AmyFails 2012

Once again, it’s that time of year: time for looking back at the year behind us and celebrating the food failures of yesterday. This is my second annual AmyFails post, and I’ve decided to keep up the tradition because I think we need it this year more than ever. In this world of increasingly Pinterest-perfect façades, I think it’s important to remember that nobody’s perfect—especially when it comes to us food bloggers. We all have bad days in the kitchen and worse days with the camera.

There are times when a recipe is a total disaster—or maybe worse, when it was just “ok.” There are times when no matter how many shots you take, or what styling tricks you employ, the photos just look terrible. And there are definitely days where nothing is working—food or photos. This post is here to remind you that what you see on most food blogs is only a highly-edited snippet of real life. This is real life…my 5 worst fails of 2012:

This light broccoli cheddar soup was oh-so-blah, and the photos were appalling. Terrible light and sad, wilted parsley. You can see I tried to perk it up with some shaved carrot, but that last-ditch attempt couldn’t save this fail. When this is the best picture of the lot, you know it’s bad.

These blondies were so delicious, but there were two problems. First, I had absolutely no inspiration for how to photograph them interestingly. Some days, it’s just not there. Second, the original recipe called for bourbon. I didn’t have any, so I omitted it. Yet…they still tasted super alcoholic. Not a problem, I suppose, but awfully puzzling. Blondies probably shouldn’t taste like bourbon if there’s no bourbon in them…right?

Veggie lasagna. Pretty dang bland. I mean, positively cardboard-esque. What it lacked in flavor, it made up in sheer hideousness. Burned, crunchy noodle edges, cheese that’s more crispy than gooey, and soggy vegetables sitting in watery sauce. As soon as I saw it come out of the oven looking like a hot mess, I knew there was no way I could take a decent photo, so I didn’t even try.

I attempted Mexican rice in the rice cooker. It was edible…but not passable as Mexican rice. It was wayyyy too tomato-y to the point that it completely obliterated any other flavors, and the texture was just awful. It was like eating a glue stick with pieces of gummy rice in it. Do not recommend.

I was so sad about this one, guys. I was inspired to make a strawberry-orange cake with strawberry buttercream this summer. Strawberries macerated with orange zest and triple sec went into the cake and the frosting, and it was filled with sliced strawberries. And it was soooo delicious. But it was a really hot day, and my buttercream just melted into a gooey mess. It never set properly. You can see it starting to ooze everywhere in the photo. I was pretty much devastated. Oh, and even worse? We were still eating slices a few days past this cake’s probable expiration date…and it made us both really ill. So, that was a nice double-whammy.

So, there you have it. Real life in the AmyBites kitchen. It’s not as glamorous as I try to make it seem. But out of every fail comes a lesson. Not even über-successful celebrity chefs always get it right the first time, so just keep cookin’! May your 2013 be full of wins, in the kitchen and otherwise.

But in the meantime, what was your worst kitchen fail of 2012? Share your biggest blunder in the comments or on Facebook.