Home Stretch!

Well, many of you commented on my crazy busy week up until Wednesday and it didn't stop there.

Thursday morning was Ladies' group at church. A few weeks ago a friend had mentioned the "Crack Brownies" I made for the baby shower last month which got a couple other women all excited. "You HAVE to make them" they exclaimed. I found the "snack list" and added my name for April 30 and told them that I would indeed bring some "Crack Brownies" that day.

Some thought it would be last week and were disappointed to find that there were brownies at the group last Thursday but not THE brownies they'd been anticipating.

This Thursday, I drove into the church parking lot, with the plate full of calories beside me (and you'll know why at the end of this post) and chuckled as I saw one particular woman, L, walking her small children into the church. L was the one most excited about the Crack Brownies.

I placed the plate on the table, unwrapped the saran from the top and like ants at a picnic, women were diving in to the plate to grab their "sugar high on speed". When L saw the babysitters downstairs with brownies in hand, she raced up to the fellowship hall, grabbed a chair, and sat down next to the plate of brownies.

The morning was abuzz with news that "THE" brownies had arrived. All the while I'm killing myself laughing at the brouhaha over my snack. G, the leader of the ladies' group had difficulty rallying the women to silence 20 minutes later as the sugar buzz had hit and like excited school children everyone was talking, laughing and carrying on.

One of the announcements mentioned that morning was the silent auction that would be held at our banquet May 23. From the back of the room S piped up, "I'd like to start the bidding on a pan of Crack Brownies at $50". Others began to chime in. Guess I have to donate that pan of brownies now I thought to myself. I had planned to anyway but now I'm thinking, I need to have the recipe offered as another item - placed in a sealed envelope for the women to bid on. The money goes to a day camp our church runs every year for kids whose parents can't afford to send them to day camp.

After Bible Study (which we all finally settled down for), I went to lunch with one of my friends who was picking up 2 of her 4 kids at school and the 5 of them, plus me enjoyed a quick lunch at the local Tim Horton's. After I left there I head over to another friend's to pick up her donation towards the bridal shower and then I was finally home... for a couple of hours.

Later Thursday night I was off and running with my friend A, to shop for the bridal shower gifts, grab a bite to eat and then home again to catch up on Survivor.

I stayed up late after watching Survivor on DVR to finish my latest writing assignment and then plopped in bed around 12:30.

This morning I was up around 8am and gathered myself together and was off to meet with K, the new friend from my book club. At our last meeting, M, the lady who runs the book club, asked for a volunteer to take the club in May while she vacationed in Europe. Thinking that K was very interactive with the group, I suggested her. Simultaneously, she thought the same of me and volunteered me for the job. We decided that we would co-lead together because we all know there is strength in numbers! So, this morning I drove to her home and we started working on combining our questions we had thought up from our latest read. Now had M been doing this herself, I'm sure she would have been done in an hour, 90 minutes tops, but both K and I enjoy talking (and laughing) and well, let's just say I was on my way home at 3pm! It was a fun day!!

On the way home from her place I stopped in at the grocery store to pick up fruit for my fruit tray I'm bringing to the shower tomorrow and after dinner I began gathering my punch bowl, 3-tier cake plate tray, table cloths, scrapbooking supplies and other stuff I'll need for the shower tomorrow.

I'm thrilled to be in the home stretch of this busy time. After the shower tomorrow the only thing on my agenda really is Book Club Tuesday night and my normal housekeeping chores (which I can't wait to get to come Monday). I'm absolutely exhausted, but I am so grateful to God for giving me the endurance to get through everything on my "To Do" list that just thinking about overwhelmed me last weekend.

Now as a reward for enduring through this entire post I have for you, my blogging friends, the coveted recipe for Crack Brownies, but before I post it, let me give you a little background on this "addictive" snack.

A few years ago our next door neighbor had been dating this guy. He ended up cheating on her & they broke up. In her healing process she read the book It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken, written by the same authors that wrote He's Just Not That Into You. Inside the book was a recipe for "Crack Brownies" and the gist of them was that the grieving reader was to make these brownies and share them with the significant people in their life that helped them through the break-up. So, J, our neighbor, brought us over a few of these absolutely, deliciously, best brownies I've ever tasted. (When you see the ingredients you'll know why!). They are called "Crack" brownies because like the drug, they are highly addictive and I'm sure the massive amounts of sugar and sweetness give you some sort of buzz (as witnessed by the women in our ladies' group Thursday morning!). So... without further ado...

Crack Brownies

50 Kraft caramels
1/3 c skim evaporated milk
1 pk German Chocolate cake mix (or any chocolate cake mix)
3/4 c melted butter (not margarine)
1/3 c skim evaporated milk
2 c milk chocolate (or semi-sweet) chipits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In heavy saucepan, combine caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until caramels are melted.

Grease and flour a 9x13" baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry cake mix, melted butter and the other 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Stir by hand until the dough holds together.

Divide dough in half and press first half of dough into prepared baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over baked crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble the other half of the dough over caramel layer.

Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and cool for 15 minutes then cut into squares (I actually let it cool for much longer!)

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving and return to refrigerator when not eating as they can get goopy at room temperature.

*Warning... each bite is about a TRILLION calories so cut into small bite-size portions... or jog around your block TEN times! And ENJOY!!!