Missing The Main Ingredient

Today I made a casserole dish for dinner that I have made a thousand times. It was my Great Grandma Maudie's recipe. I know the recipe without looking because I have made it so much. I even put the recipe in the cookbook our ladies at church made. They were impressed when I wrote the recipe down by memory. When you have made a dish that many times you know exactly what to do to make it just right... There is no need to measure, and cooking it just seems to be as natural as breathing.

Tonight however, in my confidence, and of course my hurry to get dinner finished I made a bit of a mistake. The house was smelling so good during the course of the cooking. I could hardly wait to dig in. When I took it out of the oven, (after an hour of waiting) I took off the tin foil just like always, in order to let it stand and firm up a bit. And, as always there was some juice on the top of the casserole. That is why it needs to sit a bit. The juice soaks up and then its ready.

While the casserole was sitting, I got the plates, drinks, and other sides ready... After about 5 minutes I noticed that the juice was not going away.... and then it hit me... I FORGOT to add the rice!!!!!!!!!! The rice is one of the main ingredients in this casserole because it manages the moisture in the dish... No rice=TOO MUCH JUICE!!!!! I was so frustrated with myself. I not only forgot to put it in, but we didn't even have any in the house. I was supposed to stop after church to get it, but I forgot that too...When it was time for dinner I just got to work on the casserole and completely forgot that I didn't have any rice. UGH!

Long story short the dish was not a totally failure and we at what was there, but it was NOT AT ALL what it was supposed to. Next time, I will look at the picture of Maudie on the wall for some guidance.... THe recipe was hanging right there beside her the whole time!!!