It was one of those days.
I woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning only to realize that it was before 6 and that my youngest had kicked me in the side to waken me. She insisted on crawling in bed earlier in the night, and sleepy, I was too weak to refuse. Run behind me, I came home to clean up (both myself and the house) before two couples and their 5 children descended upon us for brunch. Don’t misunderstand, I was really looking forward to their arrival, but I am a neat-freak, so I had a lot of Windexing to do before they showed up.
I neglected, at such an early hour, to remember that half of the electricity in my kitchen went out yesterday and that I was going to have to make everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING on the grill. Fortunately, I had baked a coffee cake the day before, so at least I wasn’t going to have to bake on the grill. Now, I have to admit, that in this case, the cake was full of everything that would make you or I very sick. However, I was in the clear minority: of the 13 people at the house, I was the only one with food allergies. I digress.
I fired up the grill an hour before our guests came in order to boil enough water to make coffee for everyone. We use a Chemex ’round these parts, but even if I had wanted to use a coffee machine, the electrical problems prevented it. Water simmering, giant, not-oven-proof pot being ruined, I went up to my room to shower before coming back to the grill to make something else that I couldn’t eat, frittata. Of course, I was distracted from showering for over an hour while I found and Swiffered up stray hairs, cleaned the tiny hand prints from various windows and mirrors and came across laundry that had been left scattered about the house by anonymous family members. Our friends were to arrive at 10:30, so a 9:45 shower was cutting it close but not unreasonable.
Just after drying my hair, standing buck naked in my bathroom with the door open, I heard our friends’ children burst into the house shouting: “WE’RE HERE!” Yes, I screamed and panicked as I ran, now wrapped in a towel, to my closet. Standing atop the Nordic Track that had been stowed there for the brunch, I quickly dressed and went to tend to the now boiling water, acting as though it was no big deal that they may or may not have seen me in the flesh. The grill is not, after all, induction, so the water was just about boiling by then, and I was just about to die from embarrassment.
I am pleased to report that I scrubbed the char from the outside of the water pot, no one saw me naked, the grilled frittata was a success and we had a great time. Right now you are probably thinking: “I don’t care about her entertaining snafus,” but there is an allergy-free idea that came from all of this. I realized after all of this chaos that there are many ways to achieve the same results. In this case, it was cooking over an open fire while I waited for the Long Island Power Authority (or maybe it’s National Grid these days) to show up. However, studying the coffee cake at brunch, I realized that there are different ways to approach my recipes, too. Take, for example, the Moist Cinnamon Cake in Allergy-Free Desserts. In the original recipe, I use an 8-inch square pan for baking, but it could have been just as delicious and maybe just a smidgen more festive if I had baked it in a tube pan. So, test it out for me. Try baking that one in a tube or a Bundt pan and see if your family feels just a little bit fancier. Because when life gives you lemons, grill up a Bundt cake.
