Let’s Try That Again

As a mom, my life is filled with do-over moments.  Days where I forget the girls’ backpacks as I’m leaving the house and have to turn around to get them, making me late for work.  Days where I forget that there’s a client coming in to the office and I dress casually.  And days where I leave the lunch I took 15 minutes to prepare the night before at home, causing me to have to run out during my lunch break to grab something else that I probably don’t even really want.   There are so many times where I just want to crawl back in bed and start the day all over again.  Too bad, 99.9% of the time I can’t actually do that.

But you don’t need to be a mom to have a do-over moment.  In fact, one of my most memorable do-over moments happened long before I was a mom.  Picture it – Hollywood, Florida, 2002.  Erajh and I had an apartment and loved to have company over.  In a very grown up moment, we invited one of our couple friends over for what would be our very first dinner party.  We decided to make Cornish game hens, potatoes, veggies, rice, rolls, salad, and a slew of other things that I can’t remember right now.  We took out our nicest plates and serving ware and got cooking.  Things seemed to speed right along and the hens were ready early.  Afraid to dry them out by leaving them in the oven too long, I left them on the counter top, next to the other sides that were ready.

Our friends were right on time, but the food had been ready for at least 45 minutes by the time we sat down.  There was no time to mingle or chat over appetizers, we had to eat quickly or the entire meal would be ruined.  Realizing the food had sat out for quite a while, I tried to reheat it, but to no avail.  Instead of getting warm, the hen just got tough and rubbery.  Our friends graciously, and without missing a beat, picked at their dry hen and stone cold side dishes, but I was embarrassed.  The table was cluttered with all the serving dishes for the sides, and we struggled to move things around to make room for our plates.  And things went from bad to worse when the husband started to have an allergic reaction to our cat, Sonoma.  As they left that night, they thanked us for the meal (there was no adjective like “good” or “delicious” when they said thank you, it was just “meal”), but there was no doubt in my mind that they were going to hit a drive-thru on the way home.  And I didn’t blame them.  Hell, I wanted to hit a drive thru, too.

Looking back, my timing was all wrong and my menu was too big.  We wanted to prepare too many things, and as a result, made none of them very well.  I should have checked the cook times and temperatures of each item before I began cooking, but instead, I just dove in.  Things were ready at all different times, causing the rest of the food to sit and get cold.  While I’m sorry that our good friends were our guinea pigs, I learned so much from that dinner party – Keep your menu small, know exactly how to make the dishes you are serving, and coordinate your cooking times.

But I’m far from the only one to have this happen.  And in general, the kitchen seems to be a center for do-over moments.  From dinner to dishes, anything that can go wrong, will.  Just think, how many times have you opened your dishwasher to find that the dishes are not quite as clean as you would like?  It’s happened to me more times than I’d like to count.  But there is an answer.  From Frigidaire:

The Frigidaire Gallery™Dishwasher gets dishes fully cleaned the first time, so there are no dish do-overs. Nearly half of adults admit to re-washing and/or re-drying dishes after the dishwasher cycle has been completed. To prevent dishwasher do-overs, Frigidaire® is stepping in with its new Gallery® Dishwasher featuring the OrbitCleanTM Wash Arm, ensuring dishes are cleaned right the first time.

So now it’s your turn –  What was your do-over moment?  And don’t say you don’t have one, because I won’t believe you!

Disclosure:  I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All the opinions expressed here are my own.