Cooking for Ravens

Arthur Rackham - Who Has been eating off my plate ?

I made a totally disgusting dinner last night. It took hours, and it all seemed so promising while I was making it. But sadly, very disappointingly, the final result was just... yuck. It happens. It's okay. It's actually even a good thing, once I get over the humiliation. I mean, I'm supposed to be a pretty good cook, so how could I come up with something so completely inedible? Well, I could, and I did, and I'll probably do it again.

In my other life as a beadmaker, I've often told friends who are new to the torch to, Make Ugly Beads. Of course they look at me like I'm crazy. But then I explain that if they aren't making ugly beads from time to time, they aren't stretching themselves, they aren't risking, learning, creating. If all we ever make is Beautiful Perfect Stuff, we're just playing it safe, and that can get boring pretty quickly.

It's the same with food. My new motto has to be, Make Ugly Food, I guess, even though I really don't want to. There's more at stake here - like dinner, for instance. We had popcorn last night, which Rick made, after taking the Horrible Glop out to the yard for the ravens to eat, because I was just too deflated to make anything else. I pouted and picked on myself and seriously wondered what in the hell I'm doing, pretending to tell people how to cook. I felt like a fraud, a failure, and I went to bed not caring if I ever cooked another meal or posted another blog again.

Thank God for sleep. This morning I feel better. I can see the humor in my failed culinary experiment. And best of all, I can see the value in it. So it didn't work. So what? So I don't have a recipe to share with you today. So what? The world won't end, and I learned a few things. I'll try it again. I'll do it differently. And I realize it's totally okay to cook for the ravens now and then. They're a great crowd to feed. They'll eat anything, they're entertaining, and they're always grateful for a home cooked meal, no matter how bad it is. If I ever open another restaurant, I think I'll call it The Raven's Table. I really do appreciate these guys.