A poor workman blames his tools.

I’ve heard this saying most of my life, knowing that if something goes wrong — it’s you and not the stupid hammer!

When we sold the house on Bowen we had some extra money. I spent some of it on kitchen appliances. I really want to learn to cook. And, one day, I’d like to figure out this feed yourself and others thing.

So, I spent a wad. Our kitchen is scookum.

I have every possible kitchen gadget a cook could ask for! A super blender, food processor, cool cookware, baking dishes, measuring cups, and a variety of cutting, chopping, and mixing thingys.

I have a shelf full of cook books, a pantry full of ingredients, and a habit of eating everyday. I have every reason to create a meal every once in a while.

The B&B we will cover next May, (have you made your reservations yet?) has also given me reason to figure out some fancy breakfast ideas.

I’m trying, and I admit, somethings I’ve made do not suck!

Still, since we got back from New Mexico last month, somethings have not turned out so well, and I can’t figure out why.

I follow the recipe, put all the ingredients together, have the right pans, and yet, when I pull stuff out of the oven…. Well, things are not what I’m promised or expecting.

Everything seems to be under cooked or not set, or uhm… a bit yucky. This is opposite of me setting off the smoke detector with the “if it’s smoking, it’s cooking, if it’s burning it’s done,” motto I’ve held so long.

Last night, not wanting to make a big deal, I got a frozen pizza from the store. How hard is that? I added extra toppings, put it in the oven, set the timer, and made a salad.
Perfect cooking skills!

When the timer went off, I went to pull the pizza out — it was a soggy mess of dough and luke warm cheese. WTF??

Oh yeah! Now I remember… the day before we left on our road trip, the oven element blew! (How could I forget that fire bomb?)

Our oven is broken! It’s not me! It’s my tools!

My Grandma used to say, you should only feel guilty if you are.

I’m not the culprit here!