Chapter 19 (Bettina and the Expense Budget continued)

How It Tasted

Cold Ham

Filip: Can you warm mine up?

Fortunately my husband was on hand to tell Filip that the ham was supposed to be eaten cold—“like lunch meat,” he said. Oddly enough my son was convinced—kid logic, I suppose.

As far as the meat goes it tasted fine, but I would have liked it better between two slices of bread with a ton of mustard and mayo. Cold ham is fine in a sandwich or perhaps as an appetizer, but in my opinion it’s not filling enough for a main course.

Green Peppers Stuffed With Rice

Oh boy, were these peppers bland—they really were like eating baby food. DH and Son dutifully ate theirs unadorned, but I grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and doused mine pretty thoroughly.

The pepper shells were also a little peculiar. They’d softened only a little in the oven, and their still-crisp texture contrasted oddly with creamy smoothness of the stuffing (rice gruel, really).

Butterhorns

As predicted these butterhorns weren’t ready in time for dinner, but that turned out to be fortunate as in the end they really weren’t very good. As a substitute I put a plate of sliced French bread on the table, and it was far better than the leaden, overbaked lumps that eventually came out of the oven.

Peach Butter

This smelled good, looked great (wonderful color), but was oh so sugary. Wikipedia characterizes fruit butters as “lightly sweetened” but this was anything but. I longed to add a good shot of lemon juice to it, but my husband seemed to enjoy it.

Hot Fudge Cake

Needless to say this was another dish that didn’t make it to the table on time. In fact, no one but me ever saw the smoking ruins since I hid the pan in the sink under a pile of dirty dishes.

The failure of this dish was pretty astounding—the first thing that failed so completely I couldn’t even attempt to serve it.

I did take the time to check Bettina’s version against more modern recipes, and yes 21^st century Hot Fudge Cakes do not call for eggs whites. So this really was more like a soufflé—maybe some loud bang or crash in the kitchen brought about its collapse?

All in all a very disappointing recipe and absolute murder to scrape out of the muffin tin (in the end I had to use boiling water to soften the hard-baked crust).

Would I Make This Again?

Surprising, yes. The ham and peach butter, although not dishes I particularly enjoyed, came out more or less as they were supposed to. I suppose the stuffed peppers fall in that category too—again a dish not suited to my tastes but perfect for someone with stomach ulcers, I suppose.

The butterhorns failed but only I suspect because they were rushed through their rising time and on into the oven.

And the hot fudge cake? I’m determined to run that recipe again and figure out exactly where I went wrong. As noted above this dish was an astonishing failure, such a total flop that I’m almost intrigued by it. Was it the recipe, my technique, or what? I really don’t know but certainly intend to find out!