I opened the fridge, found slabs of pork belly wrapped in brown paper, and a bag of green beans stocked in the vegetable bin in the lowest compartment.
Perfect! I’ll make pork with green beans for lunch. (Or late lunch to be exact.)
I grab the wooden chopping board and cut the slices of meat into smaller pieces. I then tossed the meat pieces inside a small Teflon pot, added cooking oil, turned on the stove, and set it to medium heat.
Next, I seasoned the meat with black soy sauce, dried bay leaves, peppercorn, lemon juice. I opened a bottle of vinegar, it’s sharp scent wafting to my nose. I mix it inside the pot. I crushed cloves of garlic and diced a duo of onions, milking tears to my eyes.
I saw a can of soft drinks, thinking it was Sprite, and mix it in as well. I read the label right after I did and then bam! It hit me. I’ve mixed in ginger ale instead of Sprite. I made a mistake! I was cooking by rote, automatic like brushing teeth, zoned out, scanning the day's agendas.
[photo source: here]
(Note: I usually sweeten my pork with green beans recipe using Sprite. Do you cook this recipe? How do you like it done?)
What will you do when you make a mistake? Do you throw everything out and start all over again? Or do you give up and go by the easy route, order fast food? Or perhaps you simply continue whatever you're doing and course correct.
Sure, there are times it’s best to give it up, take the lesson out from the mistake, start all over again, and do better for the next round. But other times, we only need to do some tweaking and push through.
What if it wouldn’t be true to taste? What if I don’t get the intended results? What if it will all go to trash? What if I’m only wasting my time. What if…
A simple mistake could easily torment us with uncertainties.
But I went ahead anyway. I had too, I hate wasting food.
I corrected my mistake by mixing in honey, to achieve the modicum of sweetness I was aiming for. Then I continued with the rest of the ingredients.
I poured in beef broth for added flavor, washed the green beans using a white plastic colander, cut them into small bite-size pieces, tossed them into the pot, and wait until everything gets cooked.
No, I’m not a chef. But since I’ve cooked this pork with green beans recipe many times, I’ve at least improved.
And the jury?
“Wow, Lamia uy!” (Wow, it tastes so good!) The husband praised while guzzling two spoonfuls in a matter of seconds. lol.
I guess it worked!
When the time comes you find yourself in the middle of a mistake and a decision has to be made, try course-correcting before giving up or throwing everything away. Worry later.
Who knows, it’ll turn out to be as yummy -- according to my husband -- as my pork with green beans recipe caramelized with ginger ale and honey? Haha.
Try it, without the ginger ale, of course, you might like it too. ;)