Addendum to the Baking Sheet Blog!

So, funny experiences have been occurring in my kitchen since the day I broke my leg, October 19, to be exact. Here's a little background on the most recent experiences.

Our ward was so great when they found out about my leg. I think we had meals for at least 4 weeks. Even after we told them to stop, people kept bringing in food. Although I was very moved by their compassion, I was enthusiastic (and somewhat delusional) about starting to care for my family again. I asked my mom to help me make some frozen meals.

We did this gigantic shopping trip with two carts overflowing. Our goal was to make 14 frozen meals in one evening. As a sidenote, one of the carts happened to be the little scooter's that they offer at the grocery store. Having always wanted to ride one, I should have been thrilled for the opportunity! It was rather humiliating. Especially trying to back up. Did you know they actually beep when you back up, you know, like the gigantic trucks do? Yeah, that was fun.

So we made the meals. Mostly my mom did it and I choppped a few things while sitting at the table trying to be useful. We ended up with quite a stockpile and it was a great blessing. So I have become of a fan of this method of cooking! We have now started freezing lasagna, chicken broccoli casserole, chicken pillows, meatballs, meatloaf, sloppy joes, chicken enchiladas, apricot chicken and the list goes on.

So that's the background - here's what happened.
Experience #1 - Sunday morning Brad takes out frozen lasagna. Sunday after church I ask Carson to take off the lid from the lasagna pan and put the lasagna onto a baking sheet, then place it in the oven. About an hour later, when the lasagna should have been nearly done, we smell something burning. Brad takes out the lasagna and we all sit down to dinner. Upon closer inspection I find that Carson flipped the lasagna out of the pan onto the cooking sheet, thereby creating "upside down lasagna." The burning smell was from the cheese as it oozed out and cooked on the baking sheet. Pretty funny looking, but it turned out edible.

Experience #2 - This week we had Chicken Broccoli Casserole. Because we had made the meals in the disposable aluminum pans, they came with plastic lids. Before Brad put the casserole in the oven I asked did you leave the tin foil on? He replied that he had. After about an hour I went to remove the tin foil only to find a little "shrinky dink," you know, the little plastic things we used to make in the oven as kids? Brad had totally left on the plastic 9x13 lid, which was now a 1x4 inch chunk of plastic, sitting on top of the tin foil. Kind of funny!

Thanks to my family for the great meals, all the help and the funny experiences to boot!

O Where, O Where Have My Baking Sheets Gone!

Bless their hearts! My boys, Brad included, have done a great job taking care of me and the home over the last few months. With limited mobility since October 19, they have been in charge of EVERYTHING! I want to thank them again for all they have done. With a smile on my face, I share the following experiences.

For awhile I didn't really care and was just happy with whatever their efforts were. For awhile I didn't really leave the confines of my bedroom, so as long as it looked good from the view of my bed, I was content. Slowly but surely I have ventured out into the brave new world of my home on testosterone. 2 experiences have been jarring to my system!

The first was when I ventured in to the basement after 10 weeks. Wow!! Talk about scary! We spent 2 hours one night just organizing DVD's, video games, laundry, the older boys room and the storage room. Still, not finished.

The second has been in the kitchen. In the last two weeks I have felt like doing a little cooking. This is a frustrating experience since I can only cart one thing from the pantry at a time while on my crutch. It takes me a loooong time to get anything in the oven! To add to the frustration, nothing is where it belongs! I have to search in every cupboard, shelf, pantry just to find the sugar, etc.!

Last night I wanted Lemon Bars and I could not find one of two 9x13 baking pans. I literally began to sing in my head, "O where, o where can my baking pans be, o where o where can they be!" I did eventually find one, unwashed, that one of my children had shoved in the bottom of a cupboard. I had to wash it first, but hey, I got my Lemon Bars!

Truthfully it has become rather amusing to see where everything has ended up! I should keep a log or something. One day it will be funny, really funny, that there was a sock in the refrigerator the other day!