Life of Wry

As in… I’m starting to develop a complex.

I’m not a great cook. I’ve learned a lot over the years, especially the last 4 years or so since I started cooking more, motivated during the pandemic to tackle The Great Recipe Project and literally sorting, selecting and trying hundreds of recipes. But I’ve still got so very much to learn.

Lately, I’ve really been messing up. I thoroughly screwed up the dressing on Thanksgiving, I blew the chocolate mousse for my Dining Divas dinner last weekend, and today I scored a 1 1/2 out of 4 on my dishes for our hiking group annual holiday gathering.

As I mentioned yesterday, I tend to try new recipes on guests, which is a gamble. I would guess, overall, I have a more or less decent record of cooking for guests, but again, lately, man… a ton of failures. [Hangs head.]

The plan for today was a midday gathering, but instead of doing a normal sort of lunch, I thought a whole bunch of heavy appetizers would be fun. I had a bunch of unopened cheeses from Thanksgiving that were still good, and our usual marcona almonds, and Jim’s guac. I had nice crackers and a fresh baguette. And then I wanted to try a baked feta cheese with honey. Susan offered to bring a salmon mousse which I thought was a great addition! All that could be munched as we stood around the kitchen with some wine, but then I thought we could sit down and have these other things I wanted to try: an Alsatian cheese tart with bacon and onions, some Brussels sprouts with garlic and that celery-apple-blue cheese salad I wrote about yesterday.. still in the app category, but easier to eat at the table.

Here’s what happened.

:: The baked feta was blah. Absolutely nothing special, lacked flavor, and toughened as the cheese cooled.

:: I’d only done one or two puff pastries before, so thought the Alsatian cheese tart would be a good one to add to the repertoire, but it was a total fail, inedible. The pastry never cooked through, not sure why. Wasted all that good stuff.

:: I’d never cooked Brussels sprouts before but have been loving them, so thought it was time to try a simple implementation. I had no idea they’d brown so quickly, so sorta burned them on the stove (the recipe didn’t address the length of time to brown them). They were then to go into the oven to bake through, which they did, but they were quite burned and a bit soggy, if you ask me. Edible, but only halfway acceptable.

:: That celery-apple-blue cheese salad was well received. So yay.

1 1/2 out of 4. Ugh.

Susan brought bread pudding which was excellent and Jim made peanut butter cookies, which were perfectly wonderful.

And, you know… it’s not just about the food. Right? But I’m a little embarrassed by all my debacles. Gonna need some food successes soon.

Def no pics today.