Thursday, January 26, 2006

a hectic morning

This morning I got this in e-mail from my daughter:

"OK, wonder mom has screwed up again!  I need help.  Natalie wanted to take cookies or something to school for the 100th day of school
(tomorrow).  I forgot.  Yeah, I'm a bonehead.  Anyway, I started
scouring the cabinets and cookbook for anything that I could make.  I
found ingredients for a cake...no cookies....I'm out of baking soda. 
ANYWAY, I bamboozled....errr, I mean, convinced Brett to bake a cake,
and helped him do so.  Now, how do we tie it in to the 100th day?

I have marshmallows and candles, which could probably be fashioned into
the number 100...but I have no frosting ingredients...NONE!  What a
loser you raised.

Do you have what it takes to make some frosting?  Chocolate would be
perfect.  I have cocoa, but no powdered sugar.  I have 2/3 of the
ingredients to EVERYTHING!  If you can make some frosting, we can do
something cute.

Otherwise, the kid is taking plain cake.  I'm OK with that, frankly...I
work.  LOL"

I was working on a solution and had sent her a couple of replies, when she sent another e-mail:

"I don't know what Brett did, but the cake is thin and almost hard!  I
can't send it with her.  Crapped out again."

OK, I had all the ingredients to make brownies, except for the fact that it requires 3 eggs, and I only had two.  I called my daughter and asked her to bring an egg.  Which she did.

Obviously, the culprit here is Natalie.  She volunteered, yesterday, to bring something today.  I gave her a lecture about doing this; her mom is gone from home 12 hours a day, and needs plenty of advance notice for this type of thing; so does Grandma, for that matter, even though I'm home all day.

Probably the right thing to do would have been to let her go empty-handed; she'd learn a lesson that way.  Oh well, I'm a soft touch.  And it certainly jump-started my day.

The brownies may be a little over-done; every time I use those dark pans, although I set the oven temperature 25 degrees lower than the recipe says, things seem to burn easily.  Anyone else have that problem?

 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My Nicci used to volunteer at the last minute to bring things to school also.
Missie :)

Anonymous said...

whenever I made my "famous" brownies
I used a 13" x 9" glass baking dish :)

Anonymous said...

Our 100th day was yesterday. Since I do the janitorial duties for the 4 kindergartens I had THREE big bags of trash instead of the usual one lol. I also work in the cafeteria so I got to see most of the 100 day ideas the teachers came up with.  Lots of the parents and grandparents were there too. I have to sit my oven about 20 degrees lower no matter what I bake in. Every oven seems to be different.

Anonymous said...

You are a miracle worker.  Those years of experience work wonders. I think you're grand.  It looks wonderful!  Anne

Anonymous said...

Both of you should be proud that you would do that for your child to take to school.  My mom always told me to NEVER volunteer ANYTHING and if I did be prepared to produce it myself.

What a childhood I had.

Anonymous said...

I think both you and mom are an awesome team!!  Yes, Natalie should have given her mom more notice, but you know what?  These are things she will always remember.  You and her mom... always being there for her in a pinch.  

As for my brownies burning.  It really depends on the oven.  I've had crappy ovens that burned every darn thing I baked!  The one I have now works well, and I don't have that problem.  It's pretty accurate temperature wise.

BTW.. those brownies look good!!  

Jackie

Anonymous said...

I just moved into a new place. I haven't yet figured out the incantations and pleadings I need to do so my food doesn't come out either crisped or cold. Also, those metal Calphalon cake pans - suck! So much for status symbol cookware! Gimme plain ol' glass Pyrex every time.

Anonymous said...

I usally time mine to come out of the oven sooner. Ilike my brownies dry but nobody else does so.....
I am always doing something like that for Brook's class. There are so manythat do not have the time or even care about doing anything...

Anonymous said...

Yes! I've finally figured out how to adjust the temp and time on my own oven, to make them turn out better, but it took many tries to get it right!  You're right, it would have been a good lesson, but I would've made them too!
Lori