A Lesson Learned

Entry #22

The real date of this post is Sept. 17th.

It seems there's always plenty to write about when I am doing well on this path. It's easy to share victories. Sharing mistakes not so much. But it's the mistakes that teach me, so here goes.

At school we have been wanting hot water in the staff room for quite awhile. Our head custodian, Joe (a great guy), got on it and with the help of a couple of maintenance guys it was installed within a couple of weeks of our request. One of the teachers thought we should do something nice for the guys and I agreed. I offered to bake something for them.

At first I was going to make some chocolate chip cookies. Everyone likes those, right? I like them so much that a good deal of the dough never sees the inside of my oven. So, I decided that chocolate chip cookies are definitely out. Then I hit on brownies. With brownies you mix the batter and pour it in a pan and shove it in the oven. The only challenge there is not licking the bowl and spoon - a challenge I did not even attempt to meet, by the way. (It was yummy). For some reason I decided that one batch of brownies wouldn't be enough for three strapping guys, so I made two. For the second batch I added plain m&m candies. One batch I cut into small pieces and rolled in powdered sugar. The other I frosted with vanilla frosting and decorated with the remaining m&ms.

My next move was a mistake. I ended up having to cut up the pan with the m&ms at school so I could put together the plates for the guys. What I should have done was ask someone else to cut the brownies for me. But I didn't even think of that until later. When I first started cutting the brownies I did really well. I wiped the extra frosting off of the knife with a paper towel and didn't even feel tempted to eat it. However, it seems I added too many m&m's and they were making the brownies stick to the non-stick pan. As a result the pieces weren't uniform and were tearing. Now, in my defense, this came at the end of a long day and I was tired. The brownies sticking was the last straw. I ate two just to get even with them. There! Take that!

I eventually got the plates together and delivered them.

The lesson learned here is that the next time treats are called for, I will buy them at the bakery.