Mush and Other Failures

 Being the cooking genius I am, I decided to make some more Carmelitas with the left over caramel dip I made a few days ago for the Reverend Teal lunch. I have had the caramel dip in the refrigerator since Monday and it was still lovely and delicious, but way too thick.

So I heated it slowly and added about half a cup of light whipping cream. I made the oatmeal base, baked it, pulled it out of the oven and poured the caramel over it. It didn't soak in or sit on top....it just flattened it - completely. Undaunted, I crumbled the rest of the oatmeal on top and put it in the oven. A few minutes later, it occurred to me that I hadn't put chocolate chips on! I removed the pan from the oven, poured the chocolate chips on top, and stirred them up ever so gently (not wise), and ended up with-  mush. Soup. Oatmeal swimming in a sea of caramel and melted chocolate.

I put them in the oven, and they baked for maybe an hour. Every time I took them out the entire pan jiggled like jello. When I finally took them out, they were solid.....and a trifle well done. I let them cool for awhile, and then put them in the freezer. I would be amazed if they can be salvaged.

Not to be daunted - at least not to be too overwhelmingly daunted - I began to make Rolo Cookies. These are a very expensive recipe. I ordered the Rolos online and paid a small fortune for them. I think the cookies are spectacular. A smooth chocolate cookie with the melted caramel from a rolo in the center. It is delightful.

I don't know if it is these Rolos (no doubt contraband from somewhere) or my oven, but about a third of them came out of the oven with the Rolos oozing out from the cookie an onto the cookie sheet. Argh. I am fixing lunch tomorrow for the eight of us in our district, and dinner tomorrow night for Emma and maybe a roommate. I would have liked to have a good dessert.

So I poured myself a glass of cold milk and tried one of the oozy cookies. Not too bad. I'll use them, and check the Carmelitas in a week.

For my next attempt at cooking, I made the Approved spaghetti Sauce. I wanted to make a lot, because I will serve baked spaghetti for lunch and dinner, and the elders at lunch have a healthy appetite. So I started with a goodly amount of onions, sauteing them in olive oil. But I got distracted and burned the onions. Not too terribly bad, but since they were all I had, I went ahead and made the sauce, which has been simmering. It tastes alright. 

I will arise early tomorrow to put the baked spaghetti together. We'll take it to the church to bake while we are meeting.

After lunch we took a walk. I have got to walk more....my legs and feet are not up to much of a walk these days. Maybe it is the humidity. But we walked perhaps a mile or so, and went to a grocery store to pick up the other things for both meals. I bought bagged salad - brilliant! and some fruit. That will be fine.

We came home and worked on our twenty minute training to be given at the district meeting and then watched and participated in our Institute class, taught by Angie. She is a marvelous teacher. We talked about Mary Magdeline. It was so interesting, and inspiring.

Dave and Deb will fly out tomorrow, but as of today at 3, they handed the keys (actually it was a sim card) over to the new president and his wife. I imagine they spent the day finishing up their packing and saying more goodbyes. Facebook is full of pictures of them with the young missionaries. They will be very much missed.

The latest news isn't much news at all, but here it is:

The good news is that I will get my hair cut tomorrow! I had an appointment on June 15, but was in isolation and had to put it off until July 1. Crazy how much money I have saved by getting it cut every three months instead of every 5 weeks. 

I am glad the lady I go to does better with cutting hair that I do in the kitchen.