Friday, March 26, 2010

Made by e: Out of the Ashes Comes the Phoenix

I had one of my most embarrassing moments two weeks ago. Picture it: a Relief Society Seder dinner. Dinner organizers asked for volunteers to bring a couple of dishes, including a potato kugel. (Potato kugel is a traditional Jewish dish served at Passover time at the Seder dinner. Think Jewish funeral potatoes, kind of.) They gave us a recipe that seemed pretty straight-forward, so I went for it.

The recipe calls for pounds and pounds of grated potatoes. The day of the event, I decide to assemble the dish during Rhett's nap (about 5 hours before dinner), so that I can spend afternoon time with all of my guys rather than cooking. Everything seemed to go okay during assembly, and the dish went covered into the fridge, and then later into the oven.

But let me tell you that it came out of the oven as the most disgusting thing I've ever made. Ever. It was purple. Seriously people, purple. But knowing that the RS committee is counting on me, I decide to bring it in its purple state anyway.

I slid it onto the church's kitchen counter, hoping nobody noticed that the hideous purple mess came from me. No one seemed to. I wasn't the only one bringing kugel, and, thankfully, the committee put a couple of slices of each of the kugels onto a plate, and gave each table a "kugel sampler." Therefore, no one table was stuck with my purple puke. Just pieces of purple puke. When my own table received their kugel sampler, you better believe I made no such claim to that wreck. Someone even asked about the one that was purple, but I chuckled along with everyone else. I also didn't touch it, like everyone else.

At the end of the dinner, I slinked back into the kitchen to retrieve my hopefully-empty dish. Of course there was still some in it. I was simply mortified to have to grab that pan and have it attached to me. I hurried to the car and laughed the whole way home. It really was absolutely terrible. Of course I should have taken a picture, but didn't.

However, from this horrible experience came a silver lining: it inspired me to create a casserole carrier, like one my mom had when I was growing up. In case I ever make anything so gross again, I want something cute to hide it. In addition to using my mom's carrier as inspiration, I saw some online and created my own pattern (with the help of my product designer, Chuck). I love it. Now I just need to create another hideous creation so that I can hide it in this.



7 comments:

  1. That is hilarious! Glad to see that I'm not the only one this kind of thing happens to!
    Ok, I SERIOUSLY want you to make me one of your casserole holders! are you going to sell them on etsy? Let me know so I can get one! It will make the family potluck dinners so much easier for me!

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  2. i'd love to make one for you jess. i didn't plan on selling them via etsy, but if you're serious, just email me.

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  3. I don't know what happened to my comment...hmmmm. I was not at the dinner to sample to purple kugel, but surely it couldn't have been that bad :)

    I love casserole carrier! How do you keep the casserole from sliding out the sides. Did you make a pattern, have measurements? I'd love to make one.

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  4. i wrote down everything i did, amanda. i'll make a copy of it and give it to you.

    the side flaps are intended to help it from sliding out.

    and yes, the purple kugel WAS that bad. i didn't remember if you were at the dinner, and i was nervous that i was outing myself as its owner!

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  5. What a funny story. Well, you're not alone. This has happened to me too and I also laughed the whole way home.

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  6. That is hilarious. I don't think I would have brought it. However, the casserole carrier was a great ending to the whole fiasco.

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  7. I love the carrier! You need to teach a class!

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