A while back a friend gave me a sourdough starter. Once every week or two I feed the starter, mix the dough, then bake the bread. It involves a consecutive three-day commitment, and unless I'm baking to give away, I allow the kids to participate. They seem thrilled by the anticipation and inspired by the culinary freedom to create. Last week Luke rolled out his dough and added, garlic butter, shaved turkey, grated cheese, Parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper flakes. He rolled it all up, placed it in a dish, and called it "Spicy Italian Sub Bread". He has inherited my firm belief that a snazzy name can improve your creation by 40-50%. I restrained myself from offering the more accurate title: "Lunch meat plus what the Domino's delivery guy left". Landen then began to search out a snazzier title. He opened the cupboard doors and started listing potential ingredients..."Honey, raisins, cinnamon, peanuts...chocolate chips! He decided to create "Trail Mix Wheat Bread". Both flavors turned out YUMMEE!
This week, I baked on my own, but the girls watched on. I rolled the first batch out and spread out butter, honey, slivered almonds, and dried cranberries. When I had that roll sliced and in a pan, I started rolling out the next batch. It was intended to be plain ol' cinnamon rolls. I spread the butter, scattered the clumps of brown sugar and then sprinkled the two shakes of cinnamon that were left in the container. I grunted and opened the cabinet with my floury pinkie finger. The girls asked, "What's wrong, Mom?"
I muttered,"I'm out of cinnamon...I think I bought a new one....oh, I did! Praise the Lord!" I sprinkled the spice vigorously. In the same moment, the girls and I noticed that this "new" cinnamon was a couple shades lighter than the old stuff. Ardyn offered a theory: "I don't think that is cinnamon." I assure her it is as I read the label...oh heaven's to Myrtle! I just put Ground Cumin all over my brown sugared bread dough! They didn't believe me. I let them sniff the container. EEEW! I said that cumin is for salsa and other mexican stuff. I start scraping everything off. I had invested two days and a bag of flour, I was not willing for the dough to be wasted. As I got the surface back to it's beginning stage, I asked the girls to smell it and tell me if they could detect any of the nasty stuff. They sniffed as I turned the board around, then they agreed that it smelled fine. I tried again with another helping of butter and brown sugar then let the rolls rise again before baking.
As I was cleaning up the mess and decompressing after the spice crisis, the girls shared commentary. "I've never seen you mess up cooking, Mom, you should have read the bottle." "Yeah, that was your first 'miscake' in the kitchen." If they only knew.... All they need to do is remember back..."Fantabulous Potatoes", "Confetti Spaghetti", "Peanut Butter, Banana Fudge Bombs"....the list goes on. Basically, if I offered a snazzy name, then there's a good chance the dish needed a 40-50% upgrade for one reason or another. And by all accounts, my strategy works: it's been 24 hours, and there are only 2 "Sensational Sweet Rolls" left.
