Mishaps in the kitchen

A few hiccups happened on the way to the Friendsgiving Feast for my son Nate’s children.

It began smoothly enough with an easy, no fuss dish for Sam. “I like brownies, and it seemed like the easiest thing to do. After church I got out two brownie mixes and made up a double batch,” he said.

He found a corner of the kitchen, stirred together ingredients and poured them into the cake pan.

Meanwhile, his mother, Joy, looked with dismay at her bread dough. She had left it to rise. It looked ready to explode.

“I should have given it to Henry. He likes squishy things,” she said.

Instead she worked the dough into the shape of a roasted turkey for the family’s newly minted vegetarian Sophie. If she would not eat meat, let her have a bread turkey.

In her corner of the kitchen, Sophie prepared cupcakes. “Except the stuff she put on them nearly ruined them,” Sam said.

They also had cooked pasta for a dish of macaroni and cheese. It just needed its cheesy sauce.

In his corner Nate stopped preparing the mac-n-cheese, “Wait. I don’t have the evaporated milk.”

“Make a rue instead,” Joy said. Supervising and helping with everything, Joy said, “Sam, check and see if the bread is done.”

Sam knew the drill. He reached in the oven, slid the turkey out and yelped, “I burnt my hand!”

The turkey dropped on the oven door. “Just to the oven door,” he shrugged. The brownies finished baking. Sam took them out and placed them on the island counter to cool, crowding the already full space. Joy began rearranging dishes on the counter to save space.

Unfortunately, the pan of brownies flipped off the counter and fell face down on the floor, crumbling the brownies.

Everyone looked aghast.

“We can make another batch. I have a couple more brownie mixes,” Joy said.

The kids had to get ready. Nate needed to pick up one of their friends. The mac-n-cheese still needed to be finished. Joy shoo-ed everyone out. She stayed and made more brownies, finished the macaroni and swept the floor.

With a time crunch before the meal, she measured out the oil and water only to look at the mixed batter and realize she had switched the measurements. They had too much water.

“I have another brownie mix and I can use a cake mix to even it out, the difference,” Joy decided. With three children and a Friendsgiving dinner, she knew the quadruple batch of brownies would not last.

She finished the mac and cheese, timed the last batch of brownies and finished the turkey shaped bread.

In describing the events, Joy concluded with a laugh, “By the time we finished, the kitchen look like a disaster!”

Yes, it took a while to clean, but the food finished in time for the Friendsgiving feast. Everything tasted great.

“The only comment was kids asking ‘why did you bring bread shaped like a turkey?’”

Sunday’s series of disasters did not replicate itself in the next two cooking days before Thanksgiving day. Joy carefully planned oven time and assigned dishes: vegetables to Sophie, Waterford salad and pecan pie to Sam, and Henry made the pumpkin pie with my help. Nate and Sophie worked in the wee hours on seasoning and putting the turkey in to roast. Joy’s mom brought several dishes she had prepared.

We sat down to a perfectly set table to a feast of more than 20 dishes with everything finished on time and cooked to perfection - even the second loaf of bread shaped like a turkey.