Chapter 11: My Cooking Adventure
So I was put on snack/treat duty for family home evening this week (and since we've been using so much oil and butter whilst baking, we've been banned. It's not that we can't use it at all, just not in the amounts required for baking.) So me, being the silly procrastinator that I sometimes am, put off coming up with an oilless/butter less dessert until the day of. Brilliant, I know.
So I'm walking home from work enjoying the beautiful weather when the thought came to me, and I was like "Right, I don't have any ideas for tonight." So I started thinking "Maybe a sweet bread, but those generally call for some form of oil, as do cakes, cookies, and brownies. What if I make bagels? But we don't have anything to put on bagels. Is there any fun fruit sugary thing to put in the bagels? We have apples. Hm, probably best to find something else. What about canned pineapple? We always have that in the cupboard. I don't know if that will taste good though. What else could I make with pineapple? Not bread, not pineapple upside down cake. Hmmm.... what if I dried it out with a little bit of sugar? It shouldn't be too hard. I can do that. What's it called?... candied pineapple? Maybe. That could be a thing. I'll find a recipe when I get home."
I eventually get home, eat real quick, and find a recipe for candied pineapple.
"Apparently that is what it's called. What does it call for? Water, sugar, corn syrup. I think I saw some corn syrup in the pantry recently. "
*searches pantry*
"Yep, we do. Why do we even have this?... Oh well. "
*starts gathering ingredients*
"Corn syrup, sugar, pineapp... where's the pineapple?"
*searches entire pantry*
"Who did this? How could this happen!? ...Well, there goes that plan."
*starts brainstorming again*
"We have milk, is there something I could make with milk? What if I made the jiggly backed pudding like I've always wanted to. Yep. That's the plan."
*pulls out crazily old cookbook*
*finds pudding recipes*
"None of these are baked, except for the bread pudding."
*cries inside*
"What other recipes are in here? Hm, custard. That sounds exciting. What does it call for? Scorched milk, I can do that; sugar, yes; eggs, yes; salt, yes; vanilla, yes; nutmeg. I mean we should, it is a baking spice." (Secretly my family and I are all bakers in our souls.)
*starts grabbing ingredients again*
"Now where is the nutmeg?"
*climbs on barstool and starts turning out the spice cupboards*
(We have two, there are other things in there too: oil, vinegar, baking powder, tissue (yeah, we're weird), but mainly they're spices.)
"Ginger, pepper, red pepper, curry, Italian spice, pepper, more pepper. Why can I never find the pepper when I'm actually looking for it? Taco seasoning, salt, garlic salt, thyme, salt, salt, more salt, rosemary, apple pie seasoning, cloves. Where is the nutmeg? Onion powder, random spice in miscellaneous bag."
*smells bag*
"Nope that's curry. Cayenne, cloves, enchilada powder. What is this doing in this cupboard? Baking powder, unmarked bottle of brown powder. Is this nutmeg?"
*smells bottle*
"This might be nutmeg. Maybe pumpkin spice. Either way, if I don't find the nutmeg, it will be nutmeg. I'm not changing recipes again."
*turns out second cupboard*
"Yep, well I guess you're nutmeg... How does one scorch milk?"
*checks book*
"You can do it on low heat or in a double boiler. ..Low heat it is!"
*closes book dramatically*
"For how long?"
*rechecks book*
*scorches milk*
*mixes ingredients*
*pours custard*
*opens oven*
" That doesn't feel right."
*stares at oven suspiciously*
Half an hour goes by.
*pokes custard with fork*
"Nope, way to wet."
*turns up heat*
More time passes
*pokes custard with fork*
"Must not be done, it feels the same and the fork is st.."
*blinks at fork in surprise*
"The fork is clean! What sorcery is this?... I guess it's done." (I was not aware of the consistency of custard before this point.)
*pulls out custard*
*Family Home Evening*
*everyone eats custard*
"This is pretty good."
Me: "I used this spice instead of nutmeg."
Mom: "That is nutmeg."
Me: "...Well that's good."
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