At some point in the early ‘90s, I decided to make a batch of peanut butter cookies. I had a recipe that was amazing, and I thought that the family would appreciate some home baked cookies, so I started making them.
Unbeknownst to me, my dad wasn’t feeling well. He was having some sort of stomach trouble, and the smell of the cookies was making him feel worse. He came out into the kitchen to talk with me about it, and out of nowhere, he asked, “Why are those cookies green?”
I was confused. “What do you mean, green?”
He answered, “I mean they’re GREEN. They’re very, very GREEN.” Then he walked away disgusted.
Apparently while making the cookie dough, I grabbed the bottle that I thought was vanilla. With my limited vision, it looked like vanilla, and of course, it was shaped like a vanilla bottle so I thought I was good. For some dumb reason that I’ll never understand to this day, I didn’t smell it though; I just added an entire teaspoon of green food coloring to my cookie dough!
Honestly, if Dad hadn’t told me that the cookies were green, I never would have known. They tasted great, Of course, Dad was put off by the color, and as I recall, the rest of my family was concerned too. As I recall though, my siblings helped me eat the cookies and we all got a great laugh out of the whole thing.
Needless to say, I ALWAYS smell the vanilla before I add it to my recipes now.