Art With Ashley: Warning!! May cause hunger pains

One of the best things about the holidays is the fact that sweets are abundant. I have a major sweet tooth and a love for baking, dangerous combo I know. So for all of those are in the same boat as I am I thought I would do a post of all my recent baking adventures. The good, the bad and the ugly.

THE BAD & THE UGLY:

For those of you who are familiar with making Pumpkin Pies you will recall that one of the important ingredients in the recipe is evaporated milk. Well I decided to try out a new recipe this year... it can be found here------->Maple Walnut Pumpkin Pie

This recipe surprised me by changing it up and replacing the evaporated milk with sweet and condensed milk. I rummaged through my pantry to find a can of it. I found one way way way in the back corner along with a few other ingredients like fish oil... oyster sauce... wheat flour... I think you get the picture. I pulled out the can and searched it for an expired date. Some little red flag was going off in the back of my mind saying... "the last time you used this batch of sweet and condensed milk it was bad!!" I tried hard not to listen to myself and reasoned that the last time I used must have been when I first got married about 3 years ago so I must have replaced them by now, plus it was the day before Thanksgiving and I really didn't want to go out and battle the grocery store crowds.

I opened the can and looked inside... it didn't look terrible, but it had been so long I couldn't remember what it was supposed to look like. Just then my husband walked in... I told him I thought that the sweet and condensed milk was bad. He said no it looked fine and we both did the "smell test" and he even volunteered for a taste test. He stuck one of his fingers on the lid and I knew right then it was bad. It just glopped down the side and looked oily and bad. He still stuck it right in his mouth. He said it tasted fine... I protested and said it was bad. Suddenly it was a battle of who was right... he continued eating it and I began calling my mom to determine who was going to win the fight. She said... "when in doubt throw it out."

Unfortunately our internet was down so I couldn't skype her to show her. I decided to call a friend, she had an extra can and was more than willing to let us have it. (Thanks Jenn) I took off down the street with my open can of grossness and my husband came running after. When my friend opened the door she gasped and said, "YEAH that is BAD!!!" I laughed and we opened up a new can so my sweet husband could see what it was supposed to look like.

Thankfully he didn't get sick from it and we didn't actually put it in our pie :)

The can in dispute...