Thursday, May 28, 2009

What is seems vs. what it is

One of my friends told me recently that they thought I was a great cook. Though I accept the compliment with pride I should put to rest this misconception!
For one, great cooking really is subjective I could whip up a fabulous tofu fajita dinner... if you like tofu!
For two, I ask myself all the time how it is my family hasn't started ordering in for dinner every night. I put them through so much experimenting and so many disclaimers. "Sorry, the tortillas are gummy I tried half chickpea flour this time", "WOW one too many cloves of garlic in the pesto", "okay before you try these, you need to know that I tried to substitute the oil in it with peanut butter".
Which leads me to my third point which is really a congratulations to you all for trying new recipes, branching out and taking the healthier road. The fact of the matter is that healthy cooking is harder than non-healthy cooking. - White flour making baking bread a breeze. It takes a lot of work and mistakes to use wheat flour or other substitutions. - Eggplant is a bland vegetable - Ten thousand ways to make beans still makes beans and not steak ... I could go on.
I commend all of your cooking skills for even attempting it! I post recipes that have been trustworthy but I don't want to give the impression that all my meals turn out to be glorious things. Last week I used some turnips in my recipe for beet salad and ruined the whole thing, the leftovers are still in the fridge as if someone might come along and eat them. I frequently serve pita bread without pockets in them, chickpea burgers that are falling apart and in no way resemble a burger, soggy pizzas, gummy muffins, boring stews, burnt fish, and super dense and short bread. My point is DON'T GIVE UP, and don't ever assume that what your doing isn't good enough or isn't as perfect as someone else, because it is an absolute fact that they are messing up too!

3 comments:

  1. I actually had an easier time baking wheat bread than white (I use the recipe on the king arthur brand's bag). I don't experiment quite that much lol but we are trying to eat healthier too.

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  2. Thank you for this post :) I actually thought that I was the only one that made unsuccessful meals from time to time

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  3. Pita bread without pockets and crumbly lentil burgers! That's a common occurrence around here. Ever since you gave us the tortilla recipe, we've been doing that instead. Same ingredients, different amounts, equally as delicious and looks the way "it should." It took 4 tried to get the whole wheat cinnamon raising bread right. As my dad...and every other dad...always said, "Practice makes perfect." I think my worst ever healthy food attempt was Moroccan carrot salad. BLEH!

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