At My Expense

I have an odd habit of making big and memorable mistakes!

For instance: Many years ago, I told my friends that I knew a back way into a mountain town, Leadville, I think.  Anyway, we ended up on an old mining road, wide enough for one vehicle, snow packed, no guard rails, rickety bridges...you get the picture. I don't know how my bestie kept her sanity as the driver, because I was scared sick. When we did, indeed, come out in the town, it was 'funny.'  I apologized, and we have since remembered it as the time I thought I was a mountain navigator. 

Yesterday, however, is one for the record books! Frank and I hosted the bestie and husband to come visit, have a meal and then go to a candidate meet.  I had decided it would be a simple meal with Green Acres fried chicken, but I wanted to make a cobbler. Not to brag, but I'm a relatively good cook. It wasn't my first time to make cobbler, I was just craving one. I had everything I needed, and I even made my own cherry filling from some cherries I had in the freezer. The filling was thick and glossy when I poured it into the crust, and I was feeling pretty proud. 

Fast forward about two hours. We had finished supper and I was dishing up the cobbler and ice cream. There was a stray cherry on top and I popped it in my mouth. It was hard as a rock! I figured it was just really dry from being alone outside the crust. I scooped up a spoonful to put in the bowl, and there was so much liquid in the filling! How could this be? It was a cooked filling that was thick when I put the cobbler together. 

Bestie was helping me dish and distribute. She said the liquid was okay, just dish it up! 

Wait - these cherries look funny. I popped another one in my mouth and it was hard...really hard...Oh SHIT! The cherries weren't pitted! She saw the horrified look on my face and that I'd come to a full stop, and I said, "These cherries aren't pitted." She still said, just dish it up, we'll eat around it. NOooooo! I have other flavors of ice cream. No, just dish it up. Okay...

From the dining room, I hear 'I need something to put these pits in.' Frank gets little fluted Pyrex custard dishes for each person. And they all went to work on their dessert. Seemed like they were on a mission to show me it was not a big deal. 

"It's a little work, but it does taste good."

"Don't bite down, just gum it to find the pits."

"Seriously, can the seeds be planted? Probably not since they have been baked."

And on it went, literally talking about planting cherry trees and cherry orchards, like it is normal to harvest pits while eating.

As I write this morning, I'm still mortified. Frank won't let me throw it away because the crust and thick sweet gel that has now taken form in the bottom will be good, he says. (He wastes nothing.)  

So, after every mistake, I always ask myself, 'What did I learn?'

Yeah...I learned about double checking the bag for pitted/unpitted. And I provided a bit of humor that we'll joke about for years. What I really learned? People who love and care for me will go to great lengths to spare my feelings. They dutifully scooped and gummed and spit out pits so I wouldn't feel so bad. These are the folks I want to be around, and why I love and care for them, too.