Recipe for Success

1 part Paula + 1 part Martha = success. Trust me on this one.


I was looking through my cookbooks to find something easy to make that could make a grown man cry. Not just any grown man...specifically, hotties. That's right. I am FINALLY getting around to making a yummy-in-my-tummy treat for our fire-fighting heroes. And I wanna make them bawl, roll into the fetal position and ask for a bah-bah.

Enter Paula. I have one of her cookbooks and she gave me a brilliant idea. One regular box of brownie mix and add a layer of her cheesecakey goodness and WAHLA! You end up with one batch of tear-inducing weepamatics.

Here is my modified recipe for the cheesecake layer -

• 1 thingie creamcheese
• 1 stick o butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 Tbl flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pecan pieces
  
  

So throw your normal brownie mix in a pan but keep some for drizzling. Then layer the cheesecake mixture on top (I ran a knife tip around for those psychedelic swirls - totally tubular!) and then drizzle the rest of the brownie mix. Cook according to your box.


And then you end up with a dessert of champions. Are you drooling? Are you crying? Are you swearing up and down that your skinny jeans are not worth it. Yeah. me too. Except I don't own skinny jeans. I only own fat jeans and really fat jeans. But these cheese-cake-brownies would make every single pushup, crunch, and lunge worth it.

Wait. I should be honest...God judges me for lying on the blog too. I do not do pushups. Crunches only exist in my world as the sound of a potato chip loaded with Dean's dip being shoved in my pie hole. And the only lunge I do is the one I perform to stretch my fat jeans out in the upper thigh.


And what can make a treat for hotties look a little hotter? A perfect package. Enter Martha.

After Christmas I scored some festive treat boxes on clearance - 90% off! So this package of 6 treat boxes was only $1.50! Remember how I told ya to stock up after holidays? Yeah - this is that word of advice in action. I knew that I would be gifting edible goodies all year round, so buying these boxes was a cheap way to make our hometown heroes feel like they are loved.


The best part about these Stewart craft packages is that it came with everything. The inner boxes to hold the scrumdiliumptiousness, the outter decorative sleeve, the tissue paper, the ribbon and even a little sticker for a finishing touch. And although they are red (coughchristmasycough) I figure that they aren't too riddled with holiday spirit that they can't be used in May. Afterall, firemen are used to the redhot...heehee!


I truly love the scalloped border on the inner box and the polka dots. Even the white design on bold red looks rich and shmancy. Like the surprise inside actually hails from an expensive pastry shop instead of a kitchen in redneckville. (BTW - all Martha Crafts are 25% off at Michael's for three more days! Yipee!)


And speaking of goodlooking packaging, my boyfriend said that the cheese cake brownies were delicious tasting but the box made them look delicious. Maybe I should send this with a box of tissues too.

So now that you know what I am doing to bring a little love to our community crew - I wanna hear about what you do to show the peeps in your town how much you care. Do you spoil the po-po? Do you treat the old folks? Do you take Beggin Strips down to the dog park? (how did the topic go to bacon?!? weird.) Whatever it is that you give, whether it be a chocolate explosion, or a few hours at the hospital, or even a sweet snail mail note - I want all the juicy details. After all, hearing that there are still acts of kindness going on in the world makes me so happy I will probably need a whole box of Kleenex.