THERE ARE FOOD DISASTERS AND THEN THERE ARE FOOD DISASTERS

This was the beginning stages of what could and should have been a beautiful serving of black eyed pea croquettes. I felt inspired Sunday to roll up my sleeves and keep trying recipes out of The Kind Diet and gosh darn it- I didn't even come close to forming those perfect little fried nuggets.

I have never claimed to be good in the kitchen- in fact I didn't actually start 'real' cooking until a little over a year ago. And I would never trust myself to create my own recipe- how does one even make one?! The idea of blending flavors and creating correct measurements is beyond my simple cooking minds capacity. But I digress.

So anyway, when I started to fry these croquettes, and they started disintegrating in the pan and the whole apartment started to smell like burned ... well, burned croquettes- my inspiration faltered. My excitement turned into a little gray cloud over my head and I half heartily dumped what was left of the mixture to try one last time.

It still failed. So then my thoughts go naturally to how much money I wasted, how bad the kitchen now smelled, and why oh why is it so hard to fry some freakin' beans?!

Tell me I am not the only one to have a kitchen meltdown over something so trivial as a new recipe?

I think the universe was testing me this weekend. We had just committed to positive thinking and cooking is one of the skills I have struggled with the most but so want to conquer and do well with. And here I was, letting my whole attitude deflate and start in on all the negative thoughts.

It wasn't easy to turn that frown upside down but I mustered up enough mind control to start problem solving for the next time and to not beat myself up for not knowing how to do something that I had never tried before. That's just silly. Lesson learned? Figure out how to properly fry something before you start dumping things into hot oil (insert cheesy grin emoticon here).

So have heart my culinary skill lacking friends, when it all goes a-muck, cut yourself some slack. Learn from the experience and don't let it discourage you or rob you of inspiration. Behind every one of my recipe reviews there are at least one or two fails, and though I get frustrated I like to think I am just going to keep getting better despite it all ;)

Happy Cooking ♥