Three fails!

It started off as a great foodie plan, filled with so much winter goodness. Miss Pepper ordered pumpkin soup. She was desperate for it. She would eat four bowls full if we made it.

Not being a pumpkin eater myself, I hid my concerns and I asked for advice on choosing a good one. 

We came home with a fine looking Jap, we sliced it in half and she scooped out the pips. She saved them in a bowl so she could plant them in the ground. She was careful to get them all so she could plant HEAPS!!! She would grow a life time supply of soup pumpkins she announced.

And then we found a recipe and followed it to the gram. I would not be tasting it, so I had to trust it.

Then we chopped and peeled and measured and seasoned and boiled and simmered and finally we blended.

Then I sat her down for lunch with a steaming hot bowl of pumpkin soup. 

And after one mouthful she declared it was waaaaaaay too spicy. She put down her spoon and left the table. And that was that.

Failure number one.

While the soup was cooking I considered the big chunk of orange we had left over and decided to make pumpkin scones. I googled and started assembling the ingredients for the first recipe on the list.

We weighed and mashed and measured and mixed. Then we rolled out the dough and cut the circles and popped them in the oven.

But for some reason, no matter how long they spent in the oven, they came out like small, hard orange rocks.

Failure number two.

And then the mandarinalade.

You can probably guess what happened to that.

It was all going to plan. I was already standing next to the stove, so I decided to finish the batch I'd started the night before.

I blended, I weighed, I measured, I stirred. And it boiled and boiled and boiled.

After about 25 minutes, it was finally at that stage where the jars were warming in the bottom of the oven, the plates were in the freezer ready to start testing for readiness...when Miss Pepper started screaming at me from the bathroom to come and wipe her bum....

Burnt mandarinalade.

Failure number three.

I felt awful. Three strikes and I was out. My cooking morning had been a waste of time. And a waste. And I still had to make dinner. And do the dishes!!!!

But then the boys came in and loved the spicy, hot soup after their freezing, cold morning. The girls ate the pumpkin biscuits when they came home from school (anything with a bit of sugar). I gave the family tastings of the burnt mandarin marmalade and they didn't hate it. Maybe I'll cook with it, maybe it'll make good compost. And my farmer boy saved the scorched saucepan with the help of some bicarb and vinegar.

And then the 500 day-old chicks arrived. Eeeep, so cute!!!

It's all good, just a little bit different than I'd planned.

And no more orange in my life for a while I think.

So how are you going this week?
Are you winning in the kitchen?
Could you cook something you don't eat yourself?
Do you do orange?

Check ya chickies. xx