I'm not the greatest, but most of what I make is edible. The kids don't usually complain. I'm not very adventurous, but I am adaptable. Recipes are guidelines. If I don't have half of the ingredients, I just throw in what I do have. Some of the greatest compliments come when I have modified a recipe. What this means, however, is that I can never recreate my best meals.
It also means that sometimes I really mess up.
Unfortunately, because I never keep track of what I've thrown in, I don't really know what the problem is. Mayhem really breaks loose when I venture into a world almost completely unknown to me, like Asian food, or baking from scratch.
Such was the case one evening when I decided to make my family homemade cookies. A little bit of this and a lot of that. I was following only a partial recipe. After the first batch came out of the oven, I knew we had a problem.
Two people instantly came to mind: a good friend who has finally perfected her own (somewhat secret) chocolate chip recipe, and my eldest sister-in-law who represents a good homemaker to me. My friend lives a mile away, and I knew exactly where she was at the moment, so I tried her first. She couldn't hear her phone over the bath water she was drawing for her children.
I was somewhat reluctant to call my S-I-L because it was around dinner time in her part of the world. But, I figured my options were to throw out the dough or interrupt their dinner. I chose the selfish option, which luckily turned out OK. B-I-L wasn't home from work, yet!
It took longer for me to explain the problem, than for her to fix it. More flour!!! Thank you, LaD!
Can you guess which is the before-the-saving, and which is after?
5 comments:
I am a bit of a baker, so if you ever need any tips you can call me too. I have several great recipes for cookies I will e-mail you a couple.
I too don't use recipes to the letter and do have problems at times when cooking. Last week I made chicken filled crepes and basically made up the filling with some ideas from a couple of recipes. Everyone really liked them and now I can't remember how to make them again. Good luck with your endeavors, I am sure you are a wonderful homemaker.
Flour is overrated. It cuts down on the sugar and chocolate ratios.
[grin]
P.S. I love your blog, Julie. Nice work.
For reasons that will be obvious to you when you read our blog, I have been looking for spiritual analogies in everyday life a lot lately. It seems more flour is to your cookies what prayer is to life. You have to have the right amount to keep from being flat. - AW
I love your new layout also! Great job! Love checking in with you!
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