Baking 101

This is the story of how I today, for one of the first times in my marriage, I acted like I never had baked before.... and how Mom-in-law and Dad-in-law got to be a part of it.

Let me back up. Last night, while putting on our Night of Neon dance at school to raise money for the food drive, it began to snow. And not just a light, fine snow, but snow. And this was like no snow I'd ever seen. Should have gotten a picture. It was like the stuff that's inside a bean bag chair. Small round grains of snow. It was crazy! We ended up shutting down the dance early, because the roads were getting worse and worse and worse. When the last students had been picked up and I had set the school's alarm, I ventured out to my little car....

crunch crunch crunch, went the snow, as I tromped through three inches of this weird, slippery, bean-bag-filling snow. It was an interesting drive home.

Anyway, I tell you that story so you'll understand why I was excited about this morning. You see, Husband had a long week at work, and even worked all day Saturday, so it was a huge blessing to have a "snowy Sunday" where we wouldn't feel bad about sleeping in a little and having breakfast at home and missing church.

Anyway, I got it into my head that it would be fun to make my mom's biscuits. They're delicious. And I've made them before, I promise, and they've turned out fine.

So we invite Mom and Dad-in-law to come over for biscuits since we haven't seen them for a week or so, and it's going to be very cozy and happy. I made a pot of coffee and timed it perfectly so that the biscuits would come out just as they got here, and be hot and fresh. There was even honey butter to go on top.

Of course I served everyone else first. That's polite, right? In this case, wrong. I should have tried the biscuits first! I thought they looked a little flat, but I figured I'd just made them too small. And I've been having trouble with my oven, so I wasn't surpised they looked a little crunchy on the outside.

Mom-and-Dad-in-law spread the honey butter on top and start eating, and didn't say a word. Finally, I got around to putting butter on mine and taking a bite. It was HORRIBLE!

I insisted they stop eating them, although they kept trying to be polite, even as I was going on and on about how disgusting the biscuits were. Finally, I convinced my family to throw them all away, and we had pancakes instead.

Later, I called my mom to discuss my disaster. She asked, "Did you put the baking powder in?" And I said, "no, you said baking soda." Well, it turns out, nope, she definitely said baking powder, as can be clearly seen by the notes I myself wrote. I just wasn't paying attention.

Rookie mistake, some would say. I suppose it's futile to argue that I'm not a rookie.... but after today's episode, who will believe me? :)