Gift Giving Gone Awry

On Tuesday I was supposed to make cupcakes for my friend Cris's birthday. Instead, I stalked Robert Redford and then talked on the phone for hours.

So yesterday, after a lovely (and I'm not even being sarcastic) day at school, I came home and immediately began work on my cupcakes. Cupcakery always makes me happy, and I didn't expect this time to be any different. I had my snowflake goblet of Diet Coke and my new sassy measuring cups, and I got started.

Then began disaster #1.

First, I didn't have whole milk, and the recipe called for a cup of it. Buttermilk, I decided, would be just as good, but I only had half a cup. Hmmph.

So I added an extra egg and some butter. I don't know why this seemed like it would be a good idea. It was not a good idea.

Is that a half stick of butter just sitting on the table? Yes. I wish I could tell you why. My only explanation is that my body and brain are no longer functioning as one.

I'm usually a diligent, clean-as-I-go, organized baker. But not yesterday.

And my results were horrendous. After I poured--literally poured--the remaining cake batter into my mouth, I began to bake the cupcakes. They seemed to fluff up just fine. And then, when they were done, I took them out and watched them deflate.

Matt suggested that I throw them away immediately. I thought I'd let them cool. Perhaps they would taste good, and perhaps their concave shape would be great since it would hold so much icing!

No. They were horrible. They tasted worse than they looked. And they're cemented to the pan. Instead of cupcakes, Cris got a tub of cream cheese icing for her birthday.

Disaster #2

I gave my friend Beth a dutch oven for her wedding, and wanted to make her a little cookbook of some of my favorite dutch oven recipes. I collected recipes from my friends Cassie and Martha, typed them up, got all crafty. And I decided, for some horrible reason, that laminating the recipes would be a good idea.

It was not a good idea.

Because the laminator at school hates me, and this is what happened to all of the recipe cards.

AHHHHH! Not to mention that the lamination made the cookbook look like an elementary school bulletin board had thrown up.

Determined to make it work, I whipped out some parchment paper and an iron.

Fortunately, my remedy was successful. But my nice idea of a homemade cookbook did not turn out nearly the way I would have liked. I'm just going to tell Beth that Matt made it.