How not to make chocolate pudding

It seems I have a hard time making things with chocolate.... Maybe it's the anticipation of the finished product nestling itself in my tummy, or maybe it's the baby crawling on the floor trying to eat my toes... or now that I think about it, maybe it's the two very well-meaning helpers sitting at my elbow trying to help with every step... Whatever it is, I'm so distractable when I'm trying to cook these days.

Yesterday, while trying to make my little munchkins happy, I agreed to make some home made chocolate pudding for dessert. Of course, they had to help me.. and it was a good lesson in math - especially since Elizabeth is learning how to do addition. Unfortunately we didn't think of the idea until 5pm shortly before daddy was to come home, and right after I decided to try a new recipe I've never made before for meatloaf. (why didn't I like it as a child?? it was so yummy.. but I digress)

Fast forward to mommy stirring and stirring and stirring the pudding which refuses to boil.. the kids crying because they are hungry, the potatoes boiling over, the broccoli turning that ugly shade of yellow when they are cooked too long, and daddy just walking in the door. Chocolate everywhere, hungry cranky kids, and a very cranky mom.

Poor dad! I couldn't even go give him a kiss or set the table or nurse the baby because I was still stirring the darn pudding!! Silly to make a very time sensitive recipe in the middle of all this... it seemed like a good idea at the start, but it's amazing how quickly the house can deteriorate once the clock strikes 5 pm and the kids haven't been fed yet. They can be angels one moment and crazy terrors the next (of course this all might be exaggerated in my mind because I was growing hungrier by the minute as well)

Anyways, I added the egg yolks in a hurry and stirred and stirred, wondering why my chocolate pudding was starting to look more like that egg soup you get at a Chinese restaurant with strands of cooked egg floating in it. hmmm... this wasn't my idea of a good dessert: chocolate soup with egg yolk dumplings.

Luckily I was able to salvage it by straining out the egg yolk and actually read the recipe (must run in the family).

So what did we learn in school today children?
- how not to cook chocolate pudding
- what brown sugar tastes like, liked off a spoon
- don't bug mom when she's hungry
- mommy looks funny when she screams and jumps up and down from frustration (" you're funny mommy")
-all right, we did do religion in the morning, practice writing Dd and Gg and more math, but the home economics class was the most exciting.