Lessons Learned

I worked hard all week reading recipes and brainstorming ideas to bring to life here on my blog. Last night, after a long day at work combined with an exhausting trip to the grocery store with my sons, I set to work creating the pie you see above: Pumpkin Bee Sting Pie. I also had a Banana Crunch Dessert on my agenda that I had planned to prepare this beautiful Saturday morning. But, I come to you now, dear readers, empty-handed and with my head hanging low.

When it comes to the shortcomings of the pumpkin pie, I'm consoling myself by saying that I should have trusted my baking instincts. I've never cooked this pie before, but reading over the list of ingredients, I found it strange that the only sweetness in this pie would come from a 1/2 cup of honey. I know honey is sweet, but can it carry the weight of two cups of bitter pumpkin puree? I'm here to tell you folks that it cannot! While the pie was gorgeous in the end, and I was so excited about posting my first pumpkin pie to the blog, I thought it might be nice to taste it first. Besides, I hadn't had anything to eat for breakfast and nothing says breakfast more than a big old hunk of pie. There was no sweetness whatsoever. In fact, it was downright bland and the sweet coconut on top couldn't save it. I could not, in good conscious, post it here.

So, I moved on to my second recipe, Banana Crunch Dessert, that I acquired at work this week. The "crunch" part was to be prepared first. It was a simple combination of chopped pecans, sugar, and an egg, baked until crunchy and then broken into pieces and sprinkled through a creamy banana mixture. I made my first mistake by completely overlooking the "spray the foil" part as I spread the mixture on my baking sheet and toasted it in the oven. I was still able to remove it from the foil and chop into pieces when it was done but the process would have been easier if I had read that tiny detail. Then, I tasted it and was not pleased. The edges were a little overbaked even though I followed the directions. I just couldn't waste the rest of the ingredients to complete the dish. Besides, I was down a banana anyway because my younger son ate one for a snack last night.

So, I have nothing for you this morning but my confessions. But, even though I'm disappointed in myself and my recipe selections for this weekend, I've got a ton of recipes still waiting to be prepared and will regroup soon. And, I've learned to trust my instincts while preparing dishes. So, just because a recipe is published in a public place, doesn't mean it's been tested and could still have some glitches. No, it's not just you; it's the recipe! Hope that makes some people feel better. I'm feeling inspired to start a topic called "recipe rescue". I've read many recipes that don't sound correct and need some tweaking. Maybe that is my mission in life: to save folks from wasting time and money on recipes that simply won't work!

Save the recipe - save the world! I'll keep you informed of my progress... Please console me by sharing your recipe disasters here.