Happy Saturday! Today we’re talking missing ingredients. :)
I was making a blueberry pie the other night with fresh blueberries I picked from a friend’s house. I put it all together and worked on a puzzle while it was cooking. It smelled amazing and I was excited when I pulled it out of the oven! I let it stand for a little while before I took a small sliver and took a bite. (Don’t judge the top! Frozen crusts, but they taste good!)
I took that first bite and my face scrunched up! What is this? A cornstarch pie? I took another bite. Better, but still tart. Turns out I forgot the sugar! Well, didn’t forget. I screen shotted the recipe and the sugar was apparently at the top and got cut off as I did the screen shot. Well, all this got me to thinking of story writing. (Weird how the brain works, right?)
I mean our stories have an ingredients list of sorts. We have characterization, setting, emotional arcs, beginnings, middles, endings. All things work together for the good of the story. And what if we left something out? As a writer, these are what first drafts are for.
As a reader we hope we don’t experience this. :)
My point of this post is to highlight like a well made blueberry pie, our stories are a mixture of the ingredients we mix together to create a journey a reader can get behind, support, and fall in love with. And if we leave something out? It could be messy! Or bitter. Hard to swallow?
One of the best things I’ve ever learned about writing came from author Cindy Woodsmall. She said—I don’t have a character pick up a tea cup if it doesn’t have a purpose—did not use quotations because it was a long time ago and this is probably a paraphrase, but it resonated with me and still does.
When I was working on my book, Rich in Faith I had twin girls with long dark hair that was never brushed. I didn’t know why I kept highlighting that, but I remember thinking that if this didn’t go anywhere, I needed to go back and take all the references out because it wouldn’t matter and it was taking up valuable word count. Turned out that messy hair was a part of the black moment between the hero and heroine. The missing ingredient could have been an unresolved issue.
Of course writers, like pie makers, aren’t perfect and we’re bound to leave something out occasionally. That’s why there’s grace!
And I didn’t throw my pie out. It tasted better the next day and we actually ate a slice with ice cream. While it wasn’t the best pie I’ve ever eaten, it was edible. In the comment section, I’d love to hear about a time when you made something and it didn’t turn out like you expected. Maybe you had a missing ingredient–or maybe an extra one!
USA Today featured author Lindi Peterson lives in north Georgia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with her husband and a lively array of cats, dogs and birds. She loves sharing life with her family and friends. Her passion for reading led her to writing, and then God spoke words of love into her heart and changed her life forever.
I made biscuits one time (what you call cookies) and instead of one sort of flour I accidently use bicarb soda. Lets just say they ended in the bin they tasted so bad.
Jenny! I’ve thrown a few baked goods in the trash……
My friends mother use to enter at the local show and win prizes. One year she made a boiled fruit cake and accidently dropped a tin of pins in it (don’t ask me how but she was probably doing 2 things at once). There wasn’t time to make a second cake probably didn’t have enough ingredient’s to make a second one and she didn’t drive. She still entered it in the show and won first prize and champion of the show. If they had cut at a different place they would have hit the pins. She never entered again cos she felt so bad winning with that cake.
Ginger cake without the ginger was rather boring. Since so many concussions the occupational therapist recommended firstly put all the ingredients on the bench, secondly all utensils on the bench, thirdly measure everything out, fourthly preheat oven, air fryer, finally cook. Now the ginger cake has ginger :D
I’m pretty adept in the kitchen so nothing I can think of as mama taught me to cook when I was old enough to stand on a chair. I’ve made mishaps while crocheting and not paying attention or sewing.
I made a pumpkin pie without sugar. Not edible.
I forgot to salt the pinto beans in the crockpot, good thing you can always add salt. :) Thank you for sharing this with us, sometimes it just happens. Have a great weekend and stay safe. God Bless you and your family.
I attempted to make a batch of cookies for a class party in sixth grade. I wanted to impress our student teacher, Mr. Ferrarra. I can’t be absolutely sure, but I think I didn’t know the difference between little t (for teaspoon, which I should have used) and big T (for tablespoon, which I did use, tripling the required amount) when it came to baking soda. Bless his heart, he choked ’em down even though they tasted like chewing alka-seltzer. Now that I think about it, maybe that experience is why I don’t gravitate toward baking when I’m in the kitchen, even though I really enjoy sweet things to eat! :-)
Funny stories!
You made Lemonade out of lemons. Redeemed!
I have forgotten the sugar when baking too. We still ate the cookies though.
Mary I bought some Honey Joys (with the cornflakes) at a trading table to help the local CFS. I love them normally but these ones were falling apart and not right. I put them back in the oven cos they seemed undercooked. The person making them had put in less honey but also forgot to put in the sugar so they didn’t have the liquid to stick together and they really didn’t taste nice. But it was a worthy cause.
One year for Christmas we invited our next door neighbors over for dinner….I had all the fixings including my yeast rolls I always make. When it came time to take them out of the oven, they were small, burnt on the bottom & hard as a rock! I had no idea what happened because I’ve made that recipe for years and they always turned out good. I was so embarrassed because the rest of the dinner turned out delicious as usual. The next day, I re-read my recipe and realized I had forgotten the salt! It doesn’t call for much, but boy does it ever make a difference!
I re-made the batch (turning out great!) and gave them to our neighbors….apologizing and explaining what happened. We all had a good laugh over it! Needless to say, I’ve NEVER forgotten the salt since then :-)
I am not sure that I can remember one at this time. God bless you.
I started to bake some cookies, but the dough was so soft, they spread too much, so I put the rest in a baking dish and made bar cookies. They were for a party, so I had to fix them, luckily, I had made a double batch of dough and this was a workable solution.
What a great story!! She must have been a great baker.
Wow. I have a friend who might be able to use this information. I hate that you’ve suffered many concussions. But itc sounds like you had a successful result with the ginger cake. *which aiubds amazing by the way*
Lucy….. that’s awesome about the cooking, but I understand the sewing mishaps as well.
Oh!! I made one of those without the evaporated milk. Very flat!!
Alicia…. yes, the salt can be tricky.. and better to need to add than take away, right?
Have a great weekend, too.
Ha!!! I know the difference but still confuse them at times. What a gracious teacher. :)
Thanks for sharing.
Paula….. you just have to, right?
Mary….. they were made with your sweetness!!
The end result was good though. Looking at the bright side.
Trixie…I had no idea salt can make such a difference. Thanks for that tip.
Debra…God bless you, too. Have a great weekend.
Denise… great solution. I would have to Google for a solution, which I’ve done more than once.
I once added too much red pepper to Zuppa Toscana soup…no matter how much water I added after that, it wasn’t edible 🙈
Back in school when I was taking Home Ec, I made apple crisp. But instead of putting in 1/4 teaspoon of salt, I put in 1/4 of a CUP!! What looked and smelled delicious, tasted horrible!!