Kitchen F#!% Ups

Larry asked for waffles for breakfast, and I thought it was a good idea since I had some fresh berries to go with them. I'm not a good breakfast maker. Pancakes, waffles - just not something I'm good at. Today was no exception. I was out of buttermilk. No problem, I can just use powdered, which I always have on hand. Except my powdered buttermilk was really hard, so I used a knife to break it up.

Here's where I should have stuck the chunks of dried buttermilk into the food processor to turn it back into a powder. SHOULD have, but I didn't. Instead I just added it to the dry mix, added the appropriate amount of water to the wet ingredients, and mixed it all together. I guess I was thinking it would dissolve.

It didn't. We ended up with inedible waffles that had chunks of dried buttermilk dispersed throughout. Ick!

• Buttermilk Waffles (American Classics, p. 40)

I tested this lemon buttermilk poundcake with a toothpick and I swear the toothpick came out clean. But as it cooled on the rack for 10 minutes, the middle sank like a tank. Inside the hole it was soggy and wet. I turned the oven back on and threw it in, knowing that it wouldn't rise, but hoping that it would at least finish baking.