After I uploaded a bunch of photos of our dinner party last weekend, it was suggested that I write a retro party planning guide. That was flattering, but there are actual party planners who write those sorts of books. The book I should REALLY write would be on planning a party with practically zero cash and salvaging potential kitchen disasters, like this one:



This banana bread came out fine, but it was touch and go there for a while. I did some substituting in the recipe, which always means you're taking your chances, and I absent-mindedly dumped wet ingredients into the dry ingredients way before I was supposed to, which meant emergency procedures, culminating in mashing it all together with my hands to make it combine. I figured I'd make cookies if it didn't reach the consistency of bread dough, but it eventually did, so I took my chances. We're surrounded with images of seemingly effortless perfection when it comes to cooking, party planning, home decorating and the like, and entire magazines are devoted to telling you how to keep your house sparkling clean in ten minutes a day or less (NOT possible) and twenty minute meals that look gourmet. Failure is not an option. Well, I'm going to say it: I screw up a lot and you should, too. It's through screwing up that we learn. So go forth and cook and plan parties! If anything gets really messed up, dump it and serve something else!

Click here to see what the Kitsch-en churned out last week.