Lesson today, Kids.

So. I'm pretty sure you're aware, but I'm going to explain this lesson anyway.

When you're little and you try doing something that only "grown-ups" do or when you're first trying something you've never done before, you're cautious. You double-check things. You always make sure it's safe. If it's a nw recipe, you're constantly rechecking the ingredients. "Was it two cups? Yeah. It's two cups. Wait. Two cups, right? Okay. And now... I have two cups in... yes. That's right." But then you start repeating your recipes or whatever else you're doing and you become confident. Which is good. But then.. you become overconfident. You become cocky. And that's when you screw up.

Now, this isn't meant to demotivate you. But to make sure you're aware. No matter how invincible you think you are, how smart you think you are, how great you think you are, you're going to mess up at some point. Maybe you're exceptional in English.. and you fail your mid-term. Or.. you're absolutely fantastic at baking.. and your cake doesn't rise. Or.. you've burnt yourself whilst cooking so few times that you think you're just that much more careful than everyone else. And then, like me, you burn yourself three times in as many weeks. Yes. Three times. The first was on the side of my right hand at the base of my index finger on the oven wall. What's odd is that the oven was to my right. So I don't even know how I did that. The second time I was making jambalaya.. which I didn't get a picture of. I ate it all before I remembered. I tilted the pan to move the oil and butter and grease around. And it worked. But I also moved the chicken, it slammed against the wall of the pot which sent up a big splash of hot grease which landed right on my hand. Nowhere else. And the third time, I was taking a pizza out of the oven, but had failed to open the oven door all the way because, well, I never open it all the way. I misjudged the distance between the door and my hand and SSSSS. I have my own mood tattoo. The burn changes colour depending upon how hot my hand is.

So I've been making mistakes and it has made me realise no matter how good I think I am.. I'm going to mess up at times. Even the jambalaya got messed up. It burned. Yeah. Just a bit. But it burned. The resulting jambalaya was quite good, though. Seriously. It had this slight smoky flavour that wouldn't have been present otherwise. I'll likely never be able to get that same flavour again, but it worked to my advantage.

The next time you mess up that cake, or your lemon mousse you spent hours making separates overnight, or your essay that you simply adored gets a "C," don't fret. Take the unrisen cake and fill it with big layers of mousse to take the attention away from the thin cake and give it height. Mix the separated mousse together and call it "Lemon soup." It tastes just as good, it's just not a mousse, so label it differently. Your guests question the change in dessert when you said you were having mousse and you wind up with soup? "This recipe sounded niftier." Or you know.. whatever word you fancy. I fancy "nifty" and "neat." I've also taken a fancy to "the bee's knees." Your essay got a C? That's a bit trickier. You can't quite take that back. But you can always talk to your teacher and ask what was wrong with it so you can find out what to fix next time. Was your conclusion weak? Your body empty? Something wasn't strong enough, but if you know what your weakness is, you can strengthen it. If you don't know what's wrong, you'll spend too much time trying to fix something that isn't broken. Your teacher obviously knows what is wrong. But you're still okay. You can fix it and come out with something even better.

Most of the time, these screw-ups aren't so bad. Just like my burns. You burn yourself, sure, it hurts. Screwing something up is going to be a big blow to your ego. But if you dwell on it and leave your food alone or all the stuff around you alone while you pity one tiny mistake, it's going to hurt yourself more in the long run. If you just continue on, the burn doesn't seem so bad. And within just a few days, it's not so much of a problem, it's just a minor irritant. Nothing that won't be gone in just a few more days.

So go make your mistakes. I'm off to make brownies and burn myself again most likely. Eh. That's life.