If you are like me and find comfort in knowing you are not the only one whose mind takes frequent mini-vacations, then this post is for you.
One thing about me; I love everything sweet with nuts. I was trying out a Pinterest recipe for pumpkin pecan custard bread pudding. Pumpkin AND nuts plus streusel and a cream cheese drizzle on top. Perfect! My buttered 9×13 filled with just under 16 oz stale bread chunks I’d prepared earlier in the week, I mixed the custard (half and half, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and spices) and poured it over the bread. I figured the reason it looked so dry was that the recipe called for 16 oz French bread and my bread had completely dried out. The lighter weight must have caused me to add too many bread cubes. No problem. Mixing up a little more custard, I was nearly finished pouring it when I realized my first failure. No sugar in the 2nd batch. No problem. Brown sugar and a touch more milk added to the end of the 2nd pour of custard would remedy it. I was toasting the pecans for the streusel top when the greater oversight dawned on me. The unopened can of pumpkin puree was still there on the counter!!! I was making pumpkin pecan custard bread pudding minus the pumpkin!
Do you feel better yet?
I made a 2nd pan since I’d signed up to bring pumpkin pecan custard bread pudding to the potluck. This time I put the pumpkin in the custard first! For those who, like me, hate to waste anything, you’ll be glad to hear that I later salvaged the 1st pan by dumping it all into a big bowl and mixing in the pumpkin before baking it.
In case you aren’t yet feeling sufficiently better about your vacationing mind, get this.
While I prepared bread pudding, the beans I pressure cooked the previous day were reheating in the InstaPot. This was my first time using the InstaPot on slow cook. I normally use manual pressure cook. After 3 hours on slow cook, my half-full pot of beans was BARELY warm, so I switched to pressure cooking them. Midway through I was sitting in the next room mixing streusel to top the bread pudding when my son mentioned steam coming out that he thought odd. Without looking, I explained that a little steam slipping out before the pressure builds up enough to seal it is normal for this pot. When the end of cycle beeped, I was shocked to discover no pressure to release. I lifted the lid straight off. What?!?!?
You probably guessed it?
The silicone seal for the lid was sitting in the drainer where I’d left it that morning after washing. Oops! Silly me.
To the Ends of the Earth 