A Visit to the Orchard

My husband, friends and I went apple picking yesterday!

Now I have a bag full of apples...

What to do? (Especially since almost all were bruised and battered from a sad fall...)

Homemade applesauce, that's what!

Things were going really well.  I had found this recipe, which seemed simple enough, right?  Well, this a TERRIFIC example of what this blog is all about.  Learning!  Making mistakes!  I'm a new cook and this will obviously demonstrate that. :)

All I have left to say is, before you view the following photos, close your eyes.  Imagine the beautiful and colorful Fall leaves gently brushing against the warm kitchen window, the sun is setting, the indoor lights are soft, and the aroma of the kitchen is so full of sweet baking apples, your mouth is salivating.

Suddenly the pot is smoking...

Argh.

Is that really my apples smelling like that?

Double argh.

After several taste-tasting bites by not just me, the unanimous decision was sad but true:
It needed to go.
Pictures of applesauce are difficult as is.  Random black scorched pieces make it all the more lovely...

 I guess all that was left after that was to clean the poor scorched pot...

Which Velvet?

There once was a tasty looking recipe.

It really appeared so love-a-ly.

It was supposed to be red,

But then to my dread,

They ended up all yellow-y.

Oh yes, my friends, I originally set out to make this scrumptious looking recipe for my friend’s birthday.  Partway through the process, I reached for the box of food coloring…Looking at the box, it says “Red Blue Green Yellow,” right? So, in my rush (granted, I was squeezing way too many things into one day last week and was a little frazzled), I just blindly reach into the LEFT side where it said RED. 

I quickly put the proper amount into my batter.  All seems well at this point.  I reach for the mixer…I turn on the mixer…suddenly the RED liquid turns super bright yellow.  Whaaaat?

[insert shocking yellow picture here that I forgot to take due to disbelief and the time subsequently spent weighing the options against each other: Do I start over and use the red?  Do I add some red?  Do I give up and just send a card?  Do I not really have time to be baking right now?!]

Anyway, I obviously just moved on.  The next step had me adding cocoa powder which ended up dominating the batter after all.  I guess maybe scientifically red is stronger than yellow?  Hmm, I really don’t know.  As much as I mixed it, though, I could always see random yellow parts in the batter shining up at me, mocking me... 

Once baked, it didn’t show as much, but at some angles you could definitely tell that you were eating Yellow Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies!

They tasted marvelously, by the way, thanks to Jessica at How Sweet.

To top it all off, after I had unplugged the hand mixer, apparently the end of the cord decided to nestle into my apron pocket.  I walked away from the counter and BANG went the mixer onto the floor.  Oh, what a day!

Poem: 50% by me, 50% by my dad