I got some reader-request baking done on Sunday, during a short break in the heat wave. K had requested Martha Stewart’s Lemon-Thyme Wafers, so I found the recipe online and got to work. People, let me tell you, it was like an episode of I Love Lucy or something. Anything that I could have messed up, I did. (And of course, it wasn’t helped by the fact that I was working on two things at once for part of the time).
The first step of the recipe is to warm up some cream and then add lemon zest and thyme springs, to let the flavors infuse the cream, ooh la la fancy fancy. I did this no problem, let it sit for a while infusing, and then strained the now-flavorful cream into a glass coffee mug for later use. Step into the other room for a few minutes while I wait for the oven to be free. Come back into the kitchen to talk to mrslovey who is using the break to do some dishes*, and I see a soapy sponge – wiping out a glass coffee mug. Seems I need to label things better. Out comes more cream, more zest, and more thyme from the herb garden. I strain it into a measuring cup and say very slowly and loudly, like I’m talking to a toddler, or a dinosaur, or something, “I’M PUTTING THIS OVER HERE, WITH THE INGREDIENTS,BECAUSE IT IS AN INGREDIENT. WHICH I AM GOING TO USE. WHEN I MAKE THESE COOKIES, WITH THESE OTHER INGREDIENTS. OVER HERE.” I’m lucky she didn’t crack me in the head with a glass coffee mug.
Next step was mixing a bunch of stuff together to make the batter, no biggie. But then, THEN, was the first circus act of the day. Imagine, if you will, that you are holding in one hand a stainless steel mixer bowl, and are trying to pour and scrape the contents into the open end of a big zippy bag, that is perched in a(nother) glass mug, with a piping tip that is way too big for the thickness of the batter, so everything seems to be either flowing right out of the tip, or trying to pull the bag out of the mug and onto the counter. Not saying that’s what happened, but just imagine the frustration if that were the case. Then start piping your cookies out, and realize your piping skills still suck, so you’re dripping batter everywhere and this bag is too big and now the tip is coming out of the bag and batter is leaking out of THAT new hole and OMG is this really this hard???? Read the rest of this entry ?
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