Just when I start to think that someday I’ll be a good enough cook to be a personal chef in LA, I have a huge recipe failure and I’m swiftly brought back to my Minneapolis (and winter) reality.
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Take the sun-dried tomato & mushroom alfredo I made recently. It wasn’t horrible, but it made me want to add mushroom ravioli to the menu the next week just so I could redeem myself. I thought I was being creative and heath conscious as well as finally getting around to using the Hoosier Mushrooms from Lori and the Buitoni Ravioli I received as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. It was all going perfect in my mind – a nutritionist-ed alfredo sauce made with ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes and dried mushrooms over mushroom ravioli…
But when I tasted the sauce it needed something. So we added some 1/2 & 1/2, a few more spices and it tasted ok. I should have just given up then. Nixing the whole sauce idea all together would have been a good decision. But it was a decision I didn’t make and so mushroom ravioli with sun-dried tomato & mushroom alfredo it was.
When I tried the ravioli plain, I realized that it didn’t need ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes or more mushrooms. It would have been perfect with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh parmesan cheese.
So I picked up some more Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, this time knowing it needed nothing but a sprinkling of cheese. And it was delicious with just that.
Sigh. I guess part of being a good cook is knowing when to leave good things alone – something I’ll be working on.
I hate recipe fails, but it happens to all of us. Let’s hope that these fails happen when we are cooking for ourselves and not for others. Last Sunday I cooked for my family and my food processor broke out of no where, it left me improvising everything I needed it for and half of the food were fails and half worked. So frustrating!
Oh no! My mom has always told me that you should always try a recipe before you serve it to guests. (something I don’t always do!! Shhh!)
Emily http://www.anutritionisteats.com
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I think the fails help us get more creative in the kitchen!
Good point!!
Emily http://www.anutritionisteats.com
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You know, I think there’s a lot of areas in life when knowing to leave things alone comes in handy. Unfortunately I’ve yet to learn that skill…but today I was contemplating a few things and I think your post was my message loud and clear to just leave things lie and not make more of a mess.
I’ve had my share of recipe fails… buts its all good! It’s like life… we learn from our mistakes
Gosh, even your fail looks good to me. I think some things are just not made to be dietitian-ized.
That probably was the main problem!!!
Emily http://www.anutritionisteats.com
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Even the best cooks need to go through some recipe failures in order to improve oneself, so don’t be disheartened! Have you watched Top Chef? Haha!
i hate recipe fails. however, i am so like you – they always make me want to get in the kitchen to redeem myself. ya live, ya learn and ya keep on eating, right?
i WILL be in town this weekend – i will e-mail you with some deets!!!
things are often failing in my kitchen…but i still love eating them.
i hate recipe fails! i feel like such a tool and then curse the money i wasted. it just makes me more determined to nail it next time