My Famous Brownies

Back when I first moved to the tiny town in northern Minnesota (that I soon discovered should have been named "Hell" but that's a whole other story), I was taken in by this group of women (who I soon discovered belonged in "Hell" but again a whole other story).   Anyway, we used to do all of these pot luck things where you all brought something to share.   The first time I was invited to one of these, I had a high maintance baby (I laugh now that I thought Olivia was high maintance, little did I know....) at home and didn't have time to make anything.    So, I ran out to the local grocery store and picked out some yummy chocolate frosted brownies to pass off as my own.   Well, my closest friend at the time was hosting the event and when I showed up with the store bought brownies she started to panic.  She made it seem like I was going to be a huge outcast if I didn't make something and she said I should take them out of the containers and use one of her serving platters so nobody knew I bought them.    I couldn't believe it because they obviously looked store bought and I thought there was no way in hell (hee hee) that I was ever going to pass these off as home made.    Well, I was wrong.   People loved "my" brownies and raved about them.  I never lied and said I made them but I certainly didn't correct anyone when they assumed I did.  

From that point on, I was always asked to bring my "famous brownies" to every potluck I was invited to.   It amazed me that people thought I actually made them but hey it got me attention and people thought I was this great baker.   If they only knew the truth and that even I wouldn't eat something that I made.    Then, when I was asked to bring my brownies to another event I went to the grocery store to buy them and they didn't have any.   OMG I was screwed, what was I going to do?   I was so afraid that I would have to own up to the humiliation of not having made them and about leading others to believe I made them that I skipped the event.    I  faked sick or pretended Olivia wasn't feeling well or something.   

Anyway, you think I would have learned my lesson right?  I swear I am not some pathological liar or anything either, I am just not good at baking or cooking or anything that involves and oven.   But no, I didn't learn my lesson.  We are having company over tomorrow night after dinner so my husband asked me to have dessert for them.   What did I do?  Poured over my cook books looking for an awesome dessert recipe I could blow everyone away with.   I wrote one down and made a list of ingrediants and went to the store.   While at the store a beautiful and delicious looking chocolate fudge torte caught my eye.  Plus, it was under $10.   By the time I gathered all the ingrediants to buy what I wanted to make, it was double that.  So, I put everything back and bought the torte.    And yes, I fully intend on taking it out of the plastic dome and putting it on my glass serving tray and "pretend" I made it.