Sink overflowing

I 'm taking a risk leaving the kitchen to write this but I need to remember what just happened.  Sure, it has happened a few…okay, several times before, but I was right there!  I was browning the pork loin in the frying pan.  I stayed right there, the crock pot was warming up behind me on the counter facing the front door.  I don't know if I really need to "warm up" a crock pot but the plan was to brown, transfer, cover with onion soup mix, set the time and forget about it until dinner.   The house already smelled good .

I needed music but I didn't leave…I don't think I did…..?...hm mm?  Whatever.  I transferred the browned meat to the crock pot and set the pan back on a  cool burner on the stove.  On my right was the sink filling with hot water.  I like to clean as I go.  Turning back to the crock pot, I took my time sprinkling the onion soup mix over the meat and trying to decide if I should add more water or does it have its own water.  I tried to recall a TV cook, like Rachel Ray.  I watched that show, Julie and Julia about Julia What's her name? I should know this....  I decided not to add water.  Set the lid on the crock pot and turned back to the stove, hearing a familiar sound in the background but I couldn't quite place it.  Finally I turned around to the sink.  In my little kitchen triangle I had turned on the hot water to do the dishes turned around again and forgot!  Thankfully, I stopped it just in time and it didn't overflow onto the floor (like last time).  How does this happen?  I was right there?!  My sons laugh at me when I do these stupid things.  I am thankful we can laugh about when I let liquids overflow and burn tasty things. I know they are just teasing so my feelings aren't hurt.  I just get mad at myself for forgetting so often. 

 

A few weeks ago I bought a big tray muffins from the store and they were sprinkled with sugar making an extra sweet topping. It looked pretty and tasted great!   I can do this!  It's a piece of cake! Easy.  Do I take the time to look it up to find out how its done?  NO.  It's just sugar on the top of muffin batter before it goes into the oven.  Right?  Sugar didn't look like much.  I went and got the pretty little antique glass container that I keep in the glass curio cabinet my little sister gave me.  It is just a bit bigger than the antique salt and pepper shakers, one green and one turquoise, that used to belong to my great-grandmother.  My oldest sister gave them to me and said our great grandma put cinnamon and sugar in the bigger one.  Once it was washed and dried, using a paper towel and the end of a spoon to wipe out the whatever it was in the very bottom of this pretty antique, it was ready to add cinnamon and sugar.  I pulled out my peach colored ceramic sugar container I hardly ever use.  The scoop was too big for the hole of the shaker.  That's what its called!  A Shaker!  The little brass top with holes in it sort of screws on but it is very loose.  Needless to say, sugar was all over the counter, some in the shaker, some in the sink and on the sink.  I pulled out the cool red funnel that stores flat and pulls out into a good size funnel with a handle.  My hubby gave it to me for Christmas one year.  He was so proud of his choice of Christmas gift.  He could hardly stand/sit still while I opened it because I…wait, that's another story.

The funnel worked.  Cinnamon is more difficult to pour into the pretty little antique shaker.  But I didn't care that cinnamon was also all over the counter. I held on to lid with one finger while I shook out the mixture over the muffin batter in the little cupcake liners.  Not a neat job.  What if the sugar burns on the muffin tin?  Will it turn black and yukky?  I tried to look for something to sweep the sugar and cinnamon off of the muffin pan in between the muffin cups.  Didn't work.  I searched each of the drawers in the kitchen and ALMOST went looking for a paint brush in the other room.  I knew just which one I wanted too!  The long green one I bought when I started taking my watercolor class a couple of years ago.  And I knew where it was….. But I didn't go.  I stayed in the kitchen.  It bothered me a bit that I couldn't see the cinnamon, only the sugar and thought adding just a bit of it over the top…did the trick.  Into the oven they went!  I turned to the sink full of dishes and hot water to the right side, remembering to turn off the water this time. 

Later in the afternoon I was going to go to a bridal shower so I needed to finish a letter I had started writing outside this morning with my coffee.  I love to sit outside in the morning when its cool and so pretty and quiet as long as the dogs in the neighborhood don't start barking.  That drives me crazy.  Focus, I told myself. I was sure I could hear if the timer went off.  I was right there next to the kitchen. Never did write the note to the future bride.  Instead I wrote a long letter to my brother in law.  I didn't realize I had so much to say and wrote and wrote not hearing the timer at all!  Thankfully, I remembered!  I don't know how long ago the timer went off before I remembered and I was so proud of myself for remembering, that I didn't care or notice that they were a little more baked on the bottom of the muffin cup than I had planned.  I used a table knife to get the hot muffins out of the muffin tins and quietly happy that I didn't see burnt sugar.  They smelled pretty good but the tops didn't have that same chunky glazed topping like I planned either.  Pretty on a tray on the counter, I left them to cool and went back to my letter outside. 

I was engrossed in the letter, hands cramped, back achy and my hand was numb and falling asleep but I wrote on... until…the unmistakable  sound of metal on waxed metal made me jump.  My son's head was almost through the patio window with a warm muffin in his hand, "thanks mom, they are a little burnt on the bottom."  I looked at him, "they didn't look too bad",  I said, defending myself.  He smiled that adorable grin  pulling the hard crystallized  top off of the muffin he said, "Oh, man, it isn't even soft in the center this time!".  I hung my head.  Smiling even bigger and shaking his head he said, "I love you, Mom".