Not My Fault

Last night dinner... how shall I put it... did not go as planned. I blame this guy.

And, while I'm at it, this guy is also at fault for dinner.

It turns out that apparently the patio of the apartment below ours and part of ours was all rotty (yes, totally a word). So these fine fellows tore down the railing and wall yesterday and are today starting to rebuild. Unfortunately for my ears and my patience, that meant that the puppies barked and acted all protecty (also a word) most of yesterday. Luckily, today they seem to have come to grips with it, hunkered down, and are enduring.

Last night, I had grand plans for dinner. I was going to make rolls and black bean burgers and not dessert and Mr Official Taster and I were going to have a healthy and delicious dinner that I would then be able to share with all you fine people. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, it didn't quite go according to plan. I chose a new-to-me roll recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Bittman is super reliable, so I ignored the little voice in my head giving me different advice regarding the first rise and followed his. 1.5 hours later and my lump of dough was still, well, a lump of dough. This was at about 7pm. So I introduced some heat to encourage the rise and gave it a little more time. I think it might have risen. a little. 

Meanwhile, I was preparing the burgers according to America's Test Kitchen. That bowl was going along swimmingly. Sometime after 8, I gave up on the rise and carried on with the roll recipe. I shaped little rolls, flattened them slightly, stuck them in the oven, and crossed my fingers. They did rise some in the oven, but they lost their flatness, so they were basically snowballs made of bread. And by "snowballs made of bread," I don't mean burger buns. When baked, they were smaller than my fist (which isn't huge), quite round, and...dense. I plowed on. Mixing the wet and dry burger ingredients gave me a wetter mix than I anticipated, but, at this point, it was nearly 9pm and I was hungry (Mr OT probably was too, but to his credit, he didn't complain and only laughed). To compensate for the small buns, I formed slider-sized burgers and cooked as directed. They did not stay together very well. And by "very well," I mean they barely and sometimes not at all stayed together. In the end, we ate dinner that was several hours later than anticipated and not quite the crowning achievement I had planned. At least the salad didn't somehow break on me. 

I also managed to burn my hand (I'm fine) and stub several of my toes. Good dinner prep all around, and all because of some rotting wood.

Have you had any dinner fiascos challenges recently? Do you also struggle to balance the voice(s) in your head with written directions? Please tell me I'm not the only one who's kind of a mess sometimes.