Read The Recipe

It's too bad there is no title given to moms who are famous for leaving out an ingredient (or two) when preparing a recipe. I would definitely be a finalist. What could that be called? Mrs. Always Something Forgotten? Mrs. Oops, Didn't See That? Mrs. Total Airhead?

Here's where I'm going with this ... on "my other blog at HSB" I posted, just a few days ago, about making a chocolate cake with my daughter. And if it weren't for her astute observation, I would have left out the sugar. O.k., it was funny at the time, we laughed and life went on. Tonight, I made a quiche, with bacon, Swiss cheese and broccoli. I decided to leave out the salt, on purpose, because I thought the bacon and Swiss cheese were salty enough. Well, I was wrong on that account so, lesson learned. Even so, my husband said the quiche was delicious - that is HIGH praise, folks! But later on, after dinner, my husband was just about to leave for work and was putting on his shoes near the door. I was standing there, looking at the quiche recipe. And I said, "Oh, I forgot the butter." He said nothing. Either he was silently shaking his head at yet another faux pas of his poor wife's cooking abilities or he just didn't hear me. Let's assume the latter, for my sake.

Before I sat down here, I got to thinking about just how often I do this. I either misread the measurement of an ingredient which sometimes results in a better outcome (but usually not), or I leave out an ingredient entirely. What's the problem? I don't know. And it concerns me. It's not age because I've done this for 20 years. I was young when I got married and first learned to cook from my dh. He sometimes makes fun of me because I usually stick so close to the recipe, I'm often afraid to wing it. And even if I do follow a recipe to the letter, the same recipe may not come out the same way, twice. Take my cornbread pursuit.

For years, I just made cornbread using the Jiffy brand mix. It's easy, it's always good, no problems. But when I started becoming a label-reader, I wanted to make a more healthy cornbread and began looking for recipes from scratch. I have tried several and I just can't get it right. There's one recipe for cornbread that I've made at least half a dozen times and it never comes out the same way. I don't know what the issue is. It perplexes my dh. That's not a surprise.

So every now and then, I buy the Jiffy mix just to save my sanity. What's a little lard, right?

Maybe I should just have my daughter read my recipes to me. She knew we needed the sugar in our chocolate cake and she didn't even read the recipe (she's not that good at reading yet!)

In the meantime, I'll muddle through. My family will be patient. And I'll look for a good sale on Jiffy mix!