Friday, September 19, 2008

Our Secret Recipe


Many years ago -- it doesn't seem like many years ago to me, but it was -- I bought a nice set of three nested ceramic bowls from The Brickyard, outside of Shell Lake, Wisconsin.  I loved that place!  The Brickyard is an old two-room brick schoolhouse which a couple bought, remodeled, and converted into a home on one side and art studio on the other.  The owners were potters and they opened the studio to local artists to display their talents. It was a few miles from the beautiful countryside where I spent my last days as a single woman, and I bought the bowls for a lasting souvenir of the wonderful days  when I lived in northwestern Wisconsin.  In time, I dropped the largest of the bowls, the one that would have been perfect for mixing bread in, and sometime later I broke the middle bowl, too. The big bowl was a total loss, but the middle sized bowl still sits on top of my kitchen cupboard, next to its little sibling, barely hanging on to its broken piece with Elmer's Glue. I never use it, because washing it will dissolve the glue. But I still enjoy the memories it brings.


And now?  Now I have a new memory to associate with that special, mama-bear sized bowl.  Booklover used it to mix her dry ingredients for chocolate chip cookies the other day.  And if you know what kind of a housekeeper I am, you can guess what happened.  When I grabbed hold of the edge of the bowl to give the flour, baking soda, and salt once last stir, an inch of dust fell into my hand. I stopped mid-stir and gaped at the gross collection of fuzz, desert dust, and dead human skin cells.  "Um, Amy," I said, "You didn't happen to wipe out this bowl before you dumped the flour in it, did you?" "No, Mom, why?" I showed her why.  "Oh... do you think anyone will be able to taste it?" she asks.  "We'll just tell them it's a secret ingredient," I answered.    So we did.  The cookies are almost gone, except for some unbaked dough in the fridge. No one has mentioned a funny taste, and no one has died, so I guess they're okay....?  I now have another cleaning item to add to the chore schedule I have been working on for weeks, the one that never seems to materialize...

Really.  The cookies aren't bad!  (Chocolate can cure anything.)  But Mary, let this be a lesson to you.  Be careful what you ask for, LOL!

12 comments:

  1. Ah Um, when we do finally get to visit you, I think we will bring our own cookies. LOL Our cookies will be the ones made with butter that the cat sneakly licked earlier that day.

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  2. Oh, man, that's funny. Also the reason I don't have open shelves. My stuff is just like that. Really, though, who has time to clean bowls that are sitting on the shelves?

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  3. LOL!!


    God made dirt, so dirt can't hurt......


    Sweet memories except for the sad parts :-)

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  4. That was funny. Have a great day.

    Dot

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  5. Too funny!! I think you should have a day dedicated to everyone posting their cooking stories. I think we would all be amazed at how much we really let go!! Too funny!!!!


    Thanks for the laugh.


    Merlynn Randall

    http://renewtheirstrength.blogspot.com/

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  6. I really like the pictures you paint with words. I can see the bowls.


    Thanks for comment on my blog. That awful little poem was to a friend who is always comment on my blog but has never written.

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  7. I think you'd eat a chocolate chip cookie no matter what! :)

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  8. LOL! That's too funny!

    (You can just say that the secret ingredient is 'love' and that's why they taste extra special.) ;-)


    Blessings,

    Michelle


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  9. Ok. I soooooo glad someone else has done that!!! See, they didn't even know the difference!! he he he


    I started checking afterwards. We kept it quiet if the kids forgot!! he he he Dad never new!!


    Robyn

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  10. I tend to turn a blind eye when it comes to chocolate.

    Blessings, Julie

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  11. now that was disgusting! It reminds me of a similar incident in which my guests at a Tupperware party I was hosting for a friend did not drink my iced tea that my husband made...!


    Carol

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  12. Tasted great. I ate 3 dozen before I noticed the first dust ball.

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