Last Thursday, as per usual, I headed to campus bright and early for my weekly foodservice lab class. It was chowder and cake day—in preparation for a departmental party—and it started out like any other lab. We strapped on the lunchlady gear, gathered the ingredients, and dove right in. Little did I know that every possible kitchen catastrophe was about to take place in our little corner of the lab.

First, we started out with a Southern Chocolate Pound Cake. The preparation was just like any other pound cake, with ungodly amounts of butter, eggs, and sugar. Then it came time to transfer the batter to two cake pans. Ten minutes into baking we realized that one of the cake pans was leaking…and there was already a layer of batter spread out on the bottom of the oven, threatening to set the whole building on fire. Lovely.

It gets better. We tried to fashion a cake pan “cozy” out of aluminum foil to catch the drips. It soon overflowed.

We decided it was time to check on the cake in the non-leaky pan…45 minutes into baking, it was still nearly liquid. A check of the oven temperature revealed that the oven is in desperate need of recalibration, as it read 300 degrees, despite the fact that we had pre-heated it to 350. Ugh.

The chowder prep was just as disappointing. We had delegated the task of starting on the chowder to another team member…who apparently had no idea what a roux was. Not knowing how to prepare a roux is perfectly understandable, but it’s a big problem if you’re preparing a chowder. All the flour was dumped in with all the other ingredients along with the stock and milk.  Without that thickener, we were left with a flavorless mess of diluted vegetables.

Ah well—it was an educational experience, to say the least.

What are your most recent kitchen catastrophes? I’ve had many in my own kitchen—shall we recall my burnt-to-a-crisp sweet potato fries? Or perhaps my encounter with the Spiralizer? There’s also the pomegranate massacre…I could go on for days.

Occasionally, however, I do have some kitchen successes.

Saturday

I can’t go a week without some waffles. Since yesterday was such an icky day, I took my time for breakfast and made a batch of protein waffles. They sure are ugly, but at least they were tasty.

For lunch, I made a taco-ish salad with a black bean burger and baked tortilla chips.

Seth and I decided to hit up Zest again for dinner. I got one of my favorites—the Select Salad with figs, pears, blue cheese, & walnuts.

Sunday

As some of you may have seen, I made oat bran for breakfast this morning. It was delicious, as usual.

My hankering for breakfast food continued into the afternoon, so I made a quick toaster oven frittata for lunch.

In response to this weekend’s cold weather, I decided to make veggie-bean soup and salad for dinner.

I followed that up with an elegant Ellie recipe, Raspberry Fools.

My tweaks:

-I used TruWhip instead of heavy whipping cream. I’ll be honest—I was not into the idea of buying a whole pint of heavy cream for a measly couple tablespoons of whipped cream. Instead, I bought something that I knew I would enjoy again and again. I grew up on Cool Whip, so I was delighted to try this more natural version.

-I used vanilla Greek yogurt instead of regular vanilla Greek yogurt. Call me lazy, but I don’t relish the thought of straining yogurt when I can just buy the already thickened Greek stuff!

-I omitted the Ladyfinger cookies. I meant to add some whole grain graham crackers in their place, but I got too hungry and forgot.

This was a delicious and light dessert that happens to be might pretty to boot. I would definitely make this again for a special occasion as a lighter alternative to pies and cakes.

Before I go, I just want to point your attention to this afternoon’s video oat bran tutorial—check it out if you’re looking for some breakfast inspiration!

Have a good week, everyone!

Filed under: Meals