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Writer's pictureJen Henry

From Disaster To Delicious

Updated: Feb 21, 2023

Hello again and welcome. If you are reading this post, it means I was successful publishing my 1st post and I'm going in for #2. I am so excited that somehow by pressing a bunch of buttons, I actually got my 1st blog to post on my newly created site. And let me remind you, I truly have no clue what I am doing, and I am learning as I grow. I will tell you, creating a website when you have zero experience requires a multitude of deep breathes, several pieces of tape gently placed over your lips (duct tape not highly recommended) and several hours of loss sleep. This new endeavor is not for the faint of heart, but I will tell you, it does bring me a sense of accomplishment and joy.


So, how did your week go? If you read my last post, how did you do with the Grow My Know Challenge? Did you take a leap of faith and try something new? Did you take a baby step and do something out of your comfort zone, or are you contemplating if today is the day you are going to take a step in the right direction? You have nothing to lose and so much to gain. Regardless, I am so happy we connected again!


I thought I would share with you what happened to me a few days ago. Let me just throw it out there, I am no baker! My last name is not Crocker or Stewart, it's Henry! I love to cook but I have very little experience baking. I am not real big on eating a lot of sugar, so I tend to not bake much. We had friends over for New Year's Eve, and my husband who is such a

kindhearted man said, "I think this is the first time my wife has baked homemade chocolate chip cookies since were married 3 years ago, and they are so good!" I knew he was just trying to butter me up, hoping I would make them again lol.


Since those cookies actually turned out soft and gooey not overcooked and crunchy, I got the nerve to try a new dessert recipe for a Life Group meeting we were going to attended. My sweet friend Melia asked me to bring dessert, so I looked up a new recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I thought, I can do this, no problem! My cookie's turned out pretty good, so I got this! I thought I was a good little instruction follower, but there was just one thing. I substituted more flour than the recipe called for. Is that bad!? I got into a pickle because the recipe called for 1 Tbsp. of corn starch and when I went to grab for the container, I noticed it was 5 months expired. So, I asked my friend/enemy Alexa what to do, and she said, "substitute 2 Tbsp of all-purpose flour If you do not have corn starch, So I did what she suggested. I don't know what happened, doesn't she know everything?!

I literally went over the recipe twice as I was measuring everything out perfectly, and when I went to pull the bars out of the oven, the whole middle section was clearly way under cooked, and the outside looked almost done. I used the right size glass Pyrex dish and everything. The recipe called for 2 room temperature egg's, and I waited a whole half hour after I took them out of the fridge to add them to the recipe. What the heck happened? I thought I was a pretty good recipe follower, but maybe I wasn't?! So, as I was starting to panic a little, my amazing son and his adorable fiancé called on their way to work. They are both RN's. I told them what was going on and he went into rescue mode. He talked me through what he thought I should do, but I thought I'm just going to try cooking it a little longer. So, guess what I did, I continued to talk to them and let it cook 3 more minutes, and when I went to take the dish out of the oven, it pretty much looked the same, so I turned on my upper oven, which is a convection oven, waited for it to reach almost 350 degrees and stuck it in for 3 more minutes and continued my phone conversation. When I went to take it out, it was not the pretty golden brown it looked like in the recipe picture, it was a light dark brownish black on some sections, and the middle was still undercooked, and I was horrified. I actually said a minor cuss word or two as I was describing to them what my homemade dessert looked like. I had no clue what the heck I was going to bring to the meeting that night. I got off the phone and regained my composure. I thought to myself, there is no way I am going to scrap this, so reluctantly I tasted the part that looked ok and to my surprise it was pretty tasty. The top was not looking so hot in areas, so I cut that part off. Everything except for the underdone center was fairly tasty and salvageable. I actually took the center, put it back in the oven and baked it another 10 minutes. It wasn't pretty but all I did was crumble it into small pieces and used that too. I turned a chocolate chip cookie bar recipe into homemade cookie crumbles to go on top of good ole vanilla ice-cream :)

Voila! my dessert was created and enjoyed that evening!


What comes to mind with this encounter is the saying, when life gives you lemons make lemonade. If we don't have some challenging tests in our lives, how would we have our testimonies to share?! Sometimes it's all in the way you look at things, and having a change of perspective.


Let's continue to think outside of the box and pat ourselves on the back for trying. Remember practice makes perfect, or it's at least a step in the right direction!



Scripture of the day:

James 1:2-4

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.


Psalms 46:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.


"Sometimes things fall apart, so that better things can fall together." Marelyn Monroe


Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create." Roy T. Bennett


"From overdone to incredibly Yum! It's all in the way you look at it" Me :-}












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Guest
Feb 28, 2023

OK now I'm craving chocolate chip cookies. Ugh.

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Unknown member
Jan 26, 2023

Looking forward to another round of cookies.

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