To close out the year, I'm sharing some of my kitchen fails from behind the scenes of The Joyful Plateful. This post is inspired by my favorite blog, How Sweet Eats, and her annual kitchen fails post, and dedicated to my aunt, who loves to see what goes on behind the scenes in kitchens!

I may be a good cook, but cooking has a way of reminding me that I can't control everything. Even the most well-planned recipe or the most carefully prepared dish, can still go wrong. Sometimes these fails are entirely accidents of my own doing - I rush to get something done, I don't pay close attention, or just get distracted completely. Since starting my blog, I've remembered to capture a few of these instances on camera - and then to laugh and move on.

My Kitchen Fails of 2020 post didn't make it to the new site when I upgraded and migrated over, so I'm featuring those in this post, too, in addition to the fails from 2021. Let's start with 2021!

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This was an early test of my Lemon Almond Bread recipe. Not sure if I didn't grease the pan well enough, or what...but this loaf was also quite dense. Still delicious, just not attractive!

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This was definitely an instance of rushing to finish dinner. I overfilled the blender container with hot soup, and it exploded! Always make sure to give hot liquids plenty of room to expand when blending!! This soup was e v e r y w h e r e - the floor, the cupboards, the fridge, on me...

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These were an early test of my Triple Ginger Coconut Lime Oatmeal Cookies. Vegan baking can be a surprise - sometimes good, sometimes...not so good. These spread way too much, but were delightfully chewy. I salvaged the batch by pouring the rest into a baking dish and making bar cookies. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! And that day I gained some super yummy cookies. I knew I was onto the flavor profile I wanted, but it took another couple tests to get the texture!

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As you'll see below, I fought frequently with a container of black pepper in 2020. The battles didn't end in 2021. I gave these zucchini a rinse, and was back in business!

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And now, in no particular order, I present to you The Joyful Plateful's Kitchen Fails of 2020!

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I fought with a container of black pepper for months. The two sides of the shaker top were not clear - the holes for sprinkling vs. the wide mouth for a measuring spoon. Well, on this occasion, I got it wrong, and instead of a few gentle shakes of pepper, I DUMPED black pepper from the wide open side into this sauce. I ended up scooping most of it out and rescuing the sauce, but wasted pepper and sauce in the process. UGH.

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These are peanut butter cookies. They should have the cute, traditional criss-cross on top, but I was experimenting with gluten-free flour, and...well. I often try recipes with both gluten-free and all-purpose flour, and nine times out of ten, the GF flour I favor works beautifully. But sometimes, it's unpredictable. This was one of those times. Even though they weren't pretty, they were still delicious!

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Not sure what happened to these mini frittatas. Those in the corner just decided to run all over the place! And I have no clue why the egg that ran looks plastic-y... Again, they tasted fine, so no waste! Just not attractive.

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That WAS shredded coconut. Before it became charcoal. I don't remember what I was toasting it for, but I do remember that I got distracted by something else, and it wasn't until smoke was pouring out of the oven that I realized I had left the coconut in there! I grabbed the tray out of the oven and ran it outside to cool. Whoops. This fail happened during grad school in the spring, during which time I was taking a course in which we studied the healing properties of foods divided by the colors of the rainbow. I texted this to my classmates and said, "What week are we studying black foods?!"

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Finally, another accident of my own doing. I was zesting this orange into the wet ingredients in the measuring cup, and...all of a sudden there was a splash, and a mess. The orange slipped from my hands, and plopped right into the cup, spilling milk and eggs all over the countertop. I rescued the orange and washed it off, and added a little more milk back to the cup, so all was well. I cleaned up my sticky mess, but not before I remembered to snap a pic!

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But, all's well that ends well! So let's close out 2021 (and our reminiscence of 2020) and put failures, frustrations, challenges, and mistakes of the year behind us! I'm looking forward to 2022, and bringing you lots more recipes, more kitchen adventures, and new ideas in the year ahead!

Wishing you many Joyful Platefuls in 2022 and beyond! ~Kira

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