Idea: Failure

I had an improv teacher who, whenever your scene went haywire, would have you exclaim, with utmost joy and enthusiasm, "I FAILED!". Sometimes, he'd have the whole class join in the celebration of failure. The point being, even if you fail there is something to gain.

I find this to be especially true when it comes to food. Cooking is about experimentation. You have a great idea, find a killer recipe, and you make it. Sadly, the flavors didn't come together as expected. It tastes like poop. We've all done it.

Once, when trying to impress a girl, I decided to make smoked pork chops. The brine tasted great. The smoke was wonderful. The chops had a deep mahogany color. When it came time to eat, they tasted like a salt lick and had the texture of plastic. Not so good. Unimpressed.

The picture above is corn, recently harvested from my garden. Corn, that is the size of a baseball. Ever seen corn the size of a baseball before? Probably not, because corn is meant to be a whole lot bigger. Your corn is also probably covered with rows of tasty kernels. My corn was not. Not at all. Well, I FAILED!

Life goes on. As it turns out, you have to grow a lot of corn for the ears to grow as they're meant to. Ten ears in an overturned shed is not enough. I put a lot of love into it, but it didn't work out. One day, I'll have my own field of dreams. For now, I'll take a third run on growing dragon carrots. Yup, failed twice on those, too! Maybe this time I'll get it right.

Everybody, all together now, with joy: I FAILED!