Baking...

Today while meandering through Woodman's, the little voice inside my head said to purchase a bag of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chunks to be a blessing.  I wasn't sure who needed the blessing of chocolate chunk cookies...but I followed the prompting and purchased a small bag of flour and said chocolate chunks.  Isn't it great being a blessing?  And what better way to be a blessing than by baking?  Well, there was that ONE TIME when the baking didn't go according to plan...  Okay, okay, so I am hearing my mom's voice say, "What do you mean that ONE TIME....there have been multiple times, Angela Dawn!"  And she is right...

1. The squirrel peppermint brownie debacle ~ in my defense, I thought (I mean REALLY THOUGHT) squirrels hibernated.  Weren't the squirrels asleep on Bambi when the young prince was born and Thumper had to wake everyone up?  Disney...set me up for a brownie debacle.  I sat the pan outside to cool and went about cleaning up the kitchen.  Several minutes later, I looked outside and saw a gray squirrel pilfering in a corner of the brownies.  Those brownies were York Peppermint Patty Brownies and quite pricey to make.  Being a resourceful girl, I noticed that just one corner had been compromised...so I did what any poor schoolteacher would've done, I cut out the 2" section, cubed up the rest of the brownies, and served them on another plate.  That's right.  I served them at the library's Christmas get-together.  Everyone kept commenting on how good they were and I thought, You and some squirrel too!!!!

2. The tablespoons of cinnamon instead of teaspoons...  I had just declared to my whole family at our Thanksgiving Feast, "This pumpkin spice roll is going to be the best thing you've ever tasted!  It's wonderful!  I am an amazing baker!"  Ummmm...pride cometh before the fall.  The pumpkin roll was dry and gross.  We masked the taste with vanilla ice cream...lots of ice cream.  And yes, I am still picked-on about said dessert.

3. In my very early endeavors, I believe I thought I could substitute corn syrup for oil.  They looked the same.

4. The egg that fell in the chocolate chip cookies that were to impress a certain someone...  My KitchenAid mixer did a fine job of crushing up the small pieces that remained in the batter and the receiver of the cookies was none-the-wiser.

5. OVER-Broiled salmon.  It was awful!!!!  My father said nothing bad about it as we picked it up and nibbled at it like squirrels feasting on ears of corn.  In my defense, I did not understand that broil was synonymous with SUPER HOT!!!!!  Twenty minutes broiled definitely compromised the salmon.

I'm happy to insure you that I have been cooking conundrum free for quite some time.  (Knock on wood, right?)  I mean -- it's almost time to start Christmas baking...which I will be doing this year!!!