Some Days Are Hard

You ever have one of those days when it feels like nothing is going right? You know the days I’m talking about, you get up on the wrong side of the bed or the planets don’t line up or whatever. This past weekend I had one of those days. It was more like two of those days in a row, but it just felt like I should crawl back into bed and stay there until, oh I don’t know, summer.

It all sort of started when we got home from our recent cruise. I contracted some kind of weird travel bug that followed me home and decided to stick around for awhile. I ended up in bed for about five days until the antibiotics kicked in but as every day the sun rose and set I fell further and further behind on – well – everything. Once I got back in the swing of living, I started feeling more and more overwhelmed. Days went by and I could not get to the top of my e-mail inboxes. Inn guests came and went but I’ll be danged if I can tell you any of their names.

The Vicksburg Spring Pilgrimage is gearing up to be in full swing in about a month. I am the chief planner and organizer for this event. Deadlines are looming, people are wanting stuff, stuff’s not happening on my end. Two dinners were on the near horizon at the Baer House with no menus planned, no groceries bought, nothing.

But, I’m the type of person who just keeps putting one foot in front of the other and muttering to myself, “One thing at a time, one thing at a time.” Eventually it all gets done. I had to make very short lists with very specific chores, but finally I saw some light at the end of the tunnel.

Then came this past weekend. It started out with burned bacon. I fixed breakfast for our guests (only 2 that morning), served it, then proceeded to check things off my to-do list, starting with pre-cooking some bacon for one of the dishes I was going to cook for one of the dinners. I’d already cooked some bacon for breakfast, so I plopped down some more bacon in the pan, turned it on and went out to see how the guests were enjoying their breakfast.

After engaging in some conversation, the male guest says, “Are you cooking something?” Oh no! The bacon!!! DAMN. Smoke was starting to waft out of the kitchen. Damn, damn, damn. I turned off the burner, turned the exhaust fan to super high, opened the other kitchen door and slapped myself on the forehead a few dozen times. Later, much later, I cooked another batch of bacon, this time keeping a close eye on the stove.

Then, the next day, the day before the big dinner. The day I needed all of my pre-cooked stuff, I had a brilliant idea. To dress up the wedge salads we were planning on serving, I’d make some candied bacon. That, with the red onion and croutons would make for a lovely salad. I got the bacon all gooey with maple syrup and brown sugar, slid the pan into the oven, set the timer and cleaned up my mess. When the timer went off, it was determined that a couple more minutes were needed to make the bacon the desired crispness. And that’s when the phone rang.

You see where this is going don’t you? Yes, that’s correct, I burned another batch of bacon, except this time, I also nearly ruined one of my best baking sheets because all that syrup and sugar got nice and cooked on like charcoal does. DAMN. Damn, damn, damn. Not again?!? What is it with me and bacon. I blame the caller on the phone.

But that’s not all my friends. Remember those wedge salads I mentioned above? So, I took all my nice firm heads of lettuce and pre-cut them into perfect wedges, placing them into a chilled bowl, covering them with plastic wrap and sliding them into a cleared place in the refrigerator. As the day progressed, I continued the chopping, slicing and dicing so that everything would be all nice and ready for the next day when it was time to do all the major cooking. Everything was going along just fine until I needed something in the refrigerator. You see where this is going right?

So, I opened the fridge, reached in and grabbed the item I needed, catching my apron in the process on one of the little slidey brackets in the fridge. As I yanked the cloth loose, the shelf moved and out came the chilled bowl of beautiful lettuce wedges, toppling all the way to the ground, and spilling over a goodly portion of the kitchen floor.

NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

DAMN! Damn, damn, damn.

No candied bacon. No lettuce wedges. Dinner in less than 24 hours. No “extra” money to buy more lettuce. What the $&*% is wrong with me?

Anyway, it all turned out okay. I ended up getting a couple of bags of pre-mixed salad mix and just adding my red onion and croutons instead of trying to serve wedge salads with candied bacon. It sounds good but there was no way I was attempting to cook bacon – ever – again.

So that was my weekend. How was yours? Did you burn any bacon? Spill about 5 heads of lettuce on the kitchen floor? Come on, share your stories. You know I want to hear.

Word of the day: Aigrette

Fun fact about me: I actually like cooking. Hard to believe I know, given the mishaps of the weekend, but it’s true.

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, January 2019. Photos by Pexels.

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