Baking Fail

Monday night we were watching TV, and a commercial for break and bake cookies came on. I instantly started craving some chocolate chip cookies! I had chocolate chips in the pantry, so I decided to make cookies from scratch after I put Camryn to bed. Jason and I were both looking forward to some yummy, ooey, gooey cookies.

But ... after I took them out of the oven, and we took a few bites ... there was this weird taste. Not a good taste. More like a dirty shoes kind of taste, if I had to describe it. I thought it was just me, and if I ate a few more bites, the taste would go away. Not so much. Finally, I put the plate down and asked Jason if his tasted funny. He thought so, too. We wondered if there was something on the stone that made them taste that way. Nope, not that. We wondered if there was something in the oven. Not that either. I stopped eating mine, and Jason choked the rest of his down. We finally decided there was something in the batter that must have made them taste so bad. I threw away more than half of them. But, I couldn't figure out for the life of me what could have made them taste like that! Sugar, brown sugar, flour, vanilla ... none of that made sense, so I went to bed disappointed and with a dirty shoes kind of taste in my mouth.

Tuesday morning while I was in the shower, it was still bothering me. I love to bake and cook, and I just don't mess up on something as simple as chocolate chip cookies. So I thought and thought and thought some more. Finally, it hit me .... the shortening! As soon as I got out of the shower, I headed to the kitchen, opened up the shortening can and took a big whiff. WHOA! Dirty shoes smell times 10! How did I miss that smell when I was making the cookies? And then I looked at the label. Holy cow! Can you see when that shortening expired?

Y'ALL!!!

I was so embarrassed I almost didn't post this. That stinkin' shortening expired FIVE years ago on 05/12/05. FIVE YEARS! The girl who gets in fights with her husband, because I want to throw leftovers out after about 24 hours, and the girl who regularly goes through her fridge to throw out expired stuff ... I baked with a can of shortening that expired FIVE years ago. As Jason pointed out, not only did I use shortening that expired five years ago, but this can expired before my firstborn was even born!!! Disgusting!