Adventures in the Kitchen…::sigh::

I have done an INSANE amount of baking here of late.  I’ve made 25+ dozen cookies, 6+ pumpkin rolls, a REAL pumpkin cheese cake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, etc.

Seriously.

And it’s not all for us.  We’ve enjoyed very little of what I’ve made and I’ve shipped most of it off to various schools, daycares, people I’ve visited, and offices.

Please don’t ask me what’s gotten into me.

I don’t know.

I do know that every time I do something in the kitchen it’s a disaster… either the way the kitchen looks when I’m done OR there’s some sort of mishap that I’ve come across…

such is the case last night.

Matthew asked me nicely to make carrot cake tarts for him for his class party at school today.  He made me a list of everything that he needed and asked me, nicely again, if I would double the recepie to make sure that he had one for everyone.

Of course I will.  So last night, the boy and I went to the grocery store, along with the rest of Roanoke because they’re calling for over a foot of snow today and tomorrow — oh yeah, and it’s Christmas, and purchased all of the items that we needed…

we threw bread and milk in there just because they were calling for snow and we felt like we had to… and I picked up hot cocoa.  Because I know that there are going to be lots of children out playing in said snow and will want to come in and warm up with a nice, hot cup of cocoa.

(Note:  I will not be playing in said snow.  I am a girl.  I am cold natured.  I prefer to stay in the house, sitting in the living room admiring my tree with a steaming hot cup of coffee while I listen to Christmas Carols and peek out the window on occassion to make sure said children (and boy) are not frozen and/or hurt.  And to nag them that they need to come in and warm up because if they don’t they’ll get sick or frost bit or something.  Because I’m old and uncool like that.)

But anywho, we purchased the supplies that we needed and I went home and made 3 mini loaves of pumpkin bread and then commenced on making these tarts.  They really did look easy enough.

I added all of the ingredients, doubled, and then started to stir.  My mixture, while I was told it would be thick, was still powder.

I went over in my head several times what I added, making sure that I doubled the recipe.

I knew I doubled everything on that list.

But it was just powder. 

Hmmm…

The boy was down stoking the wood stove and I was waiting for him to come up stairs so I could ask him what I could add to make this not powdery without ruining the way it would taste.  More oil?  Another egg? How about some water?

Surely I could fix this because I didn’t want Matthew to come home and me have to tell him that I’m retarded and didn’t make it right.

While I was waiting, I went through the ingredients again and the first one said, “1 9oz. package of yellow cake mix.”

Check.  I added two.  You know, because I doubled it.

But something made me stop and actually look at the box. 

My cake mix?  Each of them were 18 oz.

Crap.  I quadrupaled the cake mix and doubled the rest.  No wonder the thing was just powder.

I quickly realized what I needed to do to fix the problem and then thanked God that I had everything I needed to double the recipe…. again.

And I started adding 2 more eggs, and all the rest of the stuff.

And then it was time to add the carrots.  I started grating and then checked to see how much I needed.  3/4 cup if I didn’t double it which means…

THREE CUPS OF GRATED CARROTS for my concoction.

THREE CUPS!

I grated.

And I grated.

And I grated.

I’m pretty sure that I grated for hours and when I looked to see how much I had, I only had TWO!

Screw it, I thought.  Two cups will have to be enough.  As it stood, I had purchased extra carrots so that we would have some for Rudolph and the other reindeer but now, they were grated up in the carrot tarts.

I mixed it all together and started to pour them in the mini-muffin tins and wen I filled up the tray, I hadn’t even put a dent in the batter.

It was 9:30 at this point in time.

I was going to be there all night.

Looking at the yield, tears started to form in my eyes.  I was in store to make eight dozen carrot cake tarts which, I failed to mention, wasn’t just putting them in the oven, removing them when done, placing on a rack to cool and packaging up.

No.

These are tarts.  So you have to press them down.  And then you have to fill them with this cream cheese stuff — which I also had to make.

::Sigh::

The first batch came out of the oven.  This recipe was in the pampered chef book that I had and I didn’t have the mini-tart shaper tool that they told you to use, but I had a bottle of Nasal spray that was about that size.

heh.

But they wouldn’t stay down.

Nor could I get them out of the pan without messing them all up.

But after 36 mini tarts were removed and filled, I ended up wtih 27 that were decent (although some of them really didn’t look that pretty.)

Matthew said that was enough for him.

But I turned around to the batter, at 10pm and started to tear up again.

I was tired.

I was more than tired.

I didn’t want to use the rest of this batter, nor did I want to clean up my mess.  I just wanted to go home, crawl in the bed, and sleep.

Samara suggested regular sized cupcake tarts.

So we made those and still had batter.

The boy suggested mini loaves of bread.

So we made two of them until the batter bowl was ready to be licked clean.

And in the end, I had enough carrot cake related stuff to send with EVERYONE today.

EVERYONE.

In addition to the cookies that I had already made for one of the other kids for her party AND the three loaves of pumpkin bread that I had made for another child.

But everyone was happy.  And making others happy is what it’s all about, right?

I just wish that the kitchen would come a little easier for me.

Is that too much to ask?

Until next time…