I watched Julie and Julia today. Wonderful show, really excellent show. So excellent in fact that it got me inspired. I thought to myself, Self: you can do that, you can cook, you can bake. So i did. I decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip bread for my mom, and, with the leftover pumpkin, a pumpkin pie for my dad.
Lessons I learned today:
1. Only fill up bread pans
half full. Not half full plus 3 large spoonfuls so you can use up the rest of the mix. . .
2. When you cook bread, it expands and often comes out of the pan and falls over the edge of the pan to the bottom of the oven.
3. When you are trying to get the globs of bread off the bottom of the oven so they don't burn and set the house on fire, the coils on the bottom of the oven are hot and WILL burn your oven mitt.
4. Smoke alarms don't go off as often if you open all the doors and windows and turn on all the fans in your house.
5. Unless you're Grandma Joyce, don't try to make pie crust, just buy it from the store.
6. Read the directions carefully on the recipe and pay very close attention when you are trying to 1/2 a recipe.
7. The answer to "What's that smell?" is "Nothing? What smell?"
8. Really nice brothers and sisters say "I
really LIKE the burnt taste on the bottom of the bread--can I have another one?" without sarcasm.
9. If all else fails, light a sugar cookie candle and hope the burnt smell goes away before mom comes home.
And, now I know.
Now, I'm going to eat a piece of salvaged pumpkin chocolate chip bread, read my book by the fire, and celebrate still having a house, an unburned hand, and what having Finals over with does to my imagination.
