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| Chillax. I know exactly where I am... |
Most frequently, it happens when I find myself extolling the values of my infallible sense of direction as I end up on a highway headed to South Carolina when I'm just trying to get to the food store.
Yesterday it happened in the kitchen when I was trying to make enchilada sauce.
The thing is, I've seen my mother make it before, and she's told me how to make it before, so I was like, "I'm just going to make it."
I lined up the spices on the counter top: Cumino, cayenne pepper, salt, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, cilantro flakes all open and ready for use.
I coated the bottom of my pan with vegetable oil.. then lumped in a scoop of flour when I vaguely remembered my mother's direction to "make a paste and brown the flour."
But the mixture looked too oily. So I added another scoop of flour. And then another. And another, until I really had a nice thick paste.
Then I started adding the spices, getting all Emeril about it. BAM! Yeah, chili powder! Boom! Paprika is awesome! There's no such thing as too much cumin!
Then I added the can of tomato sauce.
Aaaaaand it turned into Play-doh.
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| Who put this stuff in my sauce pot?! |
The flour had congealed into a nice bright orange blob that thickened. I poked it.
It felt like Play-doh.
Shit.
At this point, any normal self-doubting person would abandon this endeavor with the recognization that something was horribly wrong.
Anyone making a sauce should not end up with a loaf in a pan.
But not me. Instead, I studied the blob.
"I can totally fix this," I told myself.
I picked off a piece of the blob and ate it. It tasted like spiced bread dough. Delicious!
I carefully poured in a little chicken broth, thinking that this whole thing would just dissolve.
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| This stuff is incredible... |
Frustrated, I then I brought out a fork, and cut up the blob still trying to stir it in.
The little orange blob pieces floated around on the chicken broth and FINALLY I gave up and dumped it all in the sink.
And called my mom.
She reviewed the directions with me and it became obvious that I'd used waaaaaaaaay too much flour.
So I cleaned the pots and started over and this time, the sauce was freaking absolutely amazing and I found myself eating it plain on a soft corn taco.