Today we drove around the remaining parts of Porterville that we had not yet discovered. We found the town library, we found the oldest community theatre in California (Barn Theatre), and we walked around the oldest and largest park in Porterville (Murry Park). It was a lovely day, despite the 107 degree temperature, and to top it off, we went to a cute little shop in Strathmore (population just over 2000) that makes their own ice cream. They are especially noted for their Orange ice cream, and we realized that the reasoning behind this is because they are located just across the street from the Sunkist Orchards! It was especially refreshing, and a yummy, satisfying treat to share.
The best part of the day happened just past 9:30PM. Jeremiah and I decided we wanted to bake something for the wonderful maintenance man in our apartment complex that has helped us with so much since we moved in. I asked him if he liked chocolate, and he told me he did.... so, we purchased a chocolate chip cookie package today, and set off to bake it tonight. However....we bought it at around 3:30pm, and we completely forgot to take it out of car until this evening. But, everything looked normal, at first...
The following is what I learned today about cooking:
Cooking Lesson #1
Chocolate chips melt (even if at first appearance they look whole and unmelted, if left in 107 degree temperature, they will turn to mush as soon as touched)
Cooking Lesson #2
When stirred together with egg and butter, melted chocolate chips will turn the entire batter into dark brown mix (picture brownies)
Cooking Lesson #3
It is very difficult to tell when the cookie edges have reached their 'golden brown coloring' as the box describes when the cookie mix is already dark brown.... (so sadly the cookies on the bottom rack burned within 5 minutes)
Cooking Lesson #4
Always bake only one batch at a time if the cookie trays can't all fit on one shelf (at least in our electric oven)
But, all in all, most of our chocolate cookies (notice, I left out the word 'chips') came out well (we tasted one) and maybe the man will never find out that they were supposed to be pretty golden cookies with chocolate chips in them.... unless of course he reads our blog.... Well, at least he says he likes chocolate....
The End for today.... unfortunately we have no pictures to upload because our brand new camera is somehow busted...so we are going back to Costco to exchange it for a new one tomorrow... ??? maybe it's not good to keep it in a home that stays at about 95 degrees or over inside all day long??? who knows.....
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