Cooking Disasters

Yesterday I was craving chocolate so I decided to make some brownies.  I have a really good brownie recipe at home and I also like some of the box mixes from Sams (especially the Ghiardelli triple chocolate one!).  Here, I decided to use Dad's Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook but when I found the recipe I discovered I only had 3 eggs and it called for four and I don't think Lynn has any squares of chocolate so I would have to substitute cocoa for the squares.  (Lynn is not a fan of chocolate so no chocolate chips either!)  I couldn't find the substitution chart so I thought, OK, I'll go to my old standby allrecipes.com.  I found all kinds of brownie recipes so I narrowed down to the ones using cocoa and 3 eggs or less and found a "quick and easy" recipe.  First mistake--I didn't look at the star rating; second mistake--I didn't read the comments!  Both bad mistakes since nobody was happy with the results including one lady's 2 year old!  I will say it was quick and easy.  I kind of thought it didn't have enough flour so I added some and I should have thought about the cocoa, too (only 2 Tbsp.).  I stuck them in the oven and then sat down and read the comments.  Sure enough, my brownies came out looking very anemic and had not much chocolate taste at all!  At least the flour soaked up a lot of the greasyness everyone talked about so they were kind of cake-like. I hate wasting food so I'm thinking maybe Egar,  Harry (the Heron) or Mr. Sand Crane will enjoy them!

Bad Brownies!  Notice the pale, non-rich color!

 At first Harry ignores the brownie!

 After I break it up he checks out the bites

 Finally he takes a bite,  He then shook his head and left the rest to the crows!

The first cooking disaster I can remember was when Mom let me cook dinner for the family (I don't remember how old I was but maybe about 10).  She had taught me how to make Porcupine Meatballs and I was going to have them with baked potatoes.  After I put the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees, I decided to go outside and play for awhile (Mom had said one hour on the potatoes).  Well, when I came in and checked them, guess what?  They had exploded in the oven--I forgot to prick them with the fork!  I had a nice mess to clean up after that!  I have never forgotten that since, so it was a lesson well learned!

 One other sort of disaster that Bob reminds me of almost every time I cook rice was when we were first married.  I know I made rice before that (once for a final lab exam in college and I severely burned my arm when I lifted the lid and the steam burned me!  I had to be a gracious hostess to my instructor who I never liked very much.  I was almost in tears from the pain and stress of the final and she gave me the only C I ever got in college!) )  Back to my first experience at the ranch.  I must have looked at the recipe on the package (not Minute Rice, by the way) and followed it exactly.  It was just Bob and I and when I opened the pan, being very careful not to burn myself, rice came tumbling out.  Bob insists I had washtubs full of rice but I don't think it was that bad!  I think that recipe called for 2 cups of raw rice which did make a lot for 2 people but I still say it wasn't a washtub full!

 Update on Bob and Mr. Sand Crane.  He really wants to bite Bob!  But Bob pulled back just in time.