Two jars of cloves?!

While rummaging through the spice cabinet the other day I found two full bottles of cloves and I had to ask myself why. Then I smiled. Oh yes, how could I forget the Clove Incident.

Short version is I have a bad memory and really should make grocery lists every time I go shopping. The longer version is a bit cuter.

A year or so ago, my little sous chef and I were making his favorite carrot bread. I set out all of the ingredients before we started baking and then I turned around for "just a second" (I swear!) and he took off. Oh well, I will just finish by myself.

A minute later he heard me adding ingredients and came rushing back to help. When we got to the cloves I couldn't find them. I looked everywhere on the counter, in the spice cabinet, in the other cabinets, in the refrigerator, on the kitchen table... I searched for at least five minutes, becoming more and more certain I was losing my mind. I retraced my steps. I walked backwards. I did every little trick I could, desperately trying to remember where I had put it down.

J was getting frustrated at the delay so, on a whim, I showed him another jar of spices and asked, "Have you seen a little jar like this?" And he walked off to the front door. Curious, I followed him. Sigh!

There, all over the window sill of the side light and the floor beneath, was the contents of an almost full jar of cloves. He gave me that pathetic "does this mean we are done cooking look". I checked the jar and there was just about enough to make the carrot bread (you only need ¼ teaspoon). We cleaned the mess, I scraped out as close to ¼ teaspoon of cloves as I could get and we made the carrot bread.  My vacuum cleaner smelled great!

And then I bought another jar the next time we went to the store. And the time after that too.