Embrace your failures.

You know when you're cooking and you just know its not going to turn out right but you keep on going in the hope that you're gut feeling is wrong. I don't often fail in the kitchen past the point of no return but when I do I embrace it. A good fail now and then keeps things interesting. Fails can sometimes be the road to new recipes. The path to expertise is paved with failure in one form or another; one recipe attempt at a time. If I fail, I will practice that recipe or technique until I get it right. I will remake the cinnamon roll recipe into donuts again and know how to tweak it to achieve fluffy, pillowy treats. I will WILL the dough to be what I want it to be...just NOT today. I am getting ahead of my story, sorry. Read on.
This morning our ill child, Mia, (who has not eaten much of anything for days) could not be tempted with pancakes, waffles, coffee cake or muffins. What did she want? Donuts. Of course! Mia has been ill since last week but got hit hard this week when her cold decided to party and turn into an ear infection and granulated tonsils. Her slim frame cannot take the not eating thing and she has not been to school much of this week. So, when a sick kid wants donuts. Donuts the sick kid shall get!
Now, I mentioned she has been ill most of this week; most mothers will relate to what that means. That means no hair styling. No getting dressed in clothes you want to be seen in and leg shaving is optional. For me, I am currently living with two out of the three. I will let you guess which two... That said, rather than go to a donut shop (drive through our otherwise) I decided to make Mia donuts. The problem is that once we decided on what she would eat, Mia wanted them 15 minutes ago... In my hurry to create something from nothing, I failed. I decided to make donuts out of a recipe I NEVER once failed at. Honestly NOT ONCE! Not once that is until today of course.
The recipe is an In a Hurry Cinnamon Roll recipe given to me by a neighbor many years ago and it's a no-brainer, or so I thought. What a fiasco! The dough was tough. I should have just started over but remember, sick and thin kid is hungry and nagging me so I forged on. I knew I was in trouble but I am also an optimist and thought they would be ok in the end. I thought I could "will" them to be yummy. The would be donuts could not be willed into doing anything... I cut some of the dough into donut shapes (which went in the bin) and the rest of the dough I made into cinnamon rolls and fried them. Those we ate. Even the glaze I made failed... Despising waste of any kind, the Greek in me looked at the mess and waste and thought 'How can I save this?' The realist in me thought, 'Give up girl!' Mia got and enjoyed her donuts but I still owe her donut shop donuts...I guess I better find a hat and pants.