Not like the picture on the cover

One of the things I like to do is try new recipes. Call me daring, call me foolish, but there is something about being able to recreate what is on the front of a magazine that is thrilling. So I made the corn chowder from the front cover of the February 2008 Real Simple. First off, the chowder tasted and smelled really good. Even in leftovers a few days later, it was still pretty fabulous. However, mine didn't look like the cover of the magazine. Lucky for me I have developed a near reptilian hide about my cooking and don't NEED it to look like the cover of a magazine. But-- how many people try to replicate the recipes in a magazine and when it fails to look like the pictures feel like failures? Moreover, how many people give up trying recipes out of magazines because they don't have the perception of success when they try them. I think there will always be some of us die hard experimenters who love trying out new recipes and fearlessly inflict our cooking on our families and friends. But what about the countless thousands who give up trying?

I am not in any way bashing professional cooks and food stylists. They have an important job and I love both looking at and eating the meals cooked by the pros. My concern is, are we setting the bar too high for the average cook who just needs to get something on the table at the end of the day? Has food become such an obsession that if we cannot achieve perfection (as defined by the media) at our tables, we stop trying? That might be the secret goal here. Set the bar so high for the average cook that they stop trying and just go out. It would certainly support the restaurant industry!

As for me, I will keep trying in the kitchen to make miracles happen. Lucky for me I have an indulgent spouse who seems to like everything I make and a sharply critical kindergarten son who just hates everything. There is something to strive for in that gulf.

It's been awhile

Somehow the tyranny of the clock takes over and several months slide by without a post. Yikes! On the other hand, so much has happened, that I will give myself a pass this time around. As always, I am in the midst of tackling some software package. This time it's the Adobe Creative Suite for the Web. I am also up to my elbows in food and cooking projects because that's what I like to do too.

In "unpacking" the Adobe software, I am finding myself learning to love their online help. I confess that I had grown used to the sort of almost help that I often found around Microsoft products and their annoying Paper Clip. However with Adobe, they link you to actual videos on lynda.com that you can watch. I find myself mesmerized by the videos and being able to figure out how to do what I need to accomplish. So it is a win win for me.

In other news, I was poring over a copy of the latest Alice Water's book that I got for Christmas and actually drooled. Not that the book was so scintillating, but rather the whole act of food I think is pretty cool. More about that later... Time to get back to work.