There's a charming story in one of the "Little House" books by Laura
Ingalls Wilder. She's young (still in her teens), newly married, and
cooking for the hired help who have come to harvest the grain (who are
all considerably older than she is). She discovers that helping her
mother and being in charge of the whole hotel are 2 different things.
She serves a pie that she's completely forgotten to put any sugar in.
One of the men at the table lifts the crust off the pie, puts a spoonful
of sugar from the sugar bowl on the fruit before replacing the crust and
makes a comment about how that's the best way to make pie so each man
can choose the right amount of sugar on it for him. Then he winks at
her to let her know that he knew it was a plain mistake. She's mortified.


As for me, I make so many of these types of small errors in the kitchen
that I wouldn't know where to begin listing them. I go back to the
recipe and check and recheck. A lot of times I find that the error
leads to a new creation that isn't half bad.


--Lia