Yesterday’s dinner was a complete disaster to say the least.

Okay, the entire dinner wasn’t bad. We had a break-the-fast dinner party with two other couples at someone’s house in the ward. Dinner was delicious; I even ate venison!

Tyler and I thought we’d bring some homemade bread, along with lemon bars. Luckily the lemon bars turned out to be a big hit. The bread literally exploded in the breadmaker. I don’t know how it happened. For years growing up we made bread every Sunday, and I’ve never had an experience this bad. Tyler and I took our one-hour-long Sunday nap, and woke up to the smell of really rancid-burnt-something. It was one of the most disgusting smells that happened to completely consume our house. Oust (room spray) + three candles later, we still can’t completely get rid of it. And on top of that and all my hysterical crying, Jason is showing the house to possible buyers this afternoon. Hopefully Tyler will be home and will explain that the house doesn’t normally reek that bad.

I posted some pictures below so you can get the full effect, minus the smell. Actually, these pictures don’t even come near to the full effect. You’re lucky you didn’t have to smell it all night. Hopefully my breadmaker still works okay. A special thanks to Tyler for spending so much time in the kitchen with that icky smell, trying to clean out the pan and breadmaker! He should have been featured on Dirty Jobs!!

Here is the bread I tried to salvage from the pan, but we obviously couldn’t take it to dinner with us! I sure wasn’t claiming that! We ended up throwing it all away; it was only partially cooked.

Here is the bread pan in the sink. You can see how bad it spilled over.

On a better note, I’d like to share with you a cooking SUCCESS I had today.

Look at my delicious salad! YUM.
It’s really refreshing for summertime.

INGREDIENTS:
Costco Spring Green Mix ($3.99 for what seems like a never-ending tub of leafy greens)
Reduced-fat Feta Cheese
Fresh Strawberries (we bought that huge thing at Costco, and they are some of the yummiest, juiciest strawberries I’ve ever had!)
Fresh Blueberries
Walnuts
Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (I happened to find this naturally fat-free, organic dressing at Smith’s. It was like $2.50 or cheaper.)

For a variation, replace the strawberries with chopped up Fuji or Gala apples. I also perfected a homemade dressing that complements the apple really well:
1 part olive oil
1 part apple cider vinegar
a healthy squeeze of honey

Enjoy!!