It was day 2 of my baking bonanza. Today, I vowed not to leave my apartment until absolutely necessary. I had everything I needed – food, a television, the warmth of an oven – so there was no reason to leave.

I loved the thought of being holed up in a toasty-warm apartment all day, presiding over all kinds of holiday goodies. All day, I swirled around the kitchen amid the smells of vanilla, sugar and chocolate, feeling very festive and holiday-ish. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Well, there is one thing. I would have asked to keep the 300 caramels that I had to throw out. That kinda sucked. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below for more)

I spent a few hours portioning my caramel slabs into bite-sized pieces, and I had wrapped them all in wax paper. When that was done, I went to work on some dirty dishes. It was then that I noticed that my candy thermometer had cracked. There was also a small piece of glass missing from the tip. I looked over at the pile of wrapped caramels. Yep, that stupid, tiny piece of glass is somewhere inside one of the hundreds. So, that’s 300 caramels in the trash right there.

I’ll admit. The thought did cross my mind to send them to my friends anyway – but only for a second. My fingers were raw and blistered from the twisting involved in wrapping with wax paper, and I was behind schedule with everything else. But I’d never put my stamp of approval on hazardous goodies, so out they went.

I made another two batches and tried not to think about the huge failure of the morning. And it helped. I was moving along, and by evening, everything was right on track. I had made progress in both the Italian cookies and mint brownies, and it was almost as if the episode never happened. If I had learned anything today, it was that dwelling on mistakes isn’t productive. Moving on, however, is. If only I could use this little nugget of wisdom when I’m writing.

– Cynthia Furey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 1:53 pm and is filed under In the kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.