Nothing much to blog about tonight, but I've got a loaf of beer bread in the oven, which reminds me of a recent story from my own life...

I enjoy cooking. Except when I'm hungry. (Ironic, isn't it?)

Sadly, for several years I've been having a terrible time with certain recipies which, no matter how carefully I do everything, haven't seemed to turn out. For example, many of the breads I've been attempting to make tended to turn out badly.

Needless to say, this has been frustrating. What I am, hopelessly incompetent? Yet a lot of things I make turn out fine ... its just these same classes of items which always fail. For example, with the breads, I ask myself: Am I measuring wrong? Is the yeast stale? I don't live in a high altitude! I've scrutinized everything. But I'm persistent, so I refuse to give up completely -- and yet I get failure after failure even when I try adjusting for each possible problem. (New yeast, different flour brand, varying the amounts slightly, etc.)

Recently, a friend served a beer bread at a party. Tasted fantastic. She was giving away little "kits" as gifts, and gave me one. Went home and made it. Again, tasted great.

So I decided to make some more. Got on the net, checked out several recipes. All were dead simple: Bottle of beer (12 oz), three cups of self-rising flour, three tablespoons sugar, bake 50 min at 375F. What's to go wrong? Tried it. Ugh.

Called her, and asked if this was the recipe she was using. Yes, it was. Tried it again. Ugh.

Someone had given me a store-bought beer-bread kit. One of those deals where they mix the ingredients for you and mark up the cost $2.00. So I decided to give that a try. Turned out fine. Tried mine again: Failure! What is going on here?

I could not be messing up something this simple: this was pointing to some kind of strange problem, but I was darned if I could figure it out.

It was the missing quarter-cup measure which finally solved the problem:

I couldn't remember how many tablespoons were in the quarter-cup, so I measured out a half cup, counted six tablespoons, and then used three to get a quarter cup. That didn't seem right.

I checked with a friend: Sure enough: that was the problem! The measuring cups that I had been using for dry measure were off by a full 25%. Every last one of them. (Yes, I had even thought to check them against each other once.) But not my spoons or the glass Pyrex cup. So, for about the last ten years, every single recipe which has combined dry and wet ingredients has been off by 25% on the dry ingredients!

Take beer bread: That three cups, well, it's really 3/4 times 3, which yields only 2.25 cups: I would have had to have used four of these "alternative" cups to get the right amount! Good heavens. (Another reason to be suspicious of products from Red China.)

Who ever thinks to double-check their measuring cups and spoons?

Since then I've bought a new set, double-checked 'em to make sure they're right, and have made several recipes which always defeated me in the past, including a good Pumpernickel. Everything is turning out great. And my self-image as a cook is recovering somewhat. And I've come away with a new appreciation for Proverbs 20:10 and Deuteronomy 25:15.

Tonight we revisit beer bread. :-)