We have celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family ever since we had our first child. Each year I have fun planning the day, sometimes cooking a big meal sometimes going to a restaurant. Six years ago was one Valentine’s Meal I will never forget because of the breadsticks.
I had decided to make heart-shaped breadsticks to go with our dinner. Yes, yes I agree; I do get a little nutty about making everything pink, red, or heart-shaped this time of year, but it’s SO fun. My kids think so anyway! My day of cooking took me longer than I had planed because I had a hard time figuring out how to make the breadsticks keep their shape. Once I figured that out, there was the butter dilemma. The recipe called for half a cup of melted butter to be brushed on the breadsticks before baking. Well, I brushed them all with butter, but I still had quite a bit left over. At this point in my cooking I still thought that the only way to make something was to follow a recipe to the letter. So I just kept brushing on butter until it was all gone. I was worried that it was going to run off the baking sheet, but you know…that’s what the recipe said!
Relieved that I was through making them, I put them in the oven. Pretty soon I started smelling something burning. I stopped short when I saw the oven. It was on fire! I don’t mean there was a little flame. The whole oven was on fire. I was scared to open the door so I just turned the oven off and hoped it would go out. Meanwhile the fire alarm was going crazy, and I was frantically waving a dish towel in front of it so it would hush, praying the whole time that I wouldn’t burn the house down.
Finally the flames went out. Very carefully I opened the oven. All that extra butter had of course run off the pan and had caught fire. I have no idea where my common sense was that day except that I was pregnant with my third child at the time! Pregnancy is always a good excuse! I took the breadsticks out. They looked fine, except they weren’t done. In that particular house we had a double oven so I put them back in the second oven to finish baking them. When they were done I took them out and you would never have known what all I went through on that day.
As we ate our meal Jason bit into the breadsticks, “Mmm,” he proclaimed, “These are the best breadsticks I’ve ever had.” Sure enough they had a smokey flavor and were delicious.
“Don’t get too excited,” I told him, “I’ll never be able to make them again!”

Hilarious… What a pity you can’t replicate them…
Esther – that is hilarious.
that is brilliant! Cooking mess ups make great stories – so glad you have the right attitude to laugh and share them with us all.
What a great post! It is just like life to end up working out! I have received the Versatile blogger award and would like to pass it on to you in thanks for all your kind words and encouragement!
I like stories that include a fire. LOL
Oh, that is hilarious! Especially the part where he thought they were the best bread stick ever. LOL
Awesome! what are you planning this year?
Esther, you had me laughing out loud with this one!