Taco Toast

The Goo made a personal request that I post this story for others to enjoy. Enjoy my, um, well, it's just my stupidity.

About two weeks ago I woke up on a Thursday and got ready as usual for school. In between the shower and drying my hair I always eat breakfast. This particular Thursday was no different than any other.

That morning I decided I wanted cinnamon toast along with my coffee and daily banana. I placed the bread into the toaster oven, as I usually do, poured the coffee out of my french press into my mugs (one for home and a travel one for school) and got out the sugar and cinnamon from the cabinet in which I keep them and butter from the fridge. Quick side note: This was when I could have coffee in the morning. About a day later, my coffee carafe broke and since then I've been without any coffee. Sigh. Thank goodness friends and the Goo are coming soon with a new one. Coffee withdrawl is rough. RIP coffee carafe. We had a nice ride and I hope that you are making coffee for somebody else in carafe heaven because I'm sure missing you making it for me.

About this time, I heard the friendly ding of my toast oven. I, as usual, used my wonderful bamboo tongs to grab the toast. Then I spread butter on the two slices of toast. Next, as always I sprinkled sugar on the slices and topped them with cinnamon. As I did this, my nose suddenly caught the scent of tacos. One of my neighbors must have made tacos for dinner. This was rather unusual since Mexican food in Brasilia is hard to find and definitely not a commonly made item. I was impressed by said neighbor but also surprised that I was smelling this strong taco scent at 6:00 a.m.

As I picked up my cup of coffee and took my cinnamon toast into my living room, I again was hit by the strong taco smell. So strange, I thought to myself. I even placed my coffee and toast down on the table and leaned out the window to see which neighbor had made tacos. The smell was suddenly gone.

It returned again as I sat down to eat my toast. I noticed, as I took my first bite, that it didn't have it's usual cinnamon deliciousness. It just tasted like sugar and butter. I was disappointed and smelled tacos again but figured that this smell, my neighbor's dinner, had somehow infused my apartment with its odor.

A couple of bites and a sneeze later, I realized that my toast did not possess its usual flavor and when I sniffed it, it smelled like tacos and pepper. What? How could this happen? My maid comes on Wednesdays so somehow she must have combined the cinnamon with the pepper. Why would she do that?

I quickly jumped up from the couch and BBC Global News to check my cinnamon shaker. What had my maid done to my bottle? When I picked up the shaker from the counter, the color did look a little different but not greatly. The label read just as most of the other ones I did, from Target's spice section but the name didn't read cinnamon. It said cumin.

Yes, I'd made myself some cumin toast, taco toast, for breakfast.

I opened the cabinet where keep all of my spices and cooking things and found that my maid, wonderful Davina, had reorganized the pantry. Everything had a new place including the cinnamon. No tampering, just my stupidity and my assuming that things were in the same places. And you know what they say about assuming things...

Lesson learned, even at 6:00 a.m., it's important to check spice labels the day after your maid comes. Unless you want to try taco toast for yourself. Have to say, I wouldn't recommend it.