Trial and Error

Yesterday I made my mom's patica. It was confusioning because she had this cook book with the recipe and in the book she also had a typed up recipe. I wasn't sure which one she used so I ask my daughter. She said she wasn't really sure, but that she never saw grandma use the paper just the book. I got off to a late start because I was finishing up on my cookies I had made the night before. My youngest son was making his pumpkin cookies so I let him finish than off to the kitchen I went to try and figure out this recipe. After reading the one in the book I decided that she double the recipe. First mistake was doing it all at once. It took nine cups of flour so doubled that is 18! I got the dough done and it is a yeast dough so you have to let it rise. Oh I am wrong first mistake was starting so late! After you let it rise to double it's size than you separate it into two balls and yes you let it rise AGAIN! This recipe also calls for 6 pounds of walnuts but reading the recipe in the book it calls for 2 pounds, more confusion! I know my mom always bought more nuts than the recipe calls for so I am thinking since she double the recipe and she puts in more it would have been 3 pounds double 6. I decide why I am waiting for the dough to rise again I would get the nuts together so I am reading the recipe in the book and remembering a little of what I did know about this recipe, oh my mom never taught me how to make it so that is why it was trial and error! Anyway I discovered why she had two different recipes she used some from one and some from the other! Next I was going to go and roll out the dough, but I have no table cloth to roll it out on I left my mom's at the house she lived in, so I call my husband at work and he said he would stop and see if he could buy one for me, what a sweet guy! He comes home and had find a table cloth at Tuesday Morning! So I put on the table and put the flour all over it and get my dough tell my self here goes! Well the table cloth keep moving around so I had my daughter hold on to the end for me and I am rolling and rolling finally I get it rolled out to what I think it should be and now it is time to spread the nut stuff all over the dough, well here is were I am also not sure how much to spread on so I think the first batch got skimped again trial and error. I roll it all up place it on a cookie sheet glaze it with egg yolk and into the over it goes, oh I cut it in half. Now one recipe says set oven at 250 and bake for two hours the other recipe says to bake at 325 and bake for an hour. I decided to go for the latter because by this time it is 9 at night! So my husband ask how much longer do I have to endure this before I can have a taste! So I go check it and it is a good thing I did. There was five minutes left, but when I checked it it was done! When I opened the door I couldn't believe my eyes they were so HUGE! Didn't look like my mom's at all! My husband had a taste and he said for being the first time you ever made this it is so good! I now know why mom only made this once a year, first it is very time consuming and second it is very expensive to make. I know now why she would get up so early to make it too, so she wouldn't be up half the night baking! So now I know how to make it and I know I can make it, but I also know that next year I will do things differently and I will have a little experience behind me. I think that live does give us a lot of trial and error and that God wants us to learn from our mistakes and to learn from them no matter how big or how small! I feel really good that I can carry on a family tradition and know that I can do it. Sometimes I get upset and angry that mom never taught me how to make this, but maybe it was God who wanted me to try on my own because he knew I could do it!