Donita's Dessert Lady Brownies

Martin chose how his father's day would go, opting out of being with friends and, instead, parking himself in front of the TV to watch golf all day. This didn't come as a big surprise because it is how he always spends "his" day - watching the final play of the US Open. The only time he deviated from his routine was a few years ago when Torrey Pines hosted this prestigious event and he actually got to marshall the tournament. Every golf groupies dream of how a day should go.

My part of the day was coming up with a menu to please our own Father of the Year. I considered hamburgers, but he ends up making those on the bbq. Steak? A possibility but then I remembered we're out of propane and every time I grill steaks inside the smoke alarm goes off. Literally.

OK...on to lasagna. Yep, that would make my man happy. It represents a bit of work for me (and what hubby doesn't love the idea of his wife slaving over a hot stove on his behalf?) and it's definitely one of his very favorite meals. While the lasagna takes time to make, a ceasar salad and loaf of french bread are easy sides.

Now for dessert. There are soooo many I could and would love to make but, once again, the trick is finding something simple enough to please hubby but complicated enough to make him feel like he's rating VIP attention. What he loves are brownies. Boring box brownies with store-bought vanilla ice-cream.

Just when I decided the brownies would have to do, I remembered Donita's recipe! Years ago, we visited the Knight family in Seattle and were treated to these extra-rich, extra-yummy brownies. Donita is an amazing cook but the dessert we ate was actually prepared by someone else and then delivered to the Knight's door, courtesy of a Dessert a Month auction prize Donita had bid on and won earlier that year. (In addition to the amazing brownies, we also had a fabulous ice-cream based dessert which means we either stayed with our friends for a very long time, or Donita got smart and called in an extra chip or two to feed the San Diego Griswolds.)

If only I'd left things simple and gone with a standard pan of brownies along with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. I'm blaming it on Pinterest that I decided to make a brownie, ice-cream cake instead - if some pinner hadn't posted a picture of a gorgeous looking combo cake, I would've had the good sense to stick to what I knew!

Instead of cooking the brownies in a 9x13 pan, I put them in two round cake pans and then set to thawing the ice-cream enough so it could be spread between the two brownie layers. The picture online showed a lovely thick layer of ice-cream and no topping but once I'd slathered on my between cake filling, the top seemed too plain and "ugly" looking so I decided to put a top layer of ice-cream. There's really no way to explain how wrong everything went. I have no idea how those Pinteresters managed to get their ice-cream to stay affixed between cake layers because mine kept sliding out in a most unbecoming, oozy kind of way. I'd hoped the top ice-cream layer would mask all the side stuff sliding about but, instead it scurried right down off the cake and into the now growing pool of vanilla glop running off the plate and onto the counter. Not exactly something you want to offer up as a special dessert for a special man on his special day.

I wound up scrapping that mess and making, you guessed it...a 9x13 pan of Donita's Dessert Lady Brownies. And hubby was happy.

Donita's Dessert Lady Brownies

1 cup butter

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Mini baking M & Ms

Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan. Melt butter and chocolate slowly in a large saucepan. Remove from heat, beat in eggs and vanilla with a wooden spoon or whisk until smooth. (At this point the mixture is wet and sheeny. It reminds me very much of the process for making Funeral Cake.) Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and add the chocolate mixture. Beat by hand until just mixed together. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. (If using M & M's, place them on top before baking the brownies.)