If it Doesn't Look Right....

It probably isn't.

Every year a week or two before winter break, the kids' Spanish teacher always has a little celebration in class and gets parents to send in goodies. The kids always volunteer me to make cookies. That's OK because, A. I love to make cookies, B. They always want me to make no-bake chocolate-peanut butter-oatmeal, and C. I only have to make about a half a dozen.

Earlier this week Grace came home telling me the Senor Pablo wanted the cookies on Friday (Peter needs his on Monday). So, I set out to make them tonight.

Now, these are the EASIEST cookies in the world to make. They're nearly as easy as slice and bake cookies. They are E-A-S-Y, easy. All you do is bring butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa in a saucepan to a boil, boil for a minute, take it off the heat and add peanut butter, then mix in some quick oats. Mix it up, spoon them out into clumps, and they harden. Piece of cake.

So I get everything boiling, mixed it all up.....and it just didn't look right. It wasn't dark enough. So I glanced back at the recipe, and noticed that it clearly called for 4 TABLESPOONS of cocoa, and I'd put in 4 TEASPOONS. I tasted them, hoping against hope that using half the chocolate wouldn't make that much difference. Uh, yeah, right. Chocolate? There's no such thing as too much, but there's definitely such a thing as too little.

Well, there wasn't much I could do at the moment, as Grace was in the shower, so I quickly threw another 4 teaspoons of cocoa in and mixed it all up. I figured I'd let them set, and if they were lousy I'd drag the kids off to the store to get more oats and peanut butter, and make a second batch after they went to bed.

Luckily, though, the quick thinking saved the day. They weren't the best I've ever made, but they were OK, and they got the Grace and Peter seal of approval.