Spices

My spaghetti is one of our favorite meals.  I learned how to make the sauce from my mother and Karla really liked it, especially after I made some little changes to it, to fit the flavor I wanted it to have.

But, today, it was not to be.  The stars aligned against me; the gods weren't smiling down.  Apparently, they were sneezing.

I went to throw some cumin into the sauce, but instead, grabbed the pumpkin pie spice.  I was rushing, as I got a late start and wanted to have it done before our little boy woke up from his nap, so when I popped the lid and started to shake it in, I thought, "Wow, that cumin is really brown."  But I paid my conscience no attention.  Then, after I added the basil and started to stir a bit more, I started to realize that it smelled funny.  I started wafting the steam to my face and trying to figure out what the matter was.  Then, I got a hint of cinnamon.  Cinnamon!  From my sauce! 

Immediately, I knew something was wrong and grabbed the spice containers from the bar behind me.  Sure enough, the one I thought was cumin wasn't.  I thought I could cover it up with extra cumin and basil and garlic powder, but after shaking some more in and letting it cook for a couple minutes, I realized that there was no help for it.  Let me tell you, a mix of basil, cumin and garlic with pumpkin pie spice is not appetizing.  At all.

I already had put the pasta in the water, so I saved lunch by whipping up a white sauce and grilling some chicken.  So, we still had pasta.  It was just white, instead of red.