Some days....

So literally everything I have tried to do in the kitchen today has turned into a major disaster. First I was going to make some banana bread, only I was out of whole wheat flour and I've been trying to sub that in in most recipes. So I went to all the trouble of fishing out the wheat grinder, finding the right box with cans of wheat from under the bed, getting everything all set to go, and... nothing. I double check everything, it all seems to be set up correctly, but nothing is happening when I flip the switch. So I spend a little time spazzing out a bit - I mean, those things aren't cheap, but not having one sort of renders all those cases of wheat under the bed pretty useless, right? But I finally realized that the electrical outlet had just tripped and needed to be reset - which it does semi-regularly, so you'd think that should occur to me to check first. Anyway, now I'm back in business, so I turn the darn thing on and depart for quieter parts of the house while it does it's business. Unfortunately, somewhere in the double-checking that the wheat grinder was set up properly I must have slightly dislodged this tiny little sponge filter part. It wasn't apparent at first (I did wait a couple of minutes in the kitchen to be sure the wheat was feeding in!), but at some point the darn thing popped out so when I came back to see if the wheat was ground a cup or two of it had blown out where the filter is suppose to go. It really wasn't all that much flour, waste wise, but it doesn't take much flour blowing around to make a pretty hideous mess!

So, flour done and bread in the oven, I decide that I have time today to make curry for dinner - it's one of my favorites, but I don't usually make the time for all the vegetable and chicken chopping that goes into it, nor do I usually have the patience to wait to eat till it is done. Things were going well - I got the rice started in the rice cooker and then set to chopping and cooking. In fact, things went pretty swimmingly until the point where I poured out half the can of coconut milk and just set the can with the rest down to put up later. So I'm at the stove stirring the sauce as it thickens when I hear the never-positive sound of something being knocked off the counter. I turned around just in time to catch Aubrey jumping off the counter - not to avoid getting in trouble, mind you, but to happily start drinking from the lovely puddle of coconut milk that is now spreading across my kitchen floor. I almost just tossed the can at that point, but I'd done the hole-punched-in-the-top thing to open it (the can has one of those odd rims that doesn't fit well with the can opener), and there were still a few ounces left in it. I figured I probably shouldn't waste it, and could just supplement with water to have enough for however I use it up. Too bad that the little plastic container I grabbed had a hole in the bottom - not big enough to notice right away, but big enough for the milk to slowly leak out all over the refrigerator shelf. (Of course, I didn't discover this mess till quite a bit later.)

So finally it's time to eat dinner. But guess what? It seems my poor rice steamer has finally died the good death, so my rice is just sitting there uncooked in a bunch of water. And before any of you ask - yes, I thought about the electrical outlet this time. However, that clearly wasn't the problem because the thing turned on and the timer ran it's allotted time. The heating element just never got hot. I've sort of been waiting for this day, because for the past month or so the rice cooker has been leaking water out of the (susposedly sealed) bottom - not much, but that happens to be the part where the motor is. Too bad I was so busy chopping and cooking the curry that I was completely oblivious to the fact that no steam was coming out of the cooker. As it was, the curry was done and I had no rice to eat it over. Fortunately I did have a tiny bit of minute rice in the cupboard - I have no idea where it came from, because I always just cook regular rice, but I was thrilled because it was just enough to be able to eat in a few minutes instead of starting over with real rice from scratch.

So I ate in the living room. And then I decided it might be better to leave the dishes for tomorrow. :)