When Failure is Success in Disguise

Hello! How are you today? I hope it’s spring where ever you are – our local weather teased us with some warmth, then threw a curveball in the form of a little snow storm last week. At least it’s starting to melt, and we can see the grass again!

So, let’s get right to it! One of the things I love about trying new recipes is the fact that sometimes, nothing goes quite right; it’s those times where I get creative and come up with something even better than planned. This past weekend, I tried to make coney sauce for the 5,000 hot dogs I bought at Costco (yes, I went when I was hungry, and no, that’s not a good idea). I thought I would play around with the recipe a little by using half ground beef and half ground bison…no special reason, really, except that the two packages were on display next to each other at the store and it seemed like a good idea. Of course, when we got home I realized I didn’t have all the spices I needed, but figured it was no big deal since I have a pantry full of options.

Turns out it is a big deal! I used the chipotle chile powder instead of regular chili powder (apparently there’s a difference, according to Alton Brown), and fudged some other spices to make up for what I was missing, and it was SPICY! I like a little heat in my food, but only to a certain point; I like to enjoy a meal, not suffer through it. Anyway, I tried to adjust the heat level by taking out a lot of the … I don’t know … broth, I guess, and adding in more water to make up the difference, but it was still crazy hot. So what’s a girl to do? Well, my solution was to add another teaspoon of cinnamon and a few hearty pinches of – wait for iiiit – sugar (I like to use Sugar in the Raw…it reminds me of Europe). That definitely helped the heat factor, and so did the can of tomatoes Ben suggested I throw in to dilute the spice.

The end product was this big simmering pot of meat and juice and onions and canned tomatoes. Sure doesn’t sound like the coney sauce I know and love! However, it was still delicious, so we threw it on some dogs and went to town. It didn’t end up being the meal I expected, but it was still good (and taught me what to do next time!). So where’s the happy ending? Well it’s right here: it didn’t make a very good coney sauce, but it was an AMAZING chili. As it sat in the refrigerator overnight, everything came together and had a little flavor party that wrapped up just in time for dinner. We added some shredded cheddar, a little salsa and sour cream, and enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than we had when it adorned a hot dog. Yum.

But back to the night I was making what I thought was coney sauce…I was being adventurous, so I tried another new recipe (this came out of my cast iron cookbook) for dessert. It’s called Sauteed Bananas in Rum, and involved butter, rum, brown sugar, bananas and ice cream. It’s really easy to burn make – you basically make a rum-caramel sauce in the skillet, add the bananas and cook quickly, then serve it over ice cream. It didn’t take very long, and even though the house smelled like burnt sugar all night, Ben said he loved it. :) I keep him around for a reason.

That’s about it for now – I’ll keep trying to find new things to make (and the time to make them!), but might take a couple days’ break right about now. I was lopping off a hunk of bread dough with a serrated knife so we could have crusty bread with dinner tonight, and cut through the tip of a nail into the nail bed. This is after I nicked myself twice while chopping onions for that ridiculous chili…

Take care, and be safe (especially when using sharp kitchen utensils)!