The Case of the Exploding Casserole.

Yesterday was a day like many others. And so, last night was a night like many others. I read. He played video games. I wrote. He played video games. I cooked. He played games. :) I made a delicious Sheppard's Pie, something I hadn't made in a long time. So, I took the time to prepare it, and all that fun stuff.

When it was done cooking, I took it out of the oven, and set it on the stove top, and got ready to eat. It tasted great, and once I put away the leftovers, I didn't do the dishes right away, so the casserole pan was left sitting on the stove top.

A while later, I decided that I wanted some tea. Some nice, warm tea. So, I turned on the back burner, and went to fold the laundry. Right away, I could hear the sound of what I thought was the water heating up. T'wasn't so.

I accidentally turned on the front burner. Where the casserole sat. Of course, I freaked out a small bit, put on an oven mitt and put it in the sink. I thought it would be fine, because there wasn't any water in it. Not so.

It was literally less than 5 seconds, before there was a loud BANG, and glass went flying everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

Needless to say, I was quite scared. I'll admit it. I very nearly cried, it scared me so bad. And, naturally, I am now casserole-less.

So, that was my big(or not so big...more of a loud) adventure of the night. Hopefully one that won't repeat.

*Note to self: Rapid temperature change on glass objects is likely to result in explosion*

Concerning leftover mashed potatoes.

I now know what to do with those pesky potatoes! Woo hoo.

Ok, so, you take 2 cups of cold mashed tators, some Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, an egg, and a bunch of parmesan cheese, mix together, and roll into a ball. Then coat the ball in a mixture of flour and more parmesan cheese, press into hot, wellwellwell greased pan, and fry. Yumminess.

They are divine. :D

The Apple of my Pie

Last night, for the first time in my life, I made an apple pie. A very tasty apple pie. However, I learned a few things in the process.

First of all, I now understand why housewives of old would bake pies, etc. in the morning. It just takes too long. But, I suppose on our part, starting at 8 pm was not so smart. We mixed up the pie crust recipe (we wanted to do everything from scratch), and got to work. Now, I have made pie crusts before, and this recipe was fairly easy. So, I did that part successfully...I even managed to roll it up on the rolling pin the right way!

This process, the crust, took my friend and I...ok, so I don't really know how long it took us. But I know it took us longer than it should have. However, it was my friends first time baking a pie, ever. So, no worries.

I learned something new when we moved to the filling. After slicing, coring, and peeling the apples, we set them in a bowl of salt water to prevent them from yellowing. I had never heard of that little trick before! I was impressed...:)

The apples took us a good bit of time as well. Like I said, old fashioned way. We used a slicer/corer (which, btw, it is possible to cut a finger with one of these...) and knives to peel them, no peelers for us!

Once we moved to the filling, it was faster. We melted butter, flour, sugar(brown and white) and some water together on the stove, poured over the apples, and into the oven they went!

By this time, the house smelled great, but our hubby's were tired. It was 11pm when they went in the oven. Like I said, I know why they used to bake in the mornings. But, we were excited, and an hour later when we pulled them out, they were beautiful...(pictures to follow) but too hot to eat, at midnight. So, they would have to wait til today.

Overall, it was a good experience...next time, it shouldn't take us 3 hours. I hope. Our next venture is going to be Lemon Meringue Pie...happy baking!