December 1, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

And that means trying new recipes, and new recipes mean opportunities for disaster, hopefully of the "we'll look back on this and laugh ... someday" variety.

And someday is now.

I've been publishing and collecting disasters since the site started, because what's the Intenet for if not self-publishing mildly embarrassing anecdotes? I still think I can fill the days to Christmas with one embarrassing story after another.

This year, for example. Every year my step-mother and I make Chruschiki together, some years at her house, this year at mine. She fries while I roll out, cut and form the dough, and shake powdered sugar on the cookies as they come out of the hot oil. We stand back to back in my long kitchen, talking over our shoulders and generally staying out of each other's way. The dough needs to be rolled see-through thin and is prone to sticking. Those shakers are also great for sprinkling just enough flour when rolling out dough: not too much and very even.

This year I'd gotten far enough ahead that I could take a break and read a book to my three-year-old; when working with hot oil, it's important to keep the toddlers happy and out of the way. Sandy would keep frying.

The book was long enough that Sandy had a whole platter of fried cookies ready for sugaring. She looked for the shaker of powdered sugar I'd been using , grabbed the shaker from where I was rolling dough, and finished off the cookies. She was just "sugaring" another platter when I returned and said,

"That's flour you're shaking on the cookies."