I am not a bad cook. But tonight, I totally sucked.  I would never just “blurt” this our on Facebook or anything like that.  But since there are just a few hundred people who read this Project 16010… I thought I would be totally honest and forthcoming.

The fact of the matter is, I do not like to follow recipes. Maybe because someone else is telling me what to do…. and I am a stubborn bull.

Most of the times, I am very creative with food, and as such….. I can whip up a pretty tasty dish here and there. But sometimes….. yes… sometimes… I let things get a little out of hand. Such was the case tonight.

My first mistake was pulling leftover Thanksgiving turkey out of the freezer to “use it up”….

The sauce I concocted for it was actually pretty tasty, I thought. But you couldn’t really get past the stale taste and tough consistency of the thawed out turkey….. now…. twice baked.

Warning. Don’t try this at home kids.

My second mistake was the level of creative license I took with the “rice bed” that it would rest on. Just don’t ask. Really. I’ve consumed paste from the plastic jars in the Kindergarten classroom which has tasted better.

Finally. The meal was rounded out with steamed broccoli. I’m not a total idiot. I got that right.

So I asked Mary what she thought as we ate dinner, hoping to get some semblance of approval. The smallest nod would have made me feel better. But. Without missing a beat, she remarked quickly. “This is awful. It is really pretty bad.”  Simply the brutal, cold, hard truth.

And there you have it.

But have no fear.   I will not be deterred. As the old saying goes… “Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.” Yeppers. Tomorrow is another day, and once again, I will be cooking on the front burner. I will waltz around the kitchen…. and from time to time… shout out… “NOW we’re cooking with Crisco.” For better, or for worse.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson