4th of July Cassarole

The 4th of July is a moment of fireworks, the lake, trip 4-wheeling in mountains, vacation week on the beach, block parties and food. One matter in which I take some level of self-pride within would be giving myself credit that I can fix a meal! I so enjoy cooking and I believe tied with that ranking would be enjoying people eating my cooking. The self-pleasure is satisfying knowing those eating are enjoying the experience too. This 4th of July I really had one thing I had to do and then I had my list of things I could do too. Checking off that which had to be done first required me to self-give a Humira shot. Then I figured I would fix myself a casserole that would require 35 minutes of cooking in the oven and then it would be a small party of me at the table enjoying the 4th Holiday. Sadly my plans did not work our as expected. After self-administering the Humira shot I found my eyes laying heavy and without any notice or announcement I would later discover in an awaken mode I had been asleep for the past 6 hours and that wonderfully prepared casserole scheduled for 35 minutes at 400 degrees had now experienced the adventure of 6 hours of baking which had filled my entire home with an odor that had me totally confused. My first though was that the smell and smoke was from fireworks the neighbor's had set-off, but not being the normal fireworks odor I continued to look for the source. In time I remember I had something cooking in the oven however it looked now like a high school science project or the worse possible home economics meal ever prepared. Fully baked beyond a total crisp and black the only recognizable color I just closed the oven door, opened the house windows and doors and ignited a candle in my attempt to put some kind of new swell in the air. Life can often be this way. We make our own plans, not rushing to get anything done, we are attempting to do as little as possible and simply enjoy the moment when all doesn't go as planned. Did I get upset...no not really. I had no other person to blame. Was I annoyed by the experience totally, but I found a bit of humor in the experience too. LIfe doesn't always go as we plan but that shouldn't stop us from making plans and looking forward to a good casserole one day, just not on this day. Until then.