I thought I was doing so well, because… while getting dinner ready on Sunday night… I thought I’d get a couple of other things ready for the week ahead.
One was making bread with our bread maker. And my wife’s been enjoying home-made yogurt lately… so I set up the yogurt-maker too.
Dinner was a very simple affair. Involving fish fillets, mashed potato, and mixed veges. But enjoyed by all.
And if I say so myself… my well-seasoned, butter-laden mashed potato is to DIE FOR!
So… mission accomplished on that front.
The bread needed hours to cook. And the yogurt had to sit overnight.
Next morning, I stumble out to the kitchen to catch Vicki before she leaves for work.
And she’s like, “Uhh, what happened to the bread?”
“What? What’s up?”
“Look!”
She pulls out a brick from the bread maker.
Hmmm.
One thing it had going for it was the shape. I kinda like the denser, rectangular pieces over the usual tall, arched ones…
But yes… it WASN’T the bread that should have come out.
I ran through the recipe in my mind. What was it? I followed EVERY step.
Vicki suggested it was too much butter. But I’ve done random-sized chunks of butter in the past. And not had this problem.
With our two heads together… we soon managed to figure out that I’d NOT remembered the bread recipe quite right.
It wasn’t quantities… but was in fact the water temperature I melted the butter in.
It’s supposed to be warm to the skin.
Instead I was thinking…
“Butter must be melted with the blast of a Balrog’s breath.”
(For the non-Tolkien fans, that means… DAMN HOT!)
I’d used boiling water from the electric kettle.
And that poor yeast! I must have murdered most of it! š¢
As we know… no yeast… no light and fluffy bread.
And then there was the yogurt.
Fortunately, Vicki was in a rush and didn’t grab any for herself on Monday morning.
Which is just as well. Because…
Yogurt ISN’T meant to slosh and splash around.
As I mentally walked back through the steps (dĆ©jĆ vu, anyone?)… the conclusion I came to was…
While cooking dinner… and trying to be a superman in the kitchen… and at the end of a rather tiring weekend too…
I thought I’d boiled the water for the yogurt maker.
But it must have been stone-cold.
Yogurt bacteria prefer to party in warmer climates.
So it was milky slosh.
Failures?
Perhaps… in that I didn’t achieve the goals I intended…
Of having light and fluffy bread.
Or actually human-consumable yogurt.
Like… how you could call it a “failure” if you sent a sales email that generated no sales.
Or very few opens and clicks.
Or you even get hate mail about it!
But in my book…
It’s NO failure…
If it bequeaths you a story to tell.
Or a lesson learned.
Or… most precious of all… another email to write.
One that connects with people about everyday things we all kinda stumble into from time to time.
Like… ahh… bread and yogurt-making mishaps.
And hey… that bread toasts pretty well, y’know?
Plus, another overnight session in the yogurt maker… with ACTUAL boiling water… sorted the yogurt-flavored soup out.
The goal (of sorts) was reached… maybe a bit misshapen and delayed…
But still worth smiling about š
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Chris Milham