I'm adopted

I have come to the conclusion that I was adopted. Pure and simple. Why, you might ask? Well here's the reason. I cannot cook nor can I bake! ALL my siblings, even the boys are excellent cooks/bakers! Just another thing that makes me the black sheep of the family! Like I wasn't enough already...(too bad I look like everyone else in my family, I can't claim adoption)

I'm doing Thanksgiving alone this year. Mostly because I have to work on Thanksgiving. (The price you pay for working at a ski resort and free ski/snowboard passes!) Now, I made Thanksgiving dinner all by myself last year too, but I didn't make any of the deserts, I bought them. Dinner turned out ok, although, my turkey looked a little rough, but tasted ok.. The gravy was a little thick, and I made the dressing from a box. (Actually I forgot to make the dressing for dinner...and made it later to have with leftovers. WHAT IS THANKSGIVING WITHOUT STUFFING?!) So despite some setbacks, dinner wasn't a total disaster.

This year, I bought a turkey, but decided to save it for Christmas. My closest friends are out of town for Thanksgiving. So I think I'll just do steak, or chicken, or ham...I can't decide.
I thought I'd be festive and bold and make my first pecan pie. The crust looked so beautiful when I got it into the pie pan. Things were going well so far. I had hope that maybe, just maybe I could actually do this! So I mixed up the filling...everything going well so far. Put it in the over as directed in my nifty little Better Homes and Gardens red and white checkered cookbook. Cook for 25 minutes with tin foil over the sides of the crust so it doesn't get over done. Ok. I can do that. Except as I was putting on the tin foil...I bent some of the edges down. Oh well, I can live with that, right? I'm not expecting perfection here...it's me, Margaret! The inventor of Maggie's Gaggies!

So after the 25 minutes of baking with the tin foil, it was removed for another 25 minutes of baking. HA! The filling wasn't even close to being done. So I set the time for another 10 minutes...then another 10...then another 10...and finally...the pie is done. Hmmm...maybe that last 10 should have been a 5. Oh well, too late now. The pie is toasty done. Not burnt, mind you...but very...very...done.







So onto the pumpkin roll. A wonderful Banks family tradition for Thanksgiving, and even Christmas. Whipped it up like the recipe says, thought I had the right pan...but no, my pan is too big! It's the only one I have! Should I double the recipe? I do not know. So I call mom, who is on the road to Moscow for Thanksgiving with Curtis and Diane's families. I'm like the batter is barely covering the pan! (so close to tears...this is why I hate cooking/baking) She laughs and tells me to not cook it for as long since it's spread thin. So I get distracted talking to her about how thin the batter is that I forget to put the walnuts on top of it before I put it in the oven. She says to add them to the frosting. It'll taste the same, but not look the same. It'll be good. Ok...I cook it for 10 minutes instead of 15. Seemed to work. Except when I tried to take it out of the pan, part of the cake stuck to the pan. I do not know how this happened! So now I have a huge whole in my cake. Ggrrrr. (have I mentioned I hate cooking/baking?) I'm hoping I can cover it up and nobody will notice.

I'm going to attempt to make one more thing. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I can usually pull of cookies. It's about the only thing though. So lets all keep our fingers crossed that at least they will turn out with no major incident....

***Update***

Fast forward an hour...The Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are delectable!!! Thank you Marcia for saving Thanksgiving Day dessert with your awesome recipe, just in the nic of time!