The result of being bored on sunday night:Super sweet white chocolate cupcakes
with raspberry icing and coconut sprinkled on top !!
These turned out much better than some other things I've attempted to make. Like the time when my brothers and I were home from school during the summer and I tried to explore some options with Kraft Dinner, or when I tried to surprise my mom and dad with an apple pie when they came back from holidays. First off though, I would like to point out that this was years ago and I didn't yet have much cooking experience. So don't judge me :)
The Pie Crust Story: My parents had been away for 2-3 weeks on holidays and so on the day they were due back home, I thought I would surprise them with homemade apple pie made by my own hands with love. I had seen my mom do it tons of times without a recipe because she was just that good and did it a lot, so I figured I remembered enough to be able to copy what she did from memory. Seemed pretty easy to do.
So I dug out the flour and the Crisco. I knew the consistency it should feel and look like.. so I scooped out a couple of cups of flour, took a huge chunk of Crisco and started mushing it together. Seemed a little on the greasy side, so I added more flour but soon found it was too dry. So I added more Crisco and it once again became greasy. So added a couple more cups of flour and it seemed to be closer to what it should be but for some reason it wasn't holding together like it normally did when my mom made it, plus it wasn't soft and doughy.. it was kinda just flour-y and Crisco-y. I kept working with it by adding a bit more flour, then a bit more Crisco, etc.. and soon it had become this huge bowl of flour and Crisco. I got it to a certain point where I thought I would try to roll it out anyway and see what happens.
Yes. Well. You can't really roll out a ball of Crisco and flour too well. I pinched a corner of it to see if it even tasted like raw pie dough like my mom's and it definitely did not. So I gave up on the idea and threw it all in garbage. A freshly cleaned house with flowers on the table, and dinner waiting, and a hug from me would have to be good enough :)
After they came home and had dinner and everything, I went down to my room and within a couple of minutes I heard my mom say, "Twyla Michelle !! What is in the garbage?" So I ran upstairs and started laughing. I told her I wanted to surprise them by making a homemade apple pie but it wasn't working. She asked how I tried to make the dough. I told her and once she was able to stop laughing, she told me all the extra stuff you need to add.
I have since, made successful pies :)
The Kraft Dinner Story: Since my older brother (Orlund) only cooked eggs, and I only made hot dogs and Kraft Dinner, my younger brother (Virden's) decision on what he wanted for lunch that day also made the decision who cooked, and he wanted Kraft Dinner for lunch, so I decided to be a nice sister and make it extra special by adding extra cheese. LOOOOTS of it !! And not just one kind either, because one just wouldn't be special enough. After the macaroni was ready, I added a bit of butter and milk then stirred in the cheese powder that came with the box. Then it was time to add the "extra special" stuff... which was cheddar cheese, mozzarella AND parmesan.
After it all melted, I grabbed the scoop to put it on the plates for my brothers. There was way more stretchy cheese in that pot of macaroni than any pizza in history has ever seen !! I wasn't even sure that I wanted to eat it.. so I just took two plates to both my brothers, handed them forks and told them, "God bless your stomachs."
You know how sometimes you pour too much milk and there is a puddle under the macaroni ? Well Orlund scooped his fork into the KD thinking I had poured too much milk.. until he lifted the fork from the plate and realized the milky puddle was actually melted cheese. I think my brothers only made it a quarter of the way through their lunch before cheesy nausea set in. For the next week or two or three, Virden chose eggs for lunch.
The Brownie Story: Then there was the time my brothers and I were having a bunch of friends over and I decided to make some delicious brownies. I put most of the ingredients together in the bowl and started the mixer to beat everything together. I grabbed a measuring cup and the oil that was in a fancy tall glass oil dispenser by the stove, measured and poured it into the batter.
While it was mixing, I went to start washing the dishes. After a couple minutes, I walked past where the mixutre was beating to put something away and smelled an odd smell. I couldn't figure out what it was, so I walked back to the sink. A couple minutes later I started smelling the same smell. I thought maybe I needed to take out the garbage.. so I did. But when I came back up to the kitchen and walked past the mixer, I could still smell the same gross smell. Then I clued in that it was strongest near the mixer, so I went up to the bowl and breathed in deeply.
Yep. It was the brownie batter that smelled horrible and I had no clue why. I thought of everything I put in it and then looked at the oil sitting on the counter that I had used. I sniffed it and smelled the familiar smell that was starting to overwhelm the kitchen. The label said "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" but it definitely did not smell like it, so I phoned my mom and asked her what kind of oil it was, and she told me she had refilled the container but with garlic flavored olive oil instead. Yum.
I should've baked and frosted and served them anyways... :P
I guess I just need to pay more attention to what I put into things sometimes.. like the time I was trying to make Borscht for my friend Andrey, who is from Russia.
The Borscht Story: The base for the soup was made and everything was ready to go. All I had left to do was add in the beets that had been frozen. My mom had called me to tell me she pulled the beets from the freezer and put them in the fridge. So I opened the fridge, saw two containers and glanced quickly into one of them. It looked all icy and frozen and dark purpley - so I assumed it was the beets.
I squeezed the sides of the container and the whole chunk of what I thought were beets, fell into the soup. I closed the lid and went to go do some chores around the house. About ten minutes later, I thought I should go check on the soup. So I grabbed a wooden spoon, took off the lid and stirred it once or twice. As soon as I did, I saw a small little dark blue bubble-looking thing bob up to the top. I stirred the soup again.. and saw a couple more of the small little dark blue bubble-looking things appear. I scooped one of them out to look at it and started laughing.
I had accidentally put a container of frozen blueberries in it instead of the beets :) So I had to start again from scratch, but at least the second time was a success !!
Oh the things you do.
