My ambivalence about cooking strictly to a recipe & the occasional example of something from the Department of Irreproducible Results means that trying out new recipes sometimes involves an actual negotiation, i.e. “I promise to make it to the recipe the first time”, or “I will try and make it that way again if I can remember what it was I did”.

Add to the above (a situation in flux at best), there are recipes you try that just don’t work. And you really wanted them to work. It helps if you have willing subjects to try these things on. My cooking does require animal testing – on humans. The deal is they are allowed to decide if the result is not meant to be eaten.

So, I will admit in my goal of reading Julie and Julia before seeing the movie, that knowing in actuality there were still imperfect meals 143 pages in, is a tickle! And it doesn’t spoil my anticipation of seeing the movie soon knowing that not all of the gritty messy failures were clear!

Now if only I could quit telling my own dinner guests what near disaster happened hours earlier. These dear folks should be allowed some illusions – so maybe I should not point out that I was just making do with what I had on hand✴ or with what looked good/seasonal/possible? After all, perfection is so, so annoying.

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