Black Bean Casserole

So tonight I decided to go through my mom's recipe box and pick out something to make and decided upon Black Bean Casserole. It's actually extremely easy to make and I added ground beef to it instead of just leaving it vegetarian; my brother's would stage a revolt if a dish did not have meat. I informed them of my decision and regarding a dish without meat my brother, Scott said, "What's the point!?" So I'll keep my love for veggie dishes to myself. Anyway, I'm reading the recipe and after a long day and not a lot of sleep the night before(I always have an excuse!) I now have to read my mom's handwriting. This is not usually a difficult task except when it says "2 cloves minced garlic." The ingredient before that was cumin so I am still in spice mode. I'm thinking "Cloves!? What in the world would I put cloves in a dish like this for!? That's weird! I think I'll leave it out." Then I notice there is no measurement listing, just 2 cloves (apparently I can't read MINCED GARLIC, although being that it didn't say OF MINCED GARLIC I am at a loss) so I think that maybe it means fresh cloves and she just forgot to write how much garlic. "What!? Do we even have fresh cloves?" I determine that we don't and then I realize we are out of garlic which is no big deal. Hmmm...why are these ingredients written on the same line? The genius that I am never cluing in to the fact that what the dish is calling for is 2 cloves of garlic. DUH!!!! Fortunately, I decided to not put in cloves and when I realized how weirdly I had interpreted what 2 cloves minced garlic meant...well, what could I do? I literally smacked myself in the head. I will never ever forget that cloves are the parts of the garlic bulb. I did actually know this before this episode of kitchen mania, but my synapses were not firing well today. C'est la vie. Another story for the blogs.
Until next time, The Unexpected Cook