December 18, 2009

You know what freaks me out? Don't laugh…but, the baking isle at the grocery store really, really freaks me out.

I know that sounds weird, especially on the ‘tail end' of BigSis talking about her huge Bake Sale success! Once again, proving the point that we are as different as we are alike.

BigSis probably gets excited when she shops for baking supplies.

Me; I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack.

AND, I'M NOT KIDDING!

I'm not even exaggerating.

I shouldn't even admit to this.

I'm completely intimidated.

I don't know where anything is.

I'm nervous as a cat.

I feel like a total moron!

Every. Single. Time.

Yesterday, on my list of things to do was to buy the ingredients for the goodies I was going to make for our neighbors. I was going to make the Peppermint Bark recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and the Almond Toffee recipe from Anna of Cookie Madness.

Both of these recipes did NOT require very many ingredients. You'd think it would be simple. I usually have better results with candy making versus baking, so I was feeling pretty good about my choices until I read over the recipes a little more closely. I got a little nervous when I realized that I needed to temper the chocolate for the Peppermint bark, so I had to email BigSis a question about that. Then, I read where Anna even admitted that she sometimes screws up her toffee after having made it for over 20 years! Yikes! I'm thinking I'm in over my head, again.

Yet, I was determined to make these two candies so I made a special trip to the store and I was in a hurry, as usual. I quickly picked up the candy canes and the parchment paper, which was luckily on an end cap, then I head down the baking isle. First of all, there are way too many different types of chocolate to choose from and they're all expensive! I needed 14 ounces for the bark so I did my best to pick the right bittersweet chocolate and grabbed four of the 4 ounce bars.  Last on my list for the bark was the white chocolate. Where the heck is the white chocolate? Why isn't it right with the regular chocolate? Did regular grocery stores not carry it? Did I need to make another trip to find Michaels for the special kind of chocolate that melts? I dunno.

Now, I'm irritated. I started to call BigSis, like I do 90% of the time I find myself on the baking isle, but I realized she was still at work and it would be really dumb to bug her with such a stupid question. So, I put the candy canes and the bittersweet chocolate back and scratched the bark off my list! I already had pecans at home, so I grabbed baking soda and two bars of semi-sweet chocolate for the toffee and checked out.

So, when I finally got home from the store, I started some chicken and veggies for homemade soup and got out some garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and Camembert cheese to make an an appetizer version of a Jamie Oliver recipe I found in Food Network Magazine.

Ahhh…back in my comfort zone.

The Baked Camembert turned out so good that SirHoney and I single handily devoured the entire thing before dinner! Hopefully I got a few decent photos that I can share with you later!

I have to make the toffee today when I'm not rushed and don't have two hungry guys hovering over me acting like they haven't eaten in weeks.

If you don't see a post about the toffee in the next few days, you'll know that I screwed it up and my neighbors will probably be getting fudge for Christmas. (I don't think I've ever messed that up.) But, then again, that would require another trip to the baking isle and I don't think I'm up for that!

~LilSis