Another Day Another Dinner

Lately I have been striking out in the kitchen. I've been trying to learn how to cook and as the stereotypical beginner I have been presenting my husband with a variety dishes that have all the makings of good food, but have gone seriously awry. At first everything came out burned, and now I seem to have swung the other way as if raw were the new black.

It is frustrating to waste time and ingredients and get such sad results. Today, for example, I made a meatloaf that had the consistency of oatmeal.

I also attempted to make a dessert that was supposed to look like this...

But turned out more like this...


Let's be honest. If this was a potluck would you take some of that?

You'd be smart not to because in addition to having the blueberries explode out the back end, the top was nice and the bottom was completely raw dough.

Jill's first try of this same recipe looked almost as bad, but I heard that it tasted fantastic.





I shouldn't complain though because Brandon cheerfully eats whatever it is, no matter how over or under done. He ate the mashed potatoes that I made that had more garlic than anyone would need to keep vampires away for eternity.
He eats it no matter what it looks like, and sometimes he'll even go back for seconds.

I usually claim to be a victim in situations like this, but tonight while I was doing the dishes I glanced at the oven and realized that it had been set at 300 the whole time when the recipe called for 350. I guess that I should be glad that our oven usually burns things because otherwise things could have been even worse.

Oh well, I guess I can try again tomorrow. Or, we could try that Mexican restaurant, El Pato Verde, on 13th Street. I bet that they know how to set their ovens.