More tricks than treats

I feel as if supper isn’t important tonight. I went to an Open House gathering this afternoon where there were lots of great snacks. The D.M. has gone to a football game with some buddies and I’m in the midst of handing out treats to those who are brave enough to come up our walk.

So instead of the usual, this spooky night seems like a good time to consider some of the cooking mistakes I’ve made this year.

Stupidest had to be the time I filled chocolate-lined wafer cups without paying enough (any?) attention to what I was doing. I’d meant to pile yogourt into them, but instead grabbed the wrong yogourt container – the one I’d used to make the week’s homous. I can only figure I must have had a cold so I couldn't smell the garlic and had my eyes closed too. Because I was making a dessert for just the two of us, I rinsed out the chocolate wafer cup and started over. The resulting dessert looks okay. As I recall, it tasted fine too.

Then there was the time I answered the phone while a pot of jam was coming to the boil. I didn’t think I’d talked very long, but when I turned back to the stove, the pot had transformed into a volcano, with red lava shooting onto the floor and streaming down the cupboards. Can’t imagine why I didn’t take photos of that mess. Maybe I was too focused on the massive clean-up job.

Hard to guess what this mess is?

Clue number one: Those aren’t tadpoles suntanning in the pot.

This is the aftermath of by far the biggest glitch of the year. And no, I didn’t grab my camera while it was happening. Fortunately, I had the sense to grab a pot lid and douse the flames that were starting to rise from the pan. Worst of all, it was a batch of precious garlic scapes I’d only meant to lightly brown in olive oil. Yikes, and it wasn’t even my own house that I nearly burnt down.

Hopefully, the only things burning tonight are the candles inside our jack-o-lanterns.