Rookie Mistake...

Forgive me blogger, for I have sinned.  It has been many months since my last confession...

So, my husband went to bed before the kids tonight, and that left me with some time to myself in the kitchen.  I started by pulling out the ingredients to make the cinnamon rolls that need to be done before the end of the weekend only to realize that I was one ingredient short.  No worries, it is the holiday season and there is plenty of baking to be done...

Several weeks ago I met one of my new neighbors, and like I often do when I meet someone new, I immediately over-committed by telling her that I would bring her fudge for Christmas.

Secretly I hoped that she might forget, but on Monday she showed up to my house with the biggest plate of cookies that I have ever had someone bring me...seriously...it was huge.  Before departing, she reminded me (in a way that only women over the age of 70 can) that I had promised to bring her fudge.  I told her that I would bring it this weekend.

This leaves me with an outstanding promise to make fudge and a missing ingredient to make cinnamon rolls, so I decided to get to it.

"My" fudge recipe is great and super easy to make.  A little messy, but totally worth it.  Only, it is not really my recipe at all.  It is a dear friend's recipe who gave it to me with the understanding that I would not bring the fudge to people because it is her thing to do.  Well, now that she lives in a completely different part of the country than I do I figured that it was safe to share the joy.  Here's hoping she does not read this post ;)

Although perhaps what went down was my punishment...

I made the first layer of the fudge and everything was going according to plan.

I started on the second layer and we were good to go...right up until I poured the peppermint extract in, and discovered it was mint extract.  The minute it left the bottle and splashed into the bowl my nose knew I was toast.  The way this recipe works, there is no saving the middle layer.

I was really irritated with myself...mint verses peppermint...it is such a rookie mistake!  There were words coming out of my mouth that I am too much of a lady to share here, but trust me...it was not pretty.

So, fudge is ruined, neighbor is not going to forget about it, friend who gave me the recipe has probably cursed it in some way that made this happen...what now...

Well, at the risk of sounding corny, my sweet parents always taught me to make lemonade out of lemons (I have some friends that could share stories about the strawberry vodka lemonade that I made out of lemons once, but that is a recipe for another time)...

...it was time to think on my feet.

I quickly rummaged through my cupboard and found mini marshmallows and pretzels...I threw them in as the middle layer, spread another chocolate layer on top, and now only time will tell...

At least I never told the neighbor that I am a good cook...