Is that smoke I smell?
Last night I hosted my bible study at my apartment which included preparing a dinner. I had a busy day, doing laundry in the morning, rushing to the music school later in the afternoon to drop off music for my accompanist and practice for a little bit, stopping by the grocery store, and then another grocery store, just to find out that NO ONE sells Ricotta cheese here.... Well, they did at the grocery store by my old dorm. Strange. Luckily at the 2nd grocery store I found something similar though I wasn't sure how it would taste. Anyway, then I hurried home to clean the bathroom, pick up and vacuum, and start dinner.
Making my "special" lasagna takes lots of time. It had started out as veggie lasagna but I decided it was missing something so I started adding meat and now it has a little of everything! Last night I started adding the different layers and had the brilliant idea that if I turn on the burner on which the glass pan was sitting, maybe the cheese would start melting a little (this cheese came out of the container in spoon glops). Well, just as always when I have a great idea regarding pots and pans, after about 5 min. I smelled a strange burning. I quickly took the pan off the burner and realized that it had started buning the noodles on the bottom.
In a moment of panic, because I thought the dinner was doomed, I ran out of the kitchen to check the time. I still had over an hour....So I took a deep breath and calmed down. I started by taking out the layers of the lasagna and putting them on plates. Then I scraped the bottom layer out and washed the pan.
In a sidenote, while I'm sharing embarrassing kitchen stories, I'll quickly mention my horrible brownie experience from the dorms last year. So I found a packet of brownie mix in the American section of a big dept. store that carries food from all over the world. I was so excited to eat brownies again. Unfortunately at that point I didn't have a metal or glass pan. Alas, I stupidly thought putting it in a frying pan would be fine, completely forgetting about the plastic handle.
The mix was supposed to be in the oven for 15 min. but after 7 min., I decided to come check out the progress, and it's a good think I came at that moment. There was smoke coming out the oven and as soon as I opened the door, I was engulfed in the cloud. I grabbed a mitt and pulled out what had been a frying pan. The handle had melted forming a sort of round hook. As for the brownies....well, there wouldn't be any yummy chocolatey treats that day. All that was left in the pan was a hard, round hockey puck. I tapped the sorry substance with my fingernail and it didn't move. It was a big piece of charcoal. I knew that it wasn't coming out of the pan, either, so I put the whole thing into a plastic bag and threw it away in the dumpster outside. I replaced the pan a few days later.
Anyway, back to last night. So after cleaning the glass pan, I put all the layers of the lasagna back in the pan and put it all in the oven. Then later I added the pre-made Italian bread with spread to the oven. When the girls arrived everything had just come out of the oven, right on time. And everyone loved the lasagna, including myself. I think it was the best I've made so far and the new cheese was also really good. So I was REALLY relieved. You never know how things are going to go with timing, taste, etc. And I was expecting 3 to show up, including my German friend I'd invited, but 4 ended up coming, incl. that American girl who once came at the beginning of the semester.
But we made do in my little apartment. We pulled the table up to the couch and had chairs around it on the other sides. It worked fine. My German friend brought pudding for dessert. The bible study itself was good. My German friend stayed after the others had left and we chatted briefly about the evening. She said she enjoyed it but it was a little overwhelming. She wasn't sure how much of it she was willing to take for herself personally (God as our best friend as illustrated with God and Abraham) just because it's all pretty new for her. But our bible study leader gave her a new testament bible that Students for Christ in Germany had published and even had our leader's testimony in the back. So that was cool.
Tonight I'm going to the movie with my friend from church. He wants to see this movie (an art film) because it has to do with music or something. So we'll see. I haven't been to the movie theater in a long time. Sat. I go back in to do more recordings. I was there on Tues. morning for 3 hours and we got through 4 pages of text. On Sat. I'll finish the last 4 and do whatever corrections need to be made. There was one whole page we have to do again because my mouth was somehow not close enough to the microphone. Then what we don't finish I'll have to come back in for on Sunday. The only reason I'd want to do that is because I get paid per hour. Otherwise, I'd be fine finishing it for good!
Making my "special" lasagna takes lots of time. It had started out as veggie lasagna but I decided it was missing something so I started adding meat and now it has a little of everything! Last night I started adding the different layers and had the brilliant idea that if I turn on the burner on which the glass pan was sitting, maybe the cheese would start melting a little (this cheese came out of the container in spoon glops). Well, just as always when I have a great idea regarding pots and pans, after about 5 min. I smelled a strange burning. I quickly took the pan off the burner and realized that it had started buning the noodles on the bottom.
In a moment of panic, because I thought the dinner was doomed, I ran out of the kitchen to check the time. I still had over an hour....So I took a deep breath and calmed down. I started by taking out the layers of the lasagna and putting them on plates. Then I scraped the bottom layer out and washed the pan.
In a sidenote, while I'm sharing embarrassing kitchen stories, I'll quickly mention my horrible brownie experience from the dorms last year. So I found a packet of brownie mix in the American section of a big dept. store that carries food from all over the world. I was so excited to eat brownies again. Unfortunately at that point I didn't have a metal or glass pan. Alas, I stupidly thought putting it in a frying pan would be fine, completely forgetting about the plastic handle.
The mix was supposed to be in the oven for 15 min. but after 7 min., I decided to come check out the progress, and it's a good think I came at that moment. There was smoke coming out the oven and as soon as I opened the door, I was engulfed in the cloud. I grabbed a mitt and pulled out what had been a frying pan. The handle had melted forming a sort of round hook. As for the brownies....well, there wouldn't be any yummy chocolatey treats that day. All that was left in the pan was a hard, round hockey puck. I tapped the sorry substance with my fingernail and it didn't move. It was a big piece of charcoal. I knew that it wasn't coming out of the pan, either, so I put the whole thing into a plastic bag and threw it away in the dumpster outside. I replaced the pan a few days later.
Anyway, back to last night. So after cleaning the glass pan, I put all the layers of the lasagna back in the pan and put it all in the oven. Then later I added the pre-made Italian bread with spread to the oven. When the girls arrived everything had just come out of the oven, right on time. And everyone loved the lasagna, including myself. I think it was the best I've made so far and the new cheese was also really good. So I was REALLY relieved. You never know how things are going to go with timing, taste, etc. And I was expecting 3 to show up, including my German friend I'd invited, but 4 ended up coming, incl. that American girl who once came at the beginning of the semester.
But we made do in my little apartment. We pulled the table up to the couch and had chairs around it on the other sides. It worked fine. My German friend brought pudding for dessert. The bible study itself was good. My German friend stayed after the others had left and we chatted briefly about the evening. She said she enjoyed it but it was a little overwhelming. She wasn't sure how much of it she was willing to take for herself personally (God as our best friend as illustrated with God and Abraham) just because it's all pretty new for her. But our bible study leader gave her a new testament bible that Students for Christ in Germany had published and even had our leader's testimony in the back. So that was cool.
Tonight I'm going to the movie with my friend from church. He wants to see this movie (an art film) because it has to do with music or something. So we'll see. I haven't been to the movie theater in a long time. Sat. I go back in to do more recordings. I was there on Tues. morning for 3 hours and we got through 4 pages of text. On Sat. I'll finish the last 4 and do whatever corrections need to be made. There was one whole page we have to do again because my mouth was somehow not close enough to the microphone. Then what we don't finish I'll have to come back in for on Sunday. The only reason I'd want to do that is because I get paid per hour. Otherwise, I'd be fine finishing it for good!
posted by Heidi at 3:06 AM
3 Comments:
wow, lasagna, my fav, sounded great! oh, and don't forget about our little Schumpfnudel experience in your kitchen in Freiburg!!
haha...that's right! talk about getting to know the roommates right away..as they're laughing at us! How should we have known that you don't boil the dumb things?? ;)
Hey pooch,
I am finally catching up on your last few entries. I'm glad your meal came out edible, compared to Jenny's meatball experience. My mom is giving her a cooking lesson when she comes home for Christmas!
On the other hand, sounds like you've been busy. I'm glad your voice is back, although it doesn't affect me all that much because we only have to read what each other says.
We'll talk soon!
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