There's a First Time for Everything

This summer I had access to a wonderfully large kitchen, so I spent lots of time practicing my skills and making dishes that I have never made before.  Among these firsts were hash browns, cabanara, grilled cheese, and meatballs.  I am pleased to report that 3/4 of these experiments could be considered a success.

While my sister-in-law mentored me in the creation of the meatballs, my brother called in from vacation.  She kept mentioning that the meatballs were very big so I made a special meatball just for her:

 Now I'm back home with a claustrophobic kitchen, but am armed with an arsenal of yummy new dishes...especially full-sized meatballs.

(Mis)Adventure in Trial and Error: Pumpkin Bread

Last year I decided to bake pumpkin bread for all of my friends for Christmas even though I had never made pumpkin bread before. I baked for the better part of two days and let my roommate lick the bowl and while I never tasted a loaf, it seemed like a success.

As early as August, friends were asking if I was going to do the same thing this year. I gave a hopeful response and was fortunate enough to be able to make (and eat!) a trial batch as I provided the pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving. There were pale spots in my bread and my sister told me that my baking soda was out of date. I suspected that it was simply the fact that the pumpkin had not blended in fully since I knew I was having trouble with the mixing.

During the Christmas (finals) baking season, finding time was quite difficult to negotiate, but I managed to pull together a thorough and rather smooth crop. I had an often interesting time trying to make deliveries, and missed a couple of people which gave me a chance to have a appropriately meal-like snack for the long plane ride (on an airplane that naturally served very edible food). Ah, success.

Then...

I arrived at my Mom's and found that she was making pumpkin bread for the staff at her office. We agreed that it was a wonderful, simple gift idea for large masses of people and I watched as she gathered her supplies together including...a mixer. A MIXER? Who knew that you could use a mixer? All of my embarassment and woes and right-arm-muscle-soreness could have been prevented by a simple technique. A mixer. Anyway, the one inherant and unavoidable problem with pumpkin bread is the 50 mins that it takes to bake, so Mom could not finish all of her batches at a time. I offered to finish the last batch so that they would all be ready on the same day. I was pumped to start another round of baking armed with my new knowledge. Here's the result:

Terrible!

Worse than any of the others!

Mom said it tasted good though.

Problem Solving

Sometimes in college you make the choice to buy gas instead of bread, a textbook instead of a LeanCuisine, or a crossword puzzle book for the person spending 6 hours a day making your project look good instead of milk. Then you find yourself on the first of the month, waiting for a check and looking at a surprisingly bare refrigerator. What happens at this juncture? Creative cooking!

My food stores:
A Brita pitcher
One bottle of Gatorade
Lil' Smokies
Breakfast sausage
1 can of Pillsbury French bread left by my roommate
1 can of Pillsbury pizza dough left by my roommate
Chicken sandwich meat left by the roommate
Some cheese (shredded and sliced)
Spaghetti sauce
Cookie dough
Butter
Pineapple
Pancake mix (filled with ants)
Ritz crackers (afraid to open because of ants)
Peanut butter
Some spices

The options are limited to clogged arteries, sugar rush, and condiments. Anything remotely useful is immediate bait for the ants. After a day or two of contemplation (and one vivid dream -- although in the dream I at least had tortillas) I came up with a solution: Cheese Pizza.

Start with Christina's pizza dough. Add spaghetti sauce. Next add the rest of the shredded cheese and three whole slices of cheese. Eat the last slice of cheese separately. Bake. Let cool. Enjoy. I just pulled it out of the oven, and it is actually successful!

Any other suggestions?