Channeling Betty Crocker

I am horrible in the kitchen. I don't like to cook much, and I'm not very good at what I attempt. Occasionally, however, luck is on my side. Tonight was one such occasion. Molly has requested to bring in cupcakes for her birthday snack tomorrow at school. So this afternoon I preheated the oven, mixed the batter, filled cupcake liners, and put the first batch in the oven. That batch came out... and was in surprisingly good shape. So I put my second batch in. Other than the batter making 3 less cupcakes than the box said it would, the cupcakes came out perfectly. While the last batch was baking, I started on my parmesan-crusted chicken so that as soon as the cupcakes were finished dinner went into my already-heated oven. I waited only a few minutes before starting the rice that would accompany our chicken, and threw the kids' nuggets into the microwave just as everything was finishing up... at the SAME time!! All the food was hot and tasted good - about the most successful I ever hope for in my kitchen. I in no way anticipate this happening again in the near future, but today it felt good to find success in an area that usually gives me nothing but grief and frustration.

A picture of my finished cupcakes - I'm not winning any awards, but they look pretty good if I say so myself :)