A Disastrous Short-Cut

Shortcuts Do NOT Equal Ease:

If you hadn’t noticed, I’m not one prone to box mixes. Guilt steers the majority of my decisions in life and in the kitchen, and the thought of cutting corners and using box mixes, pre-made pie shells, cans of frosting, muffin mix, etc literally makes me stop in my tracks…I end up in a similar predicament as my ice cream and cereal isle predicaments. I stop, frozen in my tracks, and my mind starts reeling: how many calories are in the pre-made? Can I alter the few ingredients it asks me to add? Can I substitute any of the flavors? Will people ask if it’s home made and then judge me as the word “box” slips from my lips? Is it any cheaper to make the box mix? Is it worth it?! Ah no. Best stick to the homemade, delicious, super-substituted, creative version I know I can make.

What’s the point of my ramble? Well, I tried to be rebellious (against myself?) and came up with the bright idea to cut as many corners as possible to make a coconut cream pie. No!!!! I believe that utter chaos broke out as soon as I decided to go through with this “bright” idea. I bought a pre-made graham cracker crust (ouch), a box of Jello coconut cream pudding (oh no), a back up box of pudding (predicted failure already?), skim milk (surprisingly still a bad choice), and eggs (…). Are you screaming at me to step away from my bad ideas? I certainly should have. I have gelatin and graham crackers, coconut and coconut extract, milk, etc so I don’t know why I chose to not use those things and stick to the sturdy, from-scratch recipe.

Pot one of Jello pudding? Burned. The sugar in it burned to the bottom of my favorite pot. Trash.

Pot two of Jello pudding? Microwaved this time and super liquid-y…poured into the pie shell. Whipped up some meringue (yes, homemade) and carefully, strategically placed on top of the liquid pudding. Sprinkled with coconut and into the oven to brown the top…sloshing all over the place. Pull it out of the oven, nice and brown, sloshing all over the place and tried to let it set. An hour later, still jiggly, put it in the fridge…more sloshing. Went to bed exhausted. I finally cut into it today, and it tasted ok, but it was still runny in the bottom (hence the skim milk being a bad idea), the bottom crust was completely soggy…I just feel like it was so much frustration and mess and trash (poor pan…I made rice in you almost every day, and for that, I am sad…RIP) for something I could have made, pain free and from scratch. Lesson Learned.