By: Donna Hale Chandler
I love homemade bread, the smell as it bakes, and the way the butter melts when it’s still warm. Yum. As I went through one of my many precious cookbooks, I found a recipe for bread baked in a coffee can in a crockpot. I read the recipe several times, completely intrigued by the idea. It seemed to be simple enough for even me. After all it’s pretty hard to mess up a crockpot recipe.
For once I had every ingredient listed, even an empty Maxwell House coffee can. I followed the instructions exactly, sprayed the inside of the can with Pam, mixed everything together, poured the batter into the can, placed the lid on the crockpot, set it on high and sat back to wait the specified three hours. Soon the smell began to escape the pot and wander through the house making my mouth water. It smelled like it was a success. I crossed my fingers and continued to wait.
When the timer went off, my sweetie and I stood side by side as I removed the lip and peeked inside. What we saw would warm anyone’s heart. The bread was perfect! Carefully lifting the coffee can out of the crockpot and tipping it, the bread slid right out, a picture of beauty. After cooling just a tad, we sliced off a couple of pieces and it was melt-in-your-mouth good. Had I actually been successful in the kitchen? Well, not really.
After the crockpot cooled, as I prepared to put it away, I glanced inside. Oh dear, what is that inside on the bottom? It’s yellow. The inside bottom of my crockpot was never yellow before, was it? I didn’t think so. Sweetie was called to the scene. He looked in and verified that yes, the bottom is yellow. Did the coffee can melt? No, the Maxwell can isn’t yellow, it’s blue. I gingerly put my hand inside to touch this mystery yellow. If felt like melted plastic and when I pulled on it, it lifted right out.
Strange, where did this come from? What a puzzle? I decided to pull the can out of the recycle bin and see if it had a yellow bottom that I had never noticed. As I held the can in my hands, it finally hit me. The plastic TOP of the Maxwell Coffee can was yellow. When I took off the top, I put in on the bottom of the can, as is my habit, since I tend to lose most anything that’s not nailed down. The plastic top melted onto the bottom of the crockpot as the bread baked.
Oh well, another good laugh at my expense – I followed the recipe exactly. It’s not my fault that it was not specific about discarding the coffee can lid instead of baking it.
*********
Gramps use’ta say
R.L.King2012 #367
About: Apology’s
“Forgiveness can’t change what was,
but could change what will be.”
*********
Am I The Only One 