Tag: kitchen fail

well THAT didn’t work …

Lori Tisdale4 Comments

I woke up in the middle of the night (some of my best ideas happen either in the shower or with a startled wake up): “Ooooh! I’ll make some cinnamon rolls in the morning!”

I’ve never made cinnamon rolls before. My mom used to all the time. And I know it took her a long time. And there was a lot of waiting involved. But I was prepared.

So I tackled it: I lined up all the ingredients and started snapping pictures… and by the time I got to the mixing stage I knew something was wrong. The flour and the wet mixture didn’t really come together. The dough was just dry… and then I had to add more water to get the dough to look like what I thought it should look like.

But at a certain moment in time I knew these weren’t going to come out like I had hoped. But I kept at it…

I followed all the rest of the steps: allow the dough to rest, divide in half, roll out, layer with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/brown sugar (and half of them with raisins, for me)… placed them in a baking container and set them aside to rest some more.

Below is a picture of the rolls BEFORE rising.

However, as you’ll see below, 2 1/2 hours later they still hadn’t hardly risen at all.

They weren’t possibly going to rise anymore after that amount of time… so I took my chances and baked them.

And then I started bargaining with myself: “Maybe I could suggest they are ‘mini-cinnamon rolls’?” But when I pulled them out of the oven I noticed the outsides of the rolls were all flaky and cracking and looked dried out…

I drizzled them with frosting… and took a bite…

And then I changed my mind: “Maybe I should face reality and just call them petrified cinnamon rolls’?”

Sad, sad day …

And to top it off, my hubby walked into the living room a few minutes later and sheepishly confessed: “Sorry honey. Don’t take it personally, but I only ate two of them. My teeth hurt.”

No matter the failure, I will try it again. I will start by buying some new yeast. And I’ll take it from there…

Anyone else have any failed kitchen projects that you won’t let get the better of you?! I want to hear about them!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

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try, try again…

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After two fails this weekend (see: failed toffee) … I got back on the horse today. THIS is the color and consistency you want out of your toffee.

So the nutty toffee is cooling now… and I’ll report back with an update once I know about the final outcome…

stay tuned…

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Failed toffee… oh the joys!

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The tale of 2 toffee fails…

Problem #1… the butter and sugar separate as the mixture is cooking. My research tells me this could happen for a number of reasons…

Cause #1) Either the mixture is being stirred too quickly and it causes the butter and sugar to separate. The the butter falls to the bottom of the pan and hangs out there while the butter floats to the top. (That’s what happened here – pretty ain’t it?!)

Cause #2) The heat is too hight which causes the liquid in the mixture to evaporate too quickly, which causes the butter and sugar to separate.

(confession: this was toffee attempt #2)

Problem #2… sugar mixture didn’t cook to the hard ball stage.

Which happened to me on my second attempt…

Take a look at that… you can tell by the color of the toffee that it’s not cooked enough. And it’s soft to the touch. As you know, toffee isn’t supposed to be soft to the touch. But unfortunately there’s no way to know that until the toffee cools. And now I’ve learned the reason why some people simply don’t want to make toffee.

Take a look at the pictures below to see what this looks like… the toffee simply folded in half. No bueno…

See that indent in the sugar mixture (below)? That indent was made by my finger… you shouldn’t be able to do this to toffee… no bueno.


I can even squish it between my fingers… no bueno. To the trash it goes…

(confession: this was toffee attempt #3)

Take it from me… if you fail in the kitchen try, try again…

I just think I’ll wait and try again tomorrow.

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Attempt #2 – Croque-Monsieur aka Croccante Signore

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Check out Attempt #1: Croque-Monsieur <— click on this link… The first attempt taught me to not over-brown the bread. It will crisp up even more under the broiler. And here is attempt #2. And I learned some more valuable lessons here.

Lesson #1… there IS such a thing as “too much of a good thing”!

I used a little too much prosciutto (which made it too salty). I used a little to much provolone (which it made it just a little to rich.)

And I used a little too much bechamel sauce (which made it too soggy).

These are supposed to be crispy sandwiches… so, I’d say attempt #2 flopped.

I couldn’t even eat the whole sandwich.

But the lessons were well worth it… I have a really good feeling about attempt #3!!! Stay tuned…

And yes, I think I’ll be calling this my “Croccante Signore”… since I’m bent on using italian ingredients.

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

my take on Croque-Monsieur… attempt #1

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Croque-Monsieur… literally translated from French, the “Crispy Mister”

From what I understand it’s the french take on a fancy grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

Make the sandwich, toast the buttered-bread in a pan, topped with bechamel sauce and placed under the broiler to crisp it up even more.

As you can see, my “Misters” got a little TOO crispy.

But dang!!!

This sandwich was fantastic!! I love the flakyness and crispness of the french bread. And that bechamel… out of this world!

I could get used to this!!!

I’m going to make another attempt at it tomorrow. But I promise not to burn them this time. I’ll keep you posted w/ the outcome.

However, I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized this was starting to look more like an italian sandwiches with the provolone and the prosciutto! So it can’t technically be a croque-monsieur. So translating “crispy mister” into italian finds me at the title of “Croccante Signore”… hmm, I like the sound of that!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Learn from my mistakes, would ya?!

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When the recipe calls for greasing the loaf pan… don’t forget to grease the loaf pan!!!

I didn’t NOT grease the pan on purpose.
I just didn’t read the recipe.
And didn’t think about greasing the pan.
Now I will whether it calls for it or not…

But, wow… this Bountiful Beer Bread from Tastefully Simple still tastes great!!!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…