It is always such a letdown when I am disappointed by a recipe. And I don’t mean mildly disappointed by those various hitches & setbacks that nearly always emerge during baking projects (I’ve actually developed a pledge I recite before each venture — “I, Elaine, accept that: snags are inevitable, it is unreasonable to expect perfection on first attempts, and I am my own worst critic. Therefore, I will: be flexible, treat every endeavor as a learning process, and remember — most of all! — to enjoy myself. Because that is why I do it; that is why I bake.”); I mean flat out, I-don’t-know-if-I-can-eat-this-anymore disappointed.

It kills me a little when it happens. Because I hate wasting ingredients. Because if I don’t want to eat it, I sure-as-heck don’t want to feed it to others. Especially because I am rather meticulous about choosing recipes to begin with; it is not unusual for me to bookmark 4-5 variations of a single recipe for comparison, or for me to read quite extensively about the history/context of the food item beforehand.

Sigh. To be fair, there are many points along the way which I could have irrevocably erred while constructing my gâteau au yaourt, but it is alright now; I am moving on. I am letting go. New day, new recipe, new start.

A new dilemma, too, I might (oh-so-cheekily) add. I have yet to decide how many liberties I want to take this time around with my second attempt at gâteau au yaourt. Most notably, I can’t make up my mind as to whether or not to add blackberries again. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

I suspect that, either way, I will still end up picking blackberries; I’ve found it’s a fairly enjoyable experience, even if I am a bit scatter-brained regarding the matter. Case in point: the first time around, I wandered about my neighborhood to peruse where blackberry bushes were growing. I spotted a promising bush and was ready to get down to berry-picking business until I paused and surveyed what I was wearing: a white tee, jeans, and flip flops. Thus, I promptly went home and changed into a dark, long-sleeved jacket and tennis shoes. Pffft, silly me, haha.

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[Image courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/threelayercake/1019242393/in/photostream]