Failure to Lunch

Well, it was bound to happen. I told myself I would blog about my triumphs AND my failures, and the time has come for the first publicized failure. Don't be fooled by my excellent (though amateurish) color correcting skills, the food in that photo was highly unappetizing. The truly unfortunate part is that I've made the recipe countless times, and happens to be one of my favorites that I can make with my eyes closed. But for some odd reason, this time I told myself I'd make it exactly as the recipe said. None of my shortcuts or substitutions, just straight-up, step by step direction following. What. A. Bad. Idea.

I'd been trying to make this French style liver dish all week to no avail, and finally I decided to make it and stick exactly to the recipe in the book. Naturally, I started out on course and soon veered and lost my way. I changed the onion part of the recipe (I made an onion confit instead of carmelized onions) but followed the recipe to the letter otherwise. That led to an overly sweet reduced sauce and overcooked chicken livers. And believe me, nothing in the world is worse than an overcooked liver of any kind. The salad wasn't bad, although I must admit...I veered there as well. What can I say, I'm not crazy about radishes. So...I replaced them with prosciutto. I know, it's shameful that I would avoid so many close encounters of the veggie kind, but it's just a phase. I'll move on to a new form of pork soon...I promise...*fingers crossed*.

I'm not quite sure what I've learned from this. Should I not try and stick to a recipe? Should I always stick to it? Or maybe, if I say I'm going to do something 100%, I shouldn't switch it up in the middle? Either way, it seems I've lost my appetite for this dish, so I suppose it'll be a while before I make it again. Too bad I still have half the container of liver left, perhaps this means I'll make some chopped liver? Who knows. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I did not eat the lousy dish. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich :)

-Laura