Recipe for Disaster

Posted by Donna:

I want to begin by saying this Thanksgiving brought on the worst cooking disasters I've ever experienced. The week started out just wonderful. Our younger daughter and her three children came down Tuesday and our son-in-law came the next day. We were so excited because this Thanksgiving we didn't have to share them with the other grandparents since they were going to be out of town. We love the other grandparents; but, it was fun having them for such a long length of time and all to ourselves. We had a very good meal on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday night we all went to worship services together and enjoyed worship in song and visiting with friends. Afterwards, we came home and enjoyed watching Santa Buddies and playing Bananagrams. Thursday morning, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of sausage, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, and gravy. What a wonderful time it had been so far. Then, about an hour later, disaster struck.

First of all, the chocolate pie recipe I posted earlier, the pie that is so wonderful, the pie that I've never goofed on----goofed!! Actually I made two of them. I knew something was wrong as I was cooking the filling. It looked really funny--the color was wrong and the consistency was wrong. The right ingredients had been used, but something was wrong. It tasted terrible. Just as that happened, I checked my pecan pie that was baking and I instantly knew something was wrong with it. I've never had a "goof-up" on it either. It's always ready in 55 minutes--perfect everytime--that is, until today. I had to continue baking that pie for an hour and a half to get it done. It had shrunk and had turned dark brown by the time I took it out of the oven. By this time, I was so frustrated, I was acting very childish, to say the least. Anyway, Kimberly came in and reassured me that everything would be okay. We decided the flour and the sugar were the culprits. I had just opened new bags of both the day before. We decided to dump both of them from my bins, send Larry, my errand boy, (alias husband) to buy new sugar and flour and start all over. Kimberly helped out and made the chocolate pies and I made the pecan pie. This time, they turned out like they always do. Things, I thought, were back to normal.

However, the second disaster was lurking. Since my son-in-law was going to fry the turkey, I decided to cook a drumstick so I could have some "real" broth for my dressing and gravy. That's the only thing I don't like about frying a turkey--not having the rich broth you get from baking it. I cooked the drumstick on Wednesday and stored it in the refrigerator. As I was mixing my dressing and was ready to add the broth from the drumstick, I put the broth in the microwave---and a few seconds later---boom!!!!!! it exploded all over the microwave. My wonderful broth was gone. I did manage to salvage about a fourth of a cup which did absolutely nothing for the dressing. I was so devastated. Again, Kimberly assured me everything would be okay---and really everything was okay, regardless of the "disasters" that had taken place. We ended up having a wonderful meal with our wonderful family.

However, that's not the end of the story. Today, which was three days later from the first two disasters, I had another "situation." Our older daughter and her family come for worship services and Sunday dinner. I was so excited to have our whole family together--all thirteen of us. Nothing pleases a mother more than having all of her "little chickens" in her nest!!!!!! I had fixed roast, carrots, potatoes, fresh black-eyed peas, store-bought rolls, and gravy. As I was taking the roast out of the crock pot, something very strange fell off the roast. It was unidentifiable!!!!!! It was black and slimy. We finally figured out it was the black plastic "thing" that the roast sits on in the styrofoam package. I debated on whether or not we should eat the roast; but, I figured the germs or whatever was on it had been killed during the 14 hours it had cooked in the crock pot. Lori and I had a big laugh about it. We didn't share this little detail with everyone else.

Here it is Sunday evening. As I look back on the past six days, I can laugh at all these disasters and "situations." As bad as they seemed at the time, in perspective, they are so trivial. What really counts were the people that were in my home---both my daughters and their families. Both girls married Christian boys, and together, they are raising such good children who love God---and of course, their grandma and grandpa!!!!!!! I know it helps if the food is good; but, even if it "flops", it's not a big thing. I just feel very blessed to have the family I have; not just my immediate family, but also my extended family. They are all very, very special to me.

Well, I've just shared a very humanistic side of myself. Hopefully, it brought a smile to your face---and relief that it didn't happen at your house!!!!!!
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