I’m Not Perfect – And No One Is…

Yesterday, I felt sick, was in a very bad mood and was trying to get my damn dough to rise.  Seriously.  I know in the scheme of things, dough not rising is extremely trivial.  But, I was determined.  My first  dough ball went in the garbage.  Then I thought it must be my yeast so I set about proofing it to make sure it work.  This included getting out a cooking thermometer, reducing sugar, and generally annoying everyone by my insistence on pressing on with the task at hand.  I tried to proof that damn yeast five times.  Finally, I reduced the sugar and it worked.  Only to not have my dough rise again.  I made the sweet buns anyway (see the raw version above) and they were edible, but definitely not pillowy soft.  And I had most certainly failed.

It got me thinking about perception and reality.  I don’t think food bloggers, or any bloggers, or any magazines generally publish their failures.  It provides this picture that everything works out all the time.  Some blogs are more honest than others, for sure, but I certainly sometimes follow blogs and think man, they’ve got it down!  Six kids, a beautiful house, working from home, and fresh food on the table all the time.  Of course, that is probably not the reality. I certainly hope (and I don’t think) I paint any sort of picture of perfection.  Because I am not perfect – not even 1% perfect – and no one is.  Even Martha went to jail.

But I do think with Pinterest, blogs, magazines, and social media there is more pressure to create beautiful things and events.  And sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s not.  And sometimes that beautiful food online is just that – beautiful – and it tastes gross.

My point is that sometimes it’s OK to fail, and not serve perfect looking food and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over it.  I was so obsessed with that stupid yeast I missed a beautiful morning with my family.  And I got in a crappy mood.  And it was soooo not worth it.  And in the end, people just want to be with someone who is nice and fun to be around – pillowy soft buns be damned.