Theory and Practice

It seems like there are a lot of things that work much better in theory than in practice. A lot of times when I see a really cool shirt in a store, it doesn't look nearly as good on me as it did on the rack.

Another example -- dinner last night. I had gotten a recipe for stuffed & baked artichokes from Andronicos, a local grocery store. Given that artichokes are readily available and fresh here, and they're something I've never really used in cooking (other than serving them boiled w/ butter for one meal when Panda chan was here), I thought I'd give it a try, remembering the delicious stuffed artichokes my mom used to make when I was a kid.

Well, not only was it a lot more work than I had anticipated (how DO you do it, mom?), but it didn't taste quite as good as I remembered. For some reason, the stuffing was really loose; more like sprinkles, than stuffing. Oh well.

Theory-gone-awry # 2: The other day, when shopping at my favorite culinary institution, the Berkeley Bowl, I came across a set for homemade salsa in the vegetable area. Not only did it seem like a really cool idea, but it seemed like the perfect excuse to use my new Cuisinart.


Once again, theory and practice collided. Violently. Instead of being beautiful, fresh salsa, I ended up with a kind of watery salsa-esque mush.

Now, admittedly, it's probably more my fault for not being really familiar with my cuisinart, yet. And it doesn't exactly taste bad. But it definitely didn't live up to my expectations.

On the upside, I'm cooking and experimenting, instead of just heating up boxed stuff (although, I'm doing my fair share of that, too).

Tonight's menu? The one leftover artichoke and TBD.