Don't Try This At Home

Sue and I were talking about things we have made over the years we would never do again. They are just not worth it. My biggest mess was the time I made a Croquembouche. This is a tower of filled cream puffs that is then wrapped in spun sugar. Julia Child, (our food star) made this on one of her shows so being a young and foolish homemaker I had to try it also. I will say it came out well, UNTIL I looked at my kitchen! The sugar has to be at just the right temperature to spin and you must do it quickly. The directions said to throw it at the cream puffs. What they didn’t say was that you would have spun sugar on your walls, counters, floor and even some on the ceiling. Never did figure out how that happened. The picture is of what one should look like. Needless to say I never did another.

Then there was the Baked Alaska. Why would anyone bake a cake, make a tower of ice cream on it, cover sides with more cake. Now, you must freeze it extra hard as you are going to cover it with Meringue and bake it. Trust me, don’t do this.

We are going to be doing a week of Puff Pastry recipes. You can buy excellent frozen puff pastry. This is not one of those things you want to make yourself unless you are a pastry chef. However, cream puffs are easy to make.

Let’s see, Beef Wellington, Popovers, Soufflés, Homemade Mincemeat. Here we can buy excellent mincemeat from our home town grocery. Suet is really hard to come by anymore and you need it in Mincemeat.

Real fudge, not the marshmallow stuff, Divinity, Taffy. If you ever pulled Taffy you will know what I mean. Most Church Bazaars will have good homemade candy at Christmas time. Buy it there. I am sure Sue can add to this list as could most of you. Somethings are just better not tried at home.