I decided that I needed to post something during this time just so I would have this period of time recorded somewhere. During this Coronavirus pandemic, everyone has been trying to keep themselves calmed and busy at the same time. I can see some good things coming out of this and I can see some bad things coming out of this. But, this post is about how I have been handling being quarantined.
I LOVE to cook. Now let me qualify that. I LOVE to cook when I have time, plenty of room, and I don't have to hand wash everything that I make dirty. OK. Living in a RV, I sometimes have the time. Depending on if Mr. W is hanging around the RV, I may have the room. Not having a dishwasher in my RV means hand washing is going to be involved. So, I thought what the heck. I have plenty of time. Mr. W had gone fishing, so I had some room. And, I can force myself to hand wash. I mean why not? The recipe said, "Easy with little clean-up". It's not like I had a whole lot of other things to do, right?
I had been really craving sweets, so, I decided to make brownies for me. I have been eating KETO for almost 2 years now. If you don't know what that is, it is basically I don't eat sugar or regular flour and barely any carbs. No box mixes for me. If I want "sweets", I have to make from scratch. No problem. After all, I LOVE to cook.
The recipe says preheat my oven and grease an 8x8 pan. I've been using the "throw away" aluminum pans to do almost all of my baking. I went to the cabinet where I keep those and what???? I did not have any aluminum "throw away" pans. Man, how did I forget to put those on my Kroger curbside pick up grocery list? Note to self: Add to Kroger list. Oh well. I have an 8x8 pan somewhere. Let's see, surely it is in the cabinet where I keep the cookie sheets..........nope. OK, well I know, it must be in the pantry with the mixing bowls. Huh, not there either. Surely in 400 sq. feet, I can find 1 stupid pan! Finally found it tucked away in a bin of things that are headed to storage because I don't use them enough to keep in the RV. I wonder how that happened.
Moving on, I greased the pan and set it aside. I then started gathering my ingredients for the brownies. Almond flour - check; Eggs - check; Cocoa - check; Baking powder - ? Do I have baking powder? Surely I do. Let's see, the baking soda is in the refrigerator. Not the same thing. The hunt begins. When was the last time I used baking powder? Do I even remember? After some digging in the pantry, ah-hah! There it is! I pull it out and ........."Best is used by September 2018 ". Is that going to make a difference? I tell myself, "who has ever heard of baking powder going bad?" and I open up the can. Note to self: Put baking powder on Kroger list. I'm secretly hoping that I don't end up with a science experiment for brownies. Don't they use baking powder in those science experiments?
As I continue on, I have to melt butter (dish 1). I have to combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl (dish 2). I have to put in 1/3 cup of this, 1/2 cup of that, 1/4 cup of whatever and different fractions of teaspoons and tablespoons of stuff (dish 3-10). Liquid ingredients go in another bowl and mix those together first (dish 11-13[mixer beaters]). Scraper for the bowl (dish 14). You see where this is going, right? I think at last count of everything, I was up to about 18 items that were going to have be hand washed. I swear I thought the recipe said "Easy with little clean-up".
I finally get everything mixed together, poured together and the beeper goes off that the oven is preheated. So, it is time to put the brownies in the oven and wait for them to bake so I can have something sweet and chocolate-y and warm and fresh and heavenly! I can taste them already.
I open the door to the oven to put in the pan. Somehow it has escaped me how full this pan really is. I'm going to have to move the pan really slowly and have a very steady hand not to spill any of the batter. Not to mention that I am baking in my convection oven which is also the microwave. So, I am having to reach UP to put the brownies in there. OK, I can do this. I slowly lift up the pan, get it almost in the oven..........Mr. W opens the door and says, "I'm back"! This, of course, startles me. I jerk. Hit my hand against the hot oven. And you guessed it. Dropped the entire pan on the counter of the RV and now had brownie batter running down the cabinets and all over the floor.
Have you seen the commercial where the wife and husband are outside; the wife is carrying a ladder and turns and the ladder goes through a plate glass window in their house. The husband is standing there watching and trying not to laugh; the wife turns and looks at him and he ducks his head and pretends like he had not seen anything? Well that commercial had just replayed in our RV.
Somehow, somewhere, I think there is a moral in this story. I haven't found it yet. It might have been in all those papertowels used to scoop up batter and thrown in the trash. I did find out that day that red wine, and plenty of it, is just as good as chocolate.
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