My favorite parts of life are the messy bits, the instances and circumstances where things seem to fall apart. Don’t get me wrong, I can get madder than a wet hen when plans change or things literally fall apart, but I mostly try to step back and just let it ride. These are usually the times that bring the most joy and laughter when the story is retold. And this is where I think life is truly lived; in the mistakes, the mishaps, the happy accidents, the “oh no’s,” the “why me’s,” and the “what do we do now’s?” These are the moments where we find our grit or our funny, our ease or our discomfort, our cowardice or our strength. These are the times when we find out who we are. And so with cooking, as with life, there are plenty of missteps and wrong turns- plenty of chances to “find yourself.” And so, I present to you: The Outtakes.
It only took my 37 years to be photobombed. And my dog did it. That’s Maddy in the upper left corner looking for a lick. This whole “my mom puts food on a table and steps back from it to photograph it” is a my great opportunity. “I shall sieze it, she says.” And she does.
I will grant you that this does look delicious. And it was, but it was a fail. A capitol FAIL. I had read about another food blogger trying to invent a hot caprese dip. I immediately thought that I could do that. Turns out, no. I may retry one day, but this was only slightly rescued by the hard as nails (another fail) croutons that I rimmed the dish with in order to soak up the liquid that the tomatoes gave as they cooked and did not mix with the melted cheese (and soften the hard as rocks failed croutons). See, humor, mistakes happen. And are welcomed.
They may look delicious, but this was a kitchen disaster. Chocolate is difficult to get perfect and yet I’ve made chocolate dipped things with ease before. I thought this would be a breeze. It was not. My vision was white chocolate dipped strawberries drizzled with balsamic reduction and dark chocolate. What I got was pools of white chocolate falling off the strawberries and a seized dark chocolate/ balsamic concoction. I still think the flavors would work. I know they would. I just need to learn melted chocolate and honestly, I’m not doing that anytime soon.