by Paula Countryman

Created on: April 20, 2008

I wasn't making some difficult recipe, nor was I expecting what happened to me. My youngest son asked if I would make his favorite peanut butter cookies, how difficult is that? A little brown sugar, peanut butter, dairy butter, baking soda, flour and eggs, simple right?

I set out all the ingredients as I thought my son was going to assist, but he instead decided he'd watch television and I could call him when the cookies were ready. My oldest son was playing a video game in his room. It was early, around 9am. and I hadn't eaten yet, so I thought a cup of hot coffee and a couple of big cookies would tide me over until lunch.

As I began mixing the ingredients, I couldn't help but imagine the aroma of those cookies baking in the oven. I was getting really hungry and anxious to get the cookies into the oven, so I grabbed the hand mixer to finish up. Suddenly, I had an incredible urge to smell the dough as it was mixing. I lowered my head down to the bowl while the mixer was still whirring, and as I was savoring the smell, my hair became entangled. I let out a startled and painful scream. That's when my oldest and youngest sons flew into the kitchen. I had shut off the mixer, and detached the beaters but it was too late, the beaters were firmly attached to my hair. There I stood looking like an alien. My oldest son yelled "What happened! Are you okay?"My youngest burst out laughing, which of course caused me to laugh even if it did hurt a little.

My oldest son removed the beaters very carefully, but still a few hairs came with them. "Mom" he admonished me with a serious look. I had to take a shower and scrub my hair to remove all the peanut butter mess.

One month later, a cooking show came to our city's civic auditorium. Prizes for the funniest stories would win a bag of groceries and a recipe book. Of course, my youngest son jumped up before I could stop him and in front of an entire auditorium of people, blurted out the story of the egg beater incident. I slunk down in my seat, but I knew most of the people there and they spotted me, then laughed and applauded. My son won two bags of groceries though!

I suppose I've learned two things from this embarrassing incident. Don't ever bend down to sniff anything in a mixer bowl when the mixer is on, because if you do, you may have someone you love witness it and tell a whole room full of people.

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