Suckered

This week at work has been fairly mellow (ignoring the $7000 medical supply order my rep screwed up.....grr argh). My boss is on vacation in Hawaii and I thought I'd be able to fuck around all week, but I've actually gotten a lot done. Around 4:30 today three of the girls in A/R came into my office to ask me a favor. Their manager's birthday is Sunday so they were going to do her party tomorrow. Our office only has 12 people in it and we always do stuff for people's birthday. I said ok, fine. Then they said that none of them know how to bake, so would I please make banana pudding for the birthday party? What? They know I'm a decent baker and I bring in cookies and whatnot every once in a while. They said they didn't know how to make banana pudding and didn't want to mess it up. Have I ever made it? No. Have I ever even eaten banana pudding? No. They begged and begged and after seeing a pretty straightforward recipe on the internet I said fine, I'll do it. I'll consider it my present to her. Then, one of the girls had the audacity to say that the only reason she wasn't doing it is that she was afraid she'd make it and it turned out badly. Well, honey, all bakers have that fear when trying something new. You just give it a shot and if it comes out horribly, it's the thought that counts, right?

After work I went to my gigantic Walmart/grocery store that's just down the street. I was going there anyways to pick up ingredients for the chocolate dishes I'm bringing to the No Kidding Annual Chocolate Party on Saturday. I'm trying a couple new recipes there too. My first bad sign was that the banana pudding recipe calls for a 6oz package of vanilla pudding. Well, those penny pinching assholes at Jell-O now only make 5.1 oz packages of vanilla pudding. Grrrr...... I chose to believe it will be fine using only the 5.1. I didn't want to buy a second one and start guessing at the quantities. So, I get everything I need and head home. Did I mention I've never even EATEN banana pudding nor do I really remember what it looks like? Sigh. The pudding was causing me worries cause it was pretty damn runny. I stuck it in the fridge for 10 minutes and that firmed it up. I used a whole box of Nilla wafers and probably 9 bananas. I made it five levels high. I have no idea if it's how it's supposed to be. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

For the chocolate party I'm making a chocolate mousse pie and cream cheese brownies (I've always wanted to try making those). I haven't made mousse in years and I lost the easy recipe I had. I found one online that seemed ok - no baking or alcohol needed (some even called for Cognac! whatever!) Now for those of you that have never made mousse, it can be tricky because you have to melt the chocolate to just the right consistency and you have to make sure you whip the cream up firm enough. After I got done with the banana pudding I decided to do a test run on the mousse. I had bought enough to do two. So, I made that up too and will bring it to the birthday party. It's in an Oreo crust pie tin, but I held some mousse back in a little glass cup to try it out. Not bad. If the banana pudding is a bust, this will be the backup. I love having backup dishes when trying something new.