Mess Up & Move On
Happy accidents or complete disasters, mistakes are an essential part of the learning process. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.
Case in point…
The first time I made dinner for a boy was a disaster. Food this bad should be outlawed. Seriously. But there I was—17 and feeling pretty cocky about my mad kitchen skills. The challenge? His favorite—homemade macaroni and cheese. From scratch. No recipe required. How hard could it be? Make the mac, throw in the cheese along with some other mac-n-cheese-friendly stuff, stick in the oven and wait.
What could happen?
Right. Let me paint a picture to illustrate the magnitude of my glorious catastrophe. Imagine a tasteless mess of mushy macaroni floating in a milky sea bobbing with clumps of separated cheese chunks. Now sprinkle on some half soggy, half crispy breadcrumbs and you’ve got the idea…
Is she really writing a cookbook?
What I love about that all-too-true story is that I was fearless. I’d never considered failure as an option and so I didn’t see it as one. We laughed and moved on. The defining aspect of that moment is that it didn’t define me as a lousy cook.
If I could make a meal that bad, then I knew I had in me the potential for something really good. After all, every action has an equal and opposite reaction…
A Happy Accident
I may not have bastardized any comfort food lately, but I can still make a damned good mistake. For instance, that last minute addition to a dinner party when I decided the menu had to include broccoli slaw (btw, there has to be a better name for this—I’m taking suggestions). Except of course, I had used the ingredients—the ones I “knew” I had—in other dishes. There was not so much as a drop of yogurt, the raisins had disappeared into thin air and every last slivered almond was spoken for.
So I made it up as I went along. My homemade mayonnaise (with a splash of apple cider vinegar and some sucanat) replaced the yogurt and I found water chestnuts were a delightful replacement for the crunch of the almonds. As far as those wayward raisins, I simply substituted dried cranberries. Voila! An accidental success!
Don’t let preconceived notions or a fear of failure keep you out of the kitchen. Have fun! Go wild! And remember, if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not cooking!
For this and other recipes, sign up for my newsletter, using the form on the right.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Definitely true. Some of our traditional family favorites got their start as make-do reicpes when something either didn’t work out or I was short on ingredients.
And, btw, love the new look to the blog!!
August 27th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Sounds like happy accidents lead to a great cookbook!
August 28th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Agreed! My fave way of cooking is experimenting. Of course some results are hits and some have to be misses. The misses work for “what not to do next time”.
The blog looks great Maia!
August 29th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Love the upbeat attitude and interesting real life examples. Great blog.
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I thought about your blog post when I was trying to pot roast a leg of lamb for the first time. It was a rainy day and I sent my husband to the store with a list.
The drama started when I realized the meat would not fit into my large oval LeCruset pot. With guests arriving in 3 hours, I did not want to go out in the rain back to the store to have them cut off a couple of inches off my roast so I got out my serrated bread knife and hacked at the bone. After what seemed to be forever, I made a deep notch in the bone, hit it with my hammer and the tip of the leg broke off and I was on my way again.
My daughter will probably always cut the end off the lamb thinking that it is part of the recipe – she will say “that’s what my mom always did!!!!”
A bit of an adventure and the meal was excellent!!! Thanks for the laugh!!!
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
That’s an awesome story, Andrea! One of the anecdotes that will no doubt be handed down for generations!