The title is one of my favorite Bush quotes. I love passive voice. It lets us get away with all kinds of things. One of my professors, when explaining passive voice used the example of going out to dinner with his brother. When it came time to pay, his brother said, “My wallet was left in the car.” As if the wallet decided to stay in the car.

So, this evening mistakes were made. Tonight’s meal, Pork Roast with Three-Mushroom Ragout, was quite tasty despite the mistakes. First mistake, should have deboned the roast. Okay, before that, I should have checked the recipe more carefully to see that I needed only 1.75 pounds of meat and not the 6.5 pounds I ended up with. And I could have had the butcher debone it. What I need it one of these. But, I managed to cut a third of the roast off with a little help from Mr. Geeky. I froze the other two thirds and will do something else with it. Second mistake, wrong kind of crushed tomatoes. Got the kind with Italian Seasoning. Didn’t seem to matter that much, though. Third mistake, no cremini mushrooms. Fourth, no sundried tomatoes without oil. This is what I mean about ingredients. If the store I frequent doesn’t have these things, I’m not running all over creation to find them. I just added a few more shitaki and button mushrooms and lived with oil soaked tomatoes. Didn’t seem to affect it much. Fifth mistake. The timer didn’t set correctly (i.e. I failed to push the “start” button) and so, my noodles cooked a little longer than they should have. Still the meal was good and I would definitely eat it again.

The lessons? 1) Read the recipe carefully before going shopping. 2) Make do with what you have.