The girls and I spent several hours today cooking at my apartment. We met at 11 and picked out the recipes we wanted to use, compiling a grocery list. Moms were called when we wanted to deviate from the recipes, or wanted to try something not in one of our books. We then hit up the grocery and the total was only about $46; we got a lot of food, so that wasn’t bad. What we made:

• Peanut butter balls;
• Chilli;
• Potato candy;
• Chocolate fudge;
• 2 pumpkin pies

And now for the funnier bit. Our pitfalls included:

• Melting the chocolate for the peanut butter balls proved problematic because we couldn’t get it liquidy enough. It would just get overcooked and then get really tough. We tried melting it initially in the microwave, then switched to a rigged up double boiler. That worked better, but it still got overcooked. Ashlee ended up with her hands covered in chocolate as she kind of massaged the chocolate onto the P.B. balls. Yes, I got photos. :)
• We argued over the fudge initially because Ashlee never makes hers with marshmallow creme, while Jessica and I said it was just ghetto fudge if it didn’t involve marshmallow creme. We decided to use the recipe that actually comes on the back of marshmallow creme jars, but while preparing it, it got angry. I was having Ashlee stir while I poured out some vanilla, and all of a sudden it started spitting upward, boiling furiously. “Holy shit!” Ashlee noted, as she jumped backward, pot in hand. It calmed down afterward, but then I overcooked it. It tastes fine, but it could be better. Haha, then when it set up, it set up: Jess knocked on it several times and it didn’t squish or dent. I got annoyed with her and told her to let my fudge alone.
• The chilli recipe didn’t call for pasta, which we thought was silly, so at the last minute (we’d forgotten it ourselves), we boiled some macaroni and threw it in for maybe its final hour in the crock pot. Well, I got overzealous in pouring out macaroni, and Jess cooked all I poured out, and thus our “chilli” gained the appearance of “Chilli Hamburger Helper.” It could also do with more chilli powder and, I think, beans, but the girls only wanted 1 can.
• Ashlee’s potato candy was ugly as sin. She said she didn’t put down enough confectioner’s sugar on the wax paper before she rolled out the potato goop, so it stuck and she had to really wrestle with it to get it to roll up into its usual log-like shape. Then initially, when we got the gist of the recipe from her mom, we didn’t know we needed several bags of sugar, so Jess had to run out and get more. Then she broke my mixer! Freakin’ A, my $8 mixer, and she goes and breaks it. I tell you… The potato goop got really thick, which is I think what killed Mr. Mixer, but it could have been that she tried to mix a fork that had sneakily slid down…
• We had too much pumpkin pie filling for one deep-dish 9″ crust, but too little to really justify making two pies, so when two pies were made, the top edge of the crusts got burnt. However, the pie bit is very tasty.

It was all-in-all a successful day, though my sink seems tragically clogged. We made several trips to the toilet to pour gross dish water in, because it otherwise doesn’t drain. I’m going to hit it hard with boiling water (parents’ suggestion), Chlorox (Jessica’s suggestion), Draino (Todd’s suggestion, though that isn’t working, as the Draino just sat there and wouldn’t drain either), and a plunger (my idea). I’m not going to do the Chlorox and Draino back to back because who knows what kind of awful concoction or fumes that would make. I called my landlady about it and she said clogs are something I have to cover, which sucks. Stupid landlords. I’m going to exhaust my options before I call anyone, though.