You are NEVER going to believe this!

Never mind that this is the worst picture of me known to man… well, ok, not the worst, but it ranks up there.

I share it simply so that I can share with you the fantabulous gift I received from my BFF’s husband for Christmas…

Yes, it really does say “the kids know I’m cooking when I grab the fire extinguisher!”

If you’re new to my blog, I invite you to see where this derived from. It’s very comical. Seriously.

Anywho, it’s true. I’m just not a good cook. I have other qualities that make up for it… like…

well, I just do and I’m sure if I thought about it long enough, I could come up with a long list of them.

I’m on a mission to disprove the age old addage that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach… obviously, I’ve not disproved it yet.

But I’m persistant!

Back to what you’re never going to believe…

10 days ago my ex-husband gave me a starter for Amish Friendship bread… it’s like a chain letter through the kitchen, complete with the threat that only the Amish can make the starter so if I give all my starter away, I’ll have to wait to get some back.

My ex-husband is a phenominal cook. When he gave it to me, he explained the variations that he tried and told me which ones worked and which ones didn’t. I was not happy that I was the new recipient of the starter for two reasons… (a) i had to follow the directions for 10 days and then make it and pray that I didn’t ruin it and (b) I have to pass it on to 4 more people.

Ugh.

Today was day 10.

With all these kids running around, snowed in, I was going a little batty but I had to make this bread. So Samara and I donned our aprons (hers says “Bam!” — it’s an Emeril apron… and it’s really Matt’s, but she borrows it…)

We mixed it all up and we poured it in the pans and guess what?

Not only did I not burn it, but it’s AMAZING… as in I’m seriously considering keeping one of the starters for myself so that I can make it again in 10 days.

Then (oh it gets better)…

Because of the snow and my ADHD, I forgot to order a Redskins cake for Matt’s party tomorrow night. So, I decided at 5 that I would go to AC Moore to see if they had a football cake pan. (The beauty of having a football party shortly before the Super Bowl.. football stuff is everywhere!)

So after dinner, we headed over there and there was one left…and it was 40% off… SCORE!!!!

I even read the directions on the pan so that I would make sure that it didn’t stick to the pan… and I made it… and guess what?

Not only did I not burn it, but it’s AMAZING…

Now, I haven’t iced it yet… I’ll do that after it cools, but I don’t think it will be that hard… I mean goodness, some chocolate icicng and some white stripes, I mean laces and we should be good to go!

So there you have it… 2 loaves of bread and one football cake survived my oven today…

Even i can’t believe it!

Until next time…

Heather