Adventures in cooking

Last night, I made the worst pot of chili in the history of chili. In fact, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to all chili for the monstrosity I created.

Now in my defense, I didn’t set out to blacken the name of potted dishes everywhere. I just wanted to make dinner. But sometimes I can’t help but experiment a little.

I’d blame The Food Channel for making me think I could add a dash of this and a dollop of that and have everything turn out as beautiful as it does when Giada DeLaurentiis decides to whip something up, but alas, I’ve been doing this for years. It’s fun to mix up the routine. I’m the person who likes to drive a different route home every day. I can’t stick to one brand of toothpaste. And recipes that you follow every time can get, well, boring.

Naturally, I married a guy who loves routine and planning.

He’s been known to loiter in the kitchen when I’m experimenting with cooking. “But the recipe is fine,” he’s been known to utter.

Silly man.

Of course it is fine, but maybe I can make it better. Or simply different. You don’t always want to have a predictable dinner. And a lot of the time it turns out really great.

“What did you do?” My husband has been known to gush.

“I took the road less traveled.” Which makes him groan just a bit because he knows he’s encouraging me.

Of course the experimenting can backfire, like it did last night. I could have taken predictable last night instead of the too-hot-yet-flavorless, couldn’t-even-save-it-with-a-mound-of-sour-cream-and-crackers monster. I did eat it, though. No sense wasting food.

Luckily for my husband, he was out at the basketball game. But I’m sure he’s going to be watching me close next time…

 

NOTE: For those of you playing the BookEnds 12 Days of Bookmas, today’s clue is: Crazy Horse.

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