To cook or not to cook...

I would have named this post "Cooking isn't rocket science" but for a show with the same name, and somewhere at the back of my mind, it still is :)

The mind thinks like a robot when it comes to the kitchen. You reach out expecting to find something in a certain place, cuz it's always been there. You're trying out mom's no brainer recipe and somehow it turns out to be this strange goop rather than the comfort food you grew up with. You measured everything to the dot - counted out the red chilles and peppercorns, used the timer on your cellphone for the pressure cooker, even decided to add salt once the food is on the table (that way it can never end up too salty). And somehow there seems to be one tiny thing, somewhere in the fineprint, that manages to screw everything up. (don't come back with the "mother's love".. TV's wrung that to death!)

But then after countless trials and errors and patient victims, one of the below happens:

1. you actually get the recipe right, and your mom's crying tears of joy on the other end of the phone
2. you get so used to the strange new version of the original recipe that you actually start liking it

No prizes for guessing which one it turns out to be most of the time ;)