Then, as I began to knit, I noticed that it continued to occur in my work. I just couldn't pull off perfect.
Last night I announced to my Twitter and Facebook friends that I had managed to put red food coloring in my chocolate chip bars. I'd reached into a drawer, pulled out what I thought was the bottle of vanilla and about the time I was pouring the teaspoonful into the batter, I realized that something didn't look right. It was red.
My poor brain seized up. Too many questions began flying through in a split second. Do I throw out the batter? These are supposed to be a thank you gift for a young man that had changed the belt on our mower here. Would he get it? Where is my vanilla? I should probably ensure that is in here as well, right? How weird is this going to look once I put the chocolate chips in?
Within a moment I had come to the conclusion that I could just move forward, add the vanilla and chalk it up to creativity! Which is generally what I try to do with a mistake.
There have been many times when I couldn't cover my errors with a good story. Substituting salt for sugar will not make anything taste good. Wow, once long ago, Carol and I had brought some friends up here to the cabin. This would have been within a few years after mom died and Dad wasn't living close enough to spend a lot of time here.
I volunteered to make breakfast - I make a killer sausage gravy. So, I started working away at the stove, adding spices, etc. that I found in the cupboard. When I tasted it, I couldn't understand what in the world was wrong! It was awful. Then I started looking at the spices - mom had purchased them years and years previously ... oh, they were really, really bad. A lesson I had to learn the hard way about keeping those things fresh.
As I just now pulled a loaf of sourdough bread out of the machine to rise and place in the oven, I think about the terrible loaves I made a couple of weeks ago as I tried to understand how this entire process worked. The mistakes tasted fine out of the oven, but soon became much too dense to eat.
Oh, and don't forget the meatloaf I tried to make. Would you believe this girl makes terrible meatloaf? I'm a great cook - and I fail at this miserably. Well, I did. I haven't had the courage to try again. The first time I tried to make it, I was just out of college. I browned the hamburger. Uh huh ... that went well. Then, I made it for Max. I pulled it out of the oven, turned it on to a plate and as it hit the plate, the sound wasn't quite 'squishy' enough. In fact, the thing was as hard as a hockey puck. Max ended up tossing it out the back door for the raccoons and when it hit the ground, it didn't break apart, it bounced.
Sometimes the mistakes I make bring something fun - like Red Velvet Chocolate Chip cookies. Other times, they are a meatloaf that bounces in the back yard.
I like the fact, though that these mistakes mean that I keep trying new things. Sometimes I have an incredibly large learning curve to get through ... but, it really is fun to learn!
Oh - and aren't these lovely Red Velvet Chocolate Chip cookies?
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