Two Tablespoons Take Their Toll
September 25, 2018 Uncategorized 4 comments cdaigle19
About a year or two ago, my brother’s now fiance from California was visiting our little home in rural Maine for a couple of weeks. I have no idea why, but for some reason I decided to make everyone pancakes for breakfast, and the fact that I had little to no experience in making them did not deter me in the least.
Since we had a visitor, I took it upon myself to do everything on my own as not to bother the others, but also to validate my cooking skills, even though they were virtually nonexistent at that point. Despite that, I switched into cooking mode as I began puttering around the kitchen, preparing everything I’d need to not only make pancakes, but to make them the best pancakes that anyone who tried them had ever had tasted.
I was so confident in my cooking that I didn’t even sample my work before I served everyone. No one said anything about the flavor, so I assumed that everything was fine. Not long after, once I had made all of the pancakes, I myself sat down to enjoy the breakfast that I had presumed was made beautifully. I poured maple syrup over my fluffy strawberry pancake and took a bite, ready to savor the flavor, but something was off, and it was really, really obvious. It only took me a second to realize that the strange taste was actually salt, and I looked up at everyone and right as my brother’s girlfriend was about to put another bite in her mouth, I almost shouted at them not to eat them! I could feel the embarrassment welling up inside of me. The pancakes were absolutely repugnant, and it was all my fault.
I told them that I thought I had put too much salt into the pancakes, although I couldn’t fathom how that had happened since I had tried so carefully to follow the recipe exactly as it was written. A feeling of absolute horror fell upon me as I double checked the recipe and realized what I had done. On the recipe card, it said to add 2 tablespoons of sugar, and right underneath that, slightly indented, was the word salt. In my haste, instead of reading it as 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt, I read it as 2 tablespoons of salt. As I stood there, stunned and embarrassed, my siblings were cracking up laughing at my mistake. My brother’s girlfriend said she would have eaten them anyway, but that was out of the question seeing as though I had accidentally put an unhealthy amount of salt into them.
Gratefully, no one was mad that I had completely massacred our breakfast, but I was still left feeling abashed. However, I did gain something out of that situation. I learned that no matter how pressed for time a person is, they should always, ALWAYS, double-check their recipe when they’re cooking, and then, after that, check it again just to be safe. As time has passed, it has also taught me, or rather reminded me, that siblings will never let you live down your embarrassing moments. To this day, the incident with two tablespoons of salt still come back to haunt me, but it never fails to make a smile spread across my face as I laugh at my past mistake.
4 Comments
I loved this story because it made me giggle about the one time I wanted to be nice and make brownies. I had the oven temperature set, the ingredients all ready to be put in the bowl, and a box of brownie mix in my hand. Instead of carefully opening it I decided the best thing to do was to open it by hand. Well, I ripped the entire bag in half in the middle of my kitchen. So all anyone else heard was a poof of the bag opening and me laughing at me and the floor that was covered in the mix.
Something like that has happened to me too, but I think it was with flour, not brownie mix. It get’s all over your clothes and it’s the worst! I’m glad you liked my story though! I’m still super embarrassed about it.
I have made mistakes like this in the past, too, so I know how embarrassing that must have been! But it’s okay because you were learning, and from that mistake you realized next time to read the directions more carefully! And it’s good that you stepped out of your comfort zone to try to make something delicious for your family!
Thank you! I’ve gotten a lot better at cooking since then, so I’m hoping that nothing like that ever happens again. It probably will though, if I’m being completely honest with myself. I’m glad I’m not the only one that’s made a mistake like that though!