Can You Remember - Cooking Disasters -

I've been thinking about life stories lately. What would mine look like? What would my story even be? So I took a look at the writing prompts I use when teaching others to write their life stories, and I figured I'd give them a try. My blog may be turning from cancer to living - hurray!

Question:

Can you remember a time you tried to cook something and it didn't turn out?

I can make nearly anything - that is, except bread and decorating a cake. Neither of these interest me. Well, I can make a darn nice loaf of focaccia or a loaf of French bread, but traditional loaves of bread or rolls are not my forte. I've made more bricks and hockey pucks that toastable bread; just the way it is. And as for cakes, I can make a beautiful cake with chocolate chips and nuts baked into the top, but frost it? The only frosted cakes I've ever made were 2 Barbie cakes - a domed cake with a Barbie bust stuck in the middle and the cake decorated like her dress. One was a birthday cake for Jenna, the other was a Halloween cake for Tyler. Oh, and I helped Tyler decorate a cake when he was running for Mr. Springville in high school. It was a spaghetti and meatballs decorated cake. I'll go for unique over tradition (bread and cakes) any day.

I do remember my first cooking disaster when Scott and I were just married. We were having his friends over for dinner, and I decided to impress with stir-fried vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, and home-made egg-rolls. The egg-rolls were easy to wrap, then I popped them one by one in the little instant fryer, pulled them out, drained them on paper towels, and put them on a pan in the oven to stay warm. However . . . the oven was too high, and the egg-rolls were too greasy, and there was a very nice fire in the oven! Our guests were welcomed to our home to the smell of burning grease. Lovely way to impress.

I had another cooking fire the other day, shortly after Christmas. I was heating up some cream syrup to go on pancakes, and I needed to make some more, so I combined what I had to my new ingredients, and kaboom - the pan boiled over and the stove was a firey mess. The house filled up with smoke, the smoke alarm was roaring, and yuck. After opening all doors, tossing the expensive syrup in the sink, and cleaning up baked on butter, cream, and sugar off my flat stove, the pancakes, keeping warm in the microwave above the stove, were a disaster.

I guess typically I cook to be unique, or I cook simply. That way nothing fails. My muffins are heavy (lots of grains), my chicken is tender, my rice is spicy, my veggies baked, my cakes filling, and my potatoes and gravy are the best in the valley.

Happy eating -