Better-than-any-Box Brownies

Soooo since I was walking down memory lane last night, looking at pics of Toots making brownies with me, I found it only appropriate to make brownies today! And I have to be honest, this was the first time I have made brownies from scratch. It's no secret that I'm not great with flour, I've always called myself a chef, not a baker. But I'm getting better.
My friend's Kara & Ken are having a house-warming party tonight, and I picked up this awesome "Giada" casserole dish for them as a gift. Of course I can't take an empty dish to a party, so I baked the brownies in it :)

First I combined 4 tbsp. of butter, 4 tbsp. of water, and 1 cup of white sugar in a saucepan over med heat.

Once it started to boil, I removed it from the heat and threw in 3 cups of Hershey's milk chocolate chips, 4 eggs, and 2 tbsp. of vanilla extract, and stirred til silky smooth.

In a bowl I combined 1 and 1/3 cups flour, 1 tsp. of baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. of salt.

I added the flour mix to the choco mix, and just stirred for about a min. Stirring too long will allow too much air into your mix and cause your brownies to be dry and cakey. Yuck.

Then I poured my mix into the greased 13x9 casserole dish and baked at 325 for 30-35 min. You can only imagine how good my house smells today :)

These brownies looked amazing, but since I am taking it to my friends as a gift, I knew it needed something else, frosting!

So I whipped up this delicious frosting real quick. In a sauce pan I melted 6 tbsp. of butter, added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 2 tbsp. of honey. Turned the heat down to low. I added 1 tbsp. of cocoa powder,  2 cups of powdered sugar, and 2 tsp. of vanilla extract. Stirred it all together and while it was still warm, poured it over the top of my brownies, Vooulah! (or however you spell that)