I had two epic fails last week.

First, I tried to make salmon sandwiches for dinner. It should have been an easy meal—teriyaki sauce, fish, a few seasonings and greens. But I don’t know if I was just too tired to cook or not paying attention to what was happening in the pot, but the fish was horrible. Too greasy and smothered in sugary teriyaki sauce. “It’s not that bad,” E said, eating the not so saucy parts and trying to reassure me. I disagreed, and tossed my portion in the trash.

Then I tried to make vanilla whoopie pies, but for some reason the cookies were flat and disc-like, instead of springy and cupcake-like. I used a chocolate whoopie pie recipe but just omitted the cocoa power, but the batter ended up being too heavy without it.

Even this sandwich above took a few tries to get right. First I made it as you see above, on an English muffin, with hard boiled eggs and parsley. I thought it was sweet and yummy, but E only had a bite before he darted out the door. I thought maybe he preferred the eggs fried with a runny yolk, so I tried it that way with whole grain bread. “S’alright,” he said. I wasn’t convinced. I then made it again with hard boiled eggs and multi-grain bread and pecorino cheese. “Mmmm,” he said.

“Well which one do you like best?” I asked E.

Being considerate of my feelings, he said: “Anything with that tomato jam on it is tasty.”

To me, the tastiest version was English muffin, pecorino cheese, hard boiled egg, jam and parsley. It’s a nice change of pace from your average breakfast sandwich and a great excuse to use that tomato jam, which we now only have a few spoonfulls left of. But if you opt for multigrain bread, or without the cheese, both options are just as delicious. Failure during cooking is always an option. But the definition of a successful meal varies from person to person.

by