Expecting Brownies

I asked the impossible of the family today, making a batch of brownies and asking everyone not to eat them. They are for some incrediby kind cousins who have offered to put us up in their house by the sea for a few days over half term. For a while they have been saying that we were welcome; 'What, all six of us?' 'Yes'. So, cautiously we asked, and a very deep breath later, heard another affirmative. We'll be taking brownies and some of the forest of rhubard that fills one end of the vegtable bed and one of Jane's freshly grown lettuces and a bottle of wine [for which we bear no responsibility, although I have visited the winefarm, Nedeburg, and highly recommend their wine]. But the brownies are special, although not as good as when made by their original creator as I am constantly reminded. The lemon cheesecake is the same, however good it will never be as good as Sarah's cheesecake, simply because it wasn't made by Sarah.

However, it is important not to overrate the the brownies. At the end of their first week at their new school as I was walking home with the children I said that I had a surprise at home. Hoped for options ranged from flat screen plasma tv to new wii games to a new laptop to almost any other new form of technology; setting up the zip wire was the only non-technological option. When I said that I had baked some brownies you could taste the disappointment. But we still all enjoyed the brownies; as we are once again. I just hope that there will still be some to take to the coast.