Almond Joy Brownie Bites

My mom has been out of town for a few days tending to my younger sister who had knee surgery, leaving my dad a bachelor for the week. We have been over there a couple of times to keep him company :) One of my dad's favorite things to do this summer (along with ours) is to go to the Biltmore Estate on Friday nights. During the summer, the Biltmore has "Fridays after Five" where bands come and play at Antler Hill Village. It attracts a HUGE crowd, where the lawns and tables are filled with people picnicing, sipping on wine and eating ice cream. The last "Fridays after Five" was last night and we thought it would be fun to get my dad out of the house and go to the Biltmore. Summer finally decided to show up (it isn't raining too much after the most rainy July in recorded history) so we thought it would be fun to pack dinner at eat there.

I spent the day preparing Chicken Bistro Pasta Salad, a fruit salad and decided to make a fun dessert for my dad. My dad's favorite candy bar is Almond Joy/Mounds. I came across a recipe on Pinterest (where else?) for Almond Joy Brownie Bites. I pinned it with my dad in mind. Yesterday was the perfect time to make them.

I actually tried to make them on Thursday night, and was trying to plan ahead. I had all my ingredients and started the first step. I had the brownies made and were baking away in the oven for the first part of cooking. While they were cooking, I mixed together the coconut and the sweetened condensed milk. While mixing it I noticed that it was an orangy color, and my baking instincts were telling me that something was not right. I looked at the can of condensed milk and the expiration date said July 2010! Yikes! Since this house we are living in is on the market, we are trying to use up all the food in the pantry and freezer. Well, lesson learned, I should have checked the expiration date BEFORE I started baking. I tossed the coconut mixture in the trash. Since I didn't have any more condensed milk or coconut and it would have ruined the brownies to have them sitting out while I ran to the store again, I decided to just bake the brownies the rest of the way through. My hubs went out to the store the next morning and bought the ingredients once again, and I started all over again.

In the end, they turned out exactly how they should have: safe to eat, decadent to look at and very tasty! We had a fun night at the Biltmore, soaking up the last official weekend of summer on a gorgeous night, listening to Oldies (dad singing along to them, of course!), eating the Brownie bites and enjoying time with family :)

Recipe: Almond Joy Brownie Bites