Eyeball Truffles with (Fake) Blood for Halloween

and a few thoughts on “being good enough”

Does this ever happen to you? You see a brilliant ingenious idea and I think “I’ve got to try that!” and in your head it’s going to be SO cool! It will look just like this awesome thing in the picture! … but then when you make it, well, it’s kinda good, but just not quite what you thought it SHOULD be.

That’s been happening a lot to me lately. I made this pumpkin bread that I thought would be SO awesome, but I didn’t like how it turned out. I decided it wasn’t even worth blogging about. I didn’t take pictures. I tried to turn it into pumpkin bread pudding … and hated that too. Then my dad came to visit and he was digging around my kitchen … he discovered the pumpkin bread and he thought it was brilliant! I tasted it again and thought “wow, it’s really pretty good … what the heck was I thinking?”  I gave him some to take home with him … and then I had a long talk with myself. Why am I self-editing out so much of the great things I have to share?

This isn’t the only creation I’ve been hiding from you. I also made this brandied pumpkin ginger pear ice cream that I was convinced was going to be SO brilliant … but when I made it, I didn’t like the texture. Maybe it was the graininess of the pear? I don’t know. The taste was good, but the texture wasn’t right. I want to try it again … make it better. I will post it when it’s perfect in my eyes.

Speaking of eyes … they’re all looking at me!

These were supposed to be the coolest things ever. And you know what? Even though they are probably not the best eyeball truffles on the planet (Confessions of a Cookbook Queen totally has that one covered!), they may just be the best eyeball truffles on the block. (ok, probably the ONLY eyeball truffles on the block!) I think they are still pretty cool. And maybe even worth sharing.

My dad thought they were pretty good anyway. They are pretty dang yummy. And hey, how can you beat the gore factor of oozing blood for Halloween?

I followed Confessions of a Cookbook Queen‘s recipe except I just used my homemade cookies in place of the Nutter Butters–and low-fat cream cheese–but gosh that’s not much of a change, so please head on over to Confessions of a Cookbook Queen for the recipe. And a lot of laughs. She is so funny. There are times when I wish I could be that amusing. But then, I think maybe I would be someone other than who I am. I do think she’s amazing and awesome and I applaud her talent at making eyeball truffles. And the way she can perfectly photograph an eyeball truffle to show the blood oooozing out of it. She is so creative and executes her projects with such style and grace … and still manages to make it humorous. I have sometimes found myself wishing I could be more like her …

But today Sherron at Simply Gourmet Photography told me that what she likes about me is “I think Ann has shared more of my recipes with the foodie universe than anyone I know. She is very generous with her page and shares lots of recipes with her followers.  I can always count on a wonderful and kind remark from Ann, for this I am so appreciative.”

So I have decided that being me is quite ok. And (as my dad told me without saying as much) that I need to quit questioning myself so much.

The lesson here (note to self!): Give yourself a break and LOVE who you are. Maybe you’re not as organized or as perfect as another person at something you are striving to do, but you do have special talents worth sharing with the world.

Just be the best person you know how to be … and don’t worry so much about “how you compare”.

My bumpy imperfect eyeballs agree.