notes from my dirty kitchen

When your kitchen smells like petroleum jelly just after you take a batch of cookies out of the oven, something is desperately wrong.

Tonight is the West Hollywood Stitch n Bitch Yarn & Cookie Swap. I remembered this fact at about 10 p.m. last night. Rather than running to the store at that late hour for cookie making supplies, I decided to flip through my cook books to find a recipe I could make with items from the pantry. And I found what looked like a great recipe: Soft Molasses Cookies. I thought they would be a nice antidote to an overdose of sugar and chocolate. I'm sure they would have been, but alas, that petroleum jelly smell...

I shouldn't have used the questionable shortening. In my defense, I had no idea that shortening could go bad. But I knew that the texture looked more like hair pomade than shortening. And it definitely smelled... off. I should have trusted my instincts and used butter instead, or god forbid, run to the store. But I didn't. And I ruined what otherwise would have been 2 dozen very yummy cookies.

Before tossing the cookies in the garbage, I actually asked Richard to taste one of them, in the desperate hopes that maybe my taste buds were just too sensitive. He took one bite, then slowly spit it out into his hand. "This is terrible."

I may try this recipe again tonight before I head to SnB. But this time, I'll buy fresh shortening.