One of the most difficult things about liking to cook is being your own worst critic. I’m a bit of a perfectionist in most things I do and cooking certainly isn’t an exception. I want things to come out “just so” and I hate when a recipe fails but even more when something I make is sort of “meh”. Case in point the chocolate squash brownies I tried. They weren’t a terrible inedible failure. However, they weren’t awesome either which made me a bit frustrated.
To avoid having failures I try to make sure I don’t choose recipes that stretch my skills too much. This has kept me from serious failure. It doesn’t keep me from stumbling on and making recipes that just aren’t tasty. I try to read reviews to see if there is anything about the recipe that I won’t like. However, I’m not always successful.
This presents a problem when I make something that is “meh”. My parents taught me “waste not want not”. At the same time, I REALLY don’t want to spend my daily calories on something that just isn’t tasty. I like to eat and I have to workout and practice self-control to stay in shape. So “meh” recipes are a conundrum from me. Nasty stuff is so much easier. If I really don’t like something it goes in the trash as a failure.
So I often find myself obsessing about making sure the thing comes out “just so”. I suppose it is something I just have to deal with. I don’t want to stop experimenting because I find nifty things. So maybe the solution is to just be prissy and pitch the “meh” results?