Read More Carefully

Grandma and Grandpa sent a box of Christmas presents last week.  Inside the box was this really cool plush Christmas tree shaped advent calendar.  Virginia was so excited!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for including something that wasn't wrapped and she could have right then.  Her little face was all sad when she saw that everything was wrapped and I had to tell her we couldn't open them yet.  So when she got to the tree she was so excited!  And she wanted to have her picture made.  The problem this time though was at first she would cover her face with the calendar.  Then she would "force" a smile and it would look all weird.  So I was trying to convince a 2 year old to, "No just smile naturally Virginia."  She looked more like she was in pain than smiling.  But I was able to get some cute ones and some with Bootsie in front of the tree.  Again I couldn't get Virginia to understand to come and sit next to Bootsie, she kept scootching in behind her.

So the "read more carefully" title.  I was all proud of myself the other night.  I was actually going to "fix" supper and not just "heat" something up.  I had found a recipe for cider glazed chicken with brown buttered pecan rice.  yummy right?  I had forgotten the cold apple cider at the store so we just had some of that pre-cooked chicken from the store.  I was most excited about the rice!  I had left over pecans from thanksgiving and who wouldn't love brown buttered rice?  I had bought the super fast 90 second cooking rice in a bag in the microwave so this meal was going to come together super fast!  I was excited.  And virginia normally likes chicken and rice.  So I read the recipe, several times in fact, and i thought it called for 5 tablespoons of butter to be melted and browned then add the pecans for a minute then toss with the rice.  I thought that was alot of butter especially since i was using more rice than the recipe called for.  so i made it and BOY WAS IT BUTTERY.  It was really good but really buttery and I felt like i was just eating a stick of butter with some pecans in it.  very rich.

well it just kept bothering me that it was so buttery.  a few days later I was re-reading the recipe and realized it called for 5 TEASPOONS of butter NOT 5 tablespoons.  I was so mad!  Not necessarily as myself but at the magazine who published the recipe.  I've never thought of butter in terms of teaspoons in recipes.  it's always been tablespoons or the cup equivalent or ounces even NOT TEASPOONS.  It was a popular cooking magazine I got the recipe from.  I should have read more carefully!  I think someone said that 3 teaspoons make 1 tablespoon so i used alot more butter than it called for!  I'm gonna try it again this coming week with the correct amount of butter!