The online math lab went down and deleted two weeks worth of work (22 hours of my life just in the lab, not including discussion posts, textbook reading, exercises and writing an APA paper). When it was announced that there was a problem school-wide (not just something I did to myself) and the site came back up the next day, my mental breakdown ceased and I got straight back to work. However, by then I had spent 2 full days and part of a third on one single problem type. No matter what I did, something was going wrong at the same step every time. My instructor did not "instruct" me on what to do about it. My adviser "advised" me to ask a friend or family member who's good at math to help. I guess it's all good when I never have any questions about the classes, but now that I did, I expected to get them answered.
Bryan made a call to a good friend, who is always there when we need him. I often wish I could do more for him and his brothers to thank them for all they've done for us over the years, but all I can really do for them is feed them.
This time, it was short notice and I had a paper to write the day before he was coming over. That morning, I got up and scrounged through the pantry, most of which I have found still packed in boxes from our move, and found a box of Red Velvet Cake mix. I don't know where it came from, but it had a photo of the Duncan Hines' Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies on the back. I love whoopie pies, but whenever I think about making them, it's when I'm already committed to making something else. Now was my chance!
I found the recipe online, here: http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/cookies-bars/Duncan%20Hines%C2%AE/red-velvet-sandwich-cookies/
I had them made and ready for our friend to take home with him after he figured out the one teensy-tiny step I was missing, which he did. I didn't really need to find out what I was doing wrong, as we were a week past it in class, and I was lucky enough to get enough problems of this type correct to move on, but I was irritated that I was doing everything right up until the exact same point and then blowing it at the end. Each problem took nearly a full page of notebook paper to work through, so 40 problems later and I was starting to count the monetary cost as well as the time it was eating up.
The recipe used store-bought frosting, but since I don't use that, I made fresh buttercream. And after refrigerating the dough, we were supposed to cut 48 slices. I failed my math there, and cut 65 of them instead. My cookies turned out a little thinner than the photo on the box, but the cookies were just a little crunchy on the outside and still soft on the inside. I used a large round cupcake piping tip to fill the cookie sandwiches, and they were delicious! I'll be sure to cut them a little thicker next time, and maybe just make a double batch!
Unfortunately, my photo tent and lamps are all in storage and I can't even find my camera at the moment, so all I've got is a couple of cell phone pics in my kitchen. Forgive the lighting problems. ;)
*Tink
