Do you ever get tired of the same old thing? Especially when it comes to food? Me, yes, I do. The more I know about cooking it seems that most recipes are pretty much the same. After a while, it’s pretty much the standard ingredients for whatever you happen to be cooking. The difference is in the seasonings and some of the little extras that you do. It takes being smart and hard work to make a dish stand out these days.

Making a dish stand out isn’t going to be in my repertoire anytime soon but I was needing something to liven up the normal dinner fare. First, I should tell you that I am not really a cook. I haven’t been cooking for years nor do I have any show on the Food Network. I do have a few basic skills and the ability to mostly follow a recipe. Even with the advantage of some fancy slicers, slicing and dicing things still is slow. That’s what I am like in the kitchen. But I have this need to expand and try new things when I get the courage or maybe it’s just when there is a full moon.

It was time to try to cook scalloped potatoes. I had done some reading. I rounded up all the ingredients I would need. Some said to boil the potatoes first. Yes, I did. Therein, lies my mistake. The type of mistake you can’t really fix without a major change. I boiled the potatoes too long. Yes, they were easy to peel but also unable to be sliced. So in this grand failure moment, another plan was born. Mashed potato failure became mashed potato success!

And there you have it. The philosophy of life. All in potatoes. Even when all your careful planning goes awry, change it up and try again. Whether from the over-cooked potatoes that wouldn’t slice or even if you throw it all out, just try again. You will succeed sometime. The best thing to do is to pick yourself up, put the potatoes in a bowl and start mashing! Wherever you are in life, it’s never too late to make scalloped potatoes.