Not So Perfect

Following the lead of my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) email this week, I'm going to share a snippet from my not-so-perfect week, lest you think I have it all together (or maybe you don't and this will just give you a good laugh).  :)

Today we were having company over for dinner.  On the menu was pork chops, roasted red potatoes, salad and brownies.  Guests were slated to be on my doorstep in one hour, 15 minutes.  I was "cooking with fire," so to speak, and making great time in getting the house and meal ready.  The kids were playing quietly in the other room, so I thought I could make my own breadcrumbs for the pork chops by using dried bread and seasoning.  Problem was I didn't have any dried out bread.  But, I figured, I had just made brownies and the oven was warm so I popped in a few slices to hopefully speed up the drying process. Then I started preparing the potatoes and set the oven to 450 degrees........keep preparing potatoes and wonder what that smell is......start preparing the pork chops and keep wondering what that smell is, but pin it on the workers installing our new garage floor......

Then I remembered the bread

I opened the oven to a billow of smoke and two ashen pieces of bread on a pan which I promptly threw out onto the patio.  At this point, people will be warming my doorstep in less than one hour and my house (and I) smell like burnt toast.  I opened a few windows around and changed my clothes, all the while hoping our guests would get massive colds on the way over until the smell subsided.  I also kept going in and out of the house to see if the smell had abated, to no avail.  All my hopes of rectification for this situation laid on the smell being covered by the roasted potatoes and chops.  Thankfully they came through and saved the day and the dinner (and my house!) from that horrible smell.

My lesson in all this - always set the timer when cooking. And just buy the dumb bread crumbs.