I never claimed to be a Betty Crocker. But typically, I can handle most recipes from Betty Crocker. I mean, recipes from Betty Crocker more often than not include mixes or other pre-made ingredients. And, I don’t want to brag, but I’m kind of a pro at baking from a box.
A couple weeks ago, though, I bombed the simplest recipe. As in, throw-it-in-the-trash-there-is-no-salvaging-it BOMBED IT.
We were getting together with friends for dinner, and I had decided to take potato salad. Then I decided that wasn’t enough. So I pulled up a candy trail mix thing I’d seen on Pinterest and headed to the store for the ingredients.
Mixing together cereal, candy and pretzels? Easy peasy. Melting white chocolate chips? Incredibly difficult.
I’m embarrassed to say that I’m not even kidding. I dumped the white chocolate chips in a bowl and started nuking them, 30 seconds at a time. As I stirred the almost completely melted chips, I noticed the recipe called for adding two tablespoons of butter to the chips.
Oops.
You know what I did next, right? I tried to fix it. Even though my white chocolate looked just fine, I decided to drop in a little butter. COLD butter. Into the HOT chocolate.
It turns out that doesn’t work very well.
The white chocolate, even after much heating in the microwave, was beyond hope. It was chunky, waxy, gloppy and gross. [Aren’t you sorry I didn’t take a picture of that?!]
All I could do, though, was laugh. It was so ridiculous! Here I was, using the easiest recipe and botching it beyond all recognition. So. Very. Sad.
I didn’t let that stop me, though. I covered the cereal mix, made my potato salad and put “white chocolate” on my list for the next day’s grocery store stop.
I tried it again the next day (and left out the stupid trouble-making butter), and it worked great. This peanut butter puppy chow is delicious – and I can’t wait to make it again!
Peanut Butter Puppy Chow
4 cups Golden Grahams cereal
2 cups Cocoa Puffs cereal
2 cups small pretzels
1 cup Reese’s Pieces
1 cup dry-roasted peanuts
10 oz white chocolate chips
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Mix together the cereal, pretzels, candy and nuts. Melt the chocolate (don’t gunk it up with cold butter!). Coat the cereal mix in the chocolate, then toss in powdered sugar. Eat it by the handful, but don’t wipe your hands on your black pants. Not that you would. Not that I would.
Have you ever botched an easy recipe?
This post is part of 31 Days of Giving Up on Perfect. All month long, I’ll be writing about my fight against perfectionism and my quest to get on with life, already. For more 31 Days, visit The Nester.
I ruined spaghetti last week. Seriously. Noodles from a box. Sauce from a jar. Meatballs from a bag. And I ruined it. The noodles were sticky and overlooked. I’ve used these same meatballs many times before, but for some reason they weren’t living up to their reputation.
And, truth be told, I ruined spaghetti another or so ago when I tried different frozen meatballs that were terrible.
I’ve given up on making spaghetti. Thankfully, it’s soup season now!
I’ve ruined spaghetti so many times! The problem is that my husband makes AWESOME spaghetti, and I try to do it “his” way. It just never works out. So I let him make it now. :)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that with melted chocolate. Like, oh, a little bit of cream would help this.
SEIZED.
Oh, yeah. I forgot how that HAPPENS EVERY TIME.
This makes me feel better. I mean, I’m not saying I’m glad you’ve botched chocolate, too…except I am a little… ;)