Cooking 101

In the whole of Knox County and especially here in My Hometown, there are excellent cooks! But, I regret to say, “I’M NOT ONE OF THEM!!” In the first place, since I’ve retired I don’t spend that much time baking or cooking. My husband is much better at putting together a meal than I am. In the second place, I’ve just never had the interest in cooking that most women have. I had much rather be doing volunteer work in the community or moving furniture around so that we stumble all over everything when we get up at night.

A couple of weeks ago, daughter was in England on business. While there, she ate out with some friends. They were served what she avowed was the most delicious pudding she had ever wrapped her lips around! She inquired about the recipe and it was graciously given to her. She immediately e-mailed it to me and in her message said, “We have GOT to have this for our Thanksgiving Dinner!”

Well……..this morning I was going to make a test-run…..GOOD IDEA! The recipe makes a large amount and the directions said it made a LARGE baking dish OR two smaller casserole dishes. When I was pouring the pudding into the largest baking dish I had, it didn’t look like it was all that much. So….I put the whole amount of pudding in the dish. But! That wasn’t the first mistake I made….I won’t go into all the gory details .

The directions said to bake it at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. On my stove there’s not even an 180 degree setting. The lowest temperature is 200 degrees. Well… “Self”, I said. “Twenty degrees isn’t going to make that much difference!” When the timer went off, I checked it out. The baking dish wasn’t even hot enough to use a hot pad to lift it out. The pudding was still gooey. So, I cranked up the temperature to 300 degrees. The longer it baked, the more it rose. Soon it had run out all over the oven.

By that time, I was frustrated and decided I just needed to toss it and begin again. After an hour of standing on my head, cleaning the oven (now I regret not getting a self-cleaning oven!), and another trip to the grocery store (much to hubby’s dismay!) I started again.
(At this point, I stopped giving my account of my baking experience and went to check on the second batch.)

The second try looked much better and ready to take out of the oven. The directions said to poke holes all over the pudding and pour the toffee sauce over the pudding. The pudding was still very hot and when I stuck the fork into the pudding and pulled it out, there were chunks of the pudding that came out with it. So…I ended up with a baking dish of pudding with inch holes in it. Oh well….I tried to fill all the holes up with the sauce.

As I was pouring the remainder of the sauce on the pudding, the telephone rang. Guess who? My little traveler who had sent the recipe. I was telling her about my experiences and she said, “MOM! That 180 degrees is CENTIGRADE!!!….NOT Fahrenheit!

‘Nuf said!! BUT!!…..we are having a pot-luck dinner at church tomorrow and I’m going take the pudding as my contribution…..ANONYMOUSLY! (Shhhhhh! Don’t tell anyone who made it!!)

If any of you want this fabulous English recipe (with all the modifications!!!) leave a comment and I’ll post it!)…..ENGLISH STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING!