Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Oh well.

I tried a new recipe this weekend. 

Woo hoo, you may be saying.  Get the girl a medal.  Whatta risk!

Well, don't scoff.  I tend to stick to tried and true, and for good reason, as this latest experiment underscored.  Because frankly, m'dear, it sucked.  It's difficult to cling to "You have to try something new!" and "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," because honestly, one doesn't use those expressions when the experiment WORKS OUT.   There's no need for stressing the positive when your tummy is full of goodness and you're suffused in a rosy glow of yummy success.  "At least I took a risk" is thin gruel indeed at the table of the properly-cooked and well-seasoned fatted calf of Triumph.

Part of my dismay stems from the streak of perfectionism that I swear exists deep within my soul, though my housekeeping habits try hard to cloak any such tendency.  I don't like that it wasn't perfect.  I am chagrined that I chose the recipe, pictured it in my mind, and gave it enough credence to put forth the effort of making it.  I feel duped.  Or worse, ignorant and gullible.  Like this, this, ...perpetrator preyed on my weakness and took advantage of me.  Oooooh, cinnamon roll MUFFINS!  That's a good idea!  I won't have to work hard like I would with regular cinnamon rolls!  Perfect!  I should waste an hour of my time proving how good it is not to have to work as hard as I could! (said weakness being the streak of laziness that unfortunately is not nearly as well hidden as my streak of perfectionism, and indeed, rather bothers the streak of perfectionism every bit as much as the failure of aforementioned recipe). 

One saying that unfortunately is every bit as accurate as it sounds, is that there is no shortcut to success.  If a recipe that offers untold glories for very little input, well, you're just begging to be disappointed.  And chagrined.  And reluctant to tell anyon... oh wait a minute, nevermind on that one.  

So now I'm left pondering (because pondering is a sit-down task and requires very little cleanup afterwards, unlike the aforementioned cinnamon roll muffin disaster).  Do I analyze what could have been done differently with this recipe to make it work?  My mind probed this possibility all day.  "What if I had done _____.  Would that have helped?  Maybe I should have ____ the ____.  That surely would have made them better.  Then the Pride side of my personality stepped in with a "I can't take the humiliation of cooking slop TWICE" admonition so I contented myself with "just because you find a recipe on someone's blog and they claim it's the most wonderful thing they ever ate since the beginning of time and you went to the trouble to make it and it was the most disgusting experience of your children's lives does not make you a bad person routine and decided to leave well enough alone.

Until now.  Because I know that I won't be happy until I find some OTHER recipe on someone's blog that is the most wonderful thing known to mankind and easy besides! and make it and it IS the most wonderful thing known to mankind AND easy besides! and the dishes practically do themselves afterward...  but I'm not putting the recipe on my blog.  My supersecret streak of perfectionism can't handle the responsibility. 

Friday, April 2, 2010

Life Leveling

I was pretty darned proud of myself today.  I came out of Target, and I knew right where my car was.

Yeah, I know, it's sad when that's something to be proud of.  But I've wandered in a lot of parking lots, y'know?  And my pride was enhanced by the fact that a woman well my junior was obviously searching for HER vehicle (Going up and down aisles is much less obvious than cutting across from aisle to aisle, just so you know).  I felt very virtuous and special and superior.

And then I had a doozy of a hotflash, and suddenly everything was equal again, LOL. Ma Nature doesn't cut you much slack...