My mommy sent me a package with all the makings for her Christmas specialty: peanut butter balls! The package had absolutely everything I needed (crunchy Skippy peanut butter, powdered sugar, Rice Krispies, chocolate, wax, and wax paper) – except for the double boiler for melting the chocolate. Of course, no matter how crystal clear my mom could make it (I was surprised the powdered sugar and Rice Krispies weren’t already measured out into baggies for me...as was the case with the Thanksgiving pie ingredients…), I found a way to mess it up.
You see, I was supposed to melt the chocolate in a “double boiler.” I’ve seen this done before and I understand the importance of it in order to not burn the chocolate. And I’ve been warned about getting water into the chocolate and “turning it” or something of the sort. So this was very stressful – because unless I wanted to wait another month for a replacement package, I had no choice but to not mess up the chocolate. But my mom’s directions seemed to assume that I had unlimited access to things like “double boilers.”
I don’t.
But I made my own. It consisted of one pot half floating, half wedged into another pot of boiling water. For the first 5-10 minutes, this system worked great. Then…the water started boiling.
Don’t ask why, but I thought this would be a good time to call Amy: “OH FUCK SHIT!!!” I exclaimed right as she picked up the phone.
“Well hello to you too?”
The boiling water not only bubbled over INTO the chocolate, but it also completely eliminated the gas flame. I’m not really sure how gas stoves work, but I didn’t think it was a good thing for the gas to still be on and flame put out by overflowing water. I did pretty easily re-light the flame, so I don’t think I caused any permanent damage to the stove…which is good…because this incident happened three more times. (I don’t learn from my mistakes?)
I was comforted by reminding myself that I was mixing together butter, sugar, chocolate, and peanut butter, so, ultimately, it would be pretty difficult to mess up.
At the same time, Gabby was making egg-rolls, baking in the oven. This just delighted my little/large Chinese-food craving stomach, even if it didn’t make sense to me why he was baking, rather than frying the egg-rolls. In an excited tiffy, I ran out to the table the second Gabby left to indulge in these egg-rolls. My first thought was that they were pretty doughy. But they had green onions in them and I poured myself a plateful of Soy Sauce, so this was okay. And then I started to get curious about what Gabby actually put into the egg-roll, until I finally came across it: a hard-boiled egg. The egg-rolls were literally eggs baked into rolls!
You see, I was supposed to melt the chocolate in a “double boiler.” I’ve seen this done before and I understand the importance of it in order to not burn the chocolate. And I’ve been warned about getting water into the chocolate and “turning it” or something of the sort. So this was very stressful – because unless I wanted to wait another month for a replacement package, I had no choice but to not mess up the chocolate. But my mom’s directions seemed to assume that I had unlimited access to things like “double boilers.”
I don’t.
But I made my own. It consisted of one pot half floating, half wedged into another pot of boiling water. For the first 5-10 minutes, this system worked great. Then…the water started boiling.
Don’t ask why, but I thought this would be a good time to call Amy: “OH FUCK SHIT!!!” I exclaimed right as she picked up the phone.
“Well hello to you too?”
The boiling water not only bubbled over INTO the chocolate, but it also completely eliminated the gas flame. I’m not really sure how gas stoves work, but I didn’t think it was a good thing for the gas to still be on and flame put out by overflowing water. I did pretty easily re-light the flame, so I don’t think I caused any permanent damage to the stove…which is good…because this incident happened three more times. (I don’t learn from my mistakes?)
I was comforted by reminding myself that I was mixing together butter, sugar, chocolate, and peanut butter, so, ultimately, it would be pretty difficult to mess up.
At the same time, Gabby was making egg-rolls, baking in the oven. This just delighted my little/large Chinese-food craving stomach, even if it didn’t make sense to me why he was baking, rather than frying the egg-rolls. In an excited tiffy, I ran out to the table the second Gabby left to indulge in these egg-rolls. My first thought was that they were pretty doughy. But they had green onions in them and I poured myself a plateful of Soy Sauce, so this was okay. And then I started to get curious about what Gabby actually put into the egg-roll, until I finally came across it: a hard-boiled egg. The egg-rolls were literally eggs baked into rolls!
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