rich to eat. It's basically just chocolate and butter. Delicious, but tummy ache-inducing.