Not everything is yummy.

When I was a little (AHEMuntilIwascollegeagedAHEM), I had a reputation amongst many people (AHEMmyfamilyAHEM) of being bad in the kitchen. I don't blame them. I burned everything and never really took any interest in the process. Plus, in High School, I became a vegetarian and mostly responsible for my own meals. From High School came the University Dining Hall (good ole' inedible Brower). From the Dining Hall came whatever I could make successfully in my microwave.

I never really thought I'd be someone that cooked, especially not good food, and especially not for pleasure.

However, when I started dating Mike, I realized quickly that I wanted that to change that. This was because he loved cooking but also because we generally think of different things to cook. While I love Mike's cooking, he is essentially a bunny (see picture to the right for him in his natural habitat). Raw veggies are number one in his book, while I didn't eat kale until I was 20.

One thing that has always been hardest for me was dealing with the recipes that just didn't go right. I hate wasting food, I hate trying new things and them not working, and I really hate having to make a second dinner when the first one is not edible. It has been awhile since something we made was inedible, but our dinner last night was definitely not a success.

I love the website Smitten Kitchen and have used their recipes with much success in the past. We decided to try a simple recipe on the site, Spaghetti with Cheese and Pepper. It is hard to tell where things went off the rails.

Maybe it was the extra cup of liquid Mike added by accident, or we left the pasta boil too long.

Maybe it was that I didn't mix it quick enough when adding the cheese, or I didn't add enough pepper.

Maybe it was the fact that the fake meat we used to make meatballs on the side was weird and inedible, or that we used whole wheat pasta (that is not my favorite).

Overall, what sounded yummy came out as pretty bland. Edible, but not something that you want to eat.

But the point of this post is not to complain about our kitchen failure. Kitchen failures are key to learning how to navigate within a kitchen. The pancakes that turned out like hockey pucks (bad flour choice), the bread that didn't rise correctly (poor interior temperature), the beans that turned out chalky (sub-par ingredients); all of these disasters led to both of us being more confident and battle-worn cooks.

It doesn't make me want to stop cooking, but rather try the recipe again and see if I can make it work.

So if I can pass on two lessons, they are:
1) Even if my mac and cheese is, humans are not perfect.
2) Not everything is yummy.

Food is just trial and error. Sometimes you need a little flour in your hair, egg on your face, and burnt dish in the sink to realize that you really like it in the kitchen.

Even if it is messy.