It doesn’t have to be perfect

Pride in what you’ve made is great, sharing it is fantastic, but on our journey of experimenting with food and becoming better home cooks, there will be a lot of mistakes, and even successful meals may not look perfect. Let’s explore getting away from the idea of reaching the perfect Insta-worthy cakes, and have some fun first.

I did a video of the first time I made a lattice pie.

Yes, looking back it seems a pretty stressful task to set yourself. I had a bunch of rhubarb (yum!) and some plums (yum again) and I was in the mood for pie. It was also just as I had decided to take The From Scratch Body public and really go for it, so I thought it would be a good idea to get my amazing videographer/photographer and partner, Jon Wright, to document the whole thing. You will have seen some of that footage scattered around already, and you will also be able to see the video of me making the pie on my YouTube channel. The thing is; pies are difficult. Especially with a lattice pattern on top. Especially on a hot day in my tiny kitchen. There’s a reason people train for a long time to become pastry chefs.

We had such a fun day filming the pie making in the end, and it tasted absolutely delicious. I have shared the recipe with you today, so you can try it too! But I laugh now looking back, after having made quite a few more pies, tarts and quiches since then. It doesn’t look very good. Especially in some of the close ups, you can see I don’t really know what I’m doing in terms of dealing with the crust on the sides, and it doesn’t hold up to some of the (literal) cookie cutter perfection you see on social media. Do I care? No!!! Because it tasted hella good and I hope you make it too and enjoy it.

Making beautiful looking food is a great skill but it is a whole skill in itself, in my opinion fairly separate from making tasty food that makes you feel great. And let’s face it, if you tell the people in your household that you made a rhubarb and plum pie, they aren’t going to want to stand and look at it for ages, they want a piece.

So make new things, learn by doing, learn by mistakes and take a picture just for your own memories, even if it doesn’t end up looking symmetrical, colourful and perfect! And if it does, great! But be proud either way. And you can always make it again and be thrilled at the little things you managed to improve on. The same goes for flavour, you won’t know how to make it perfectly until you try. Seems obvious when you say it like that, right?

So whatever you make today, however it looks in a photo - if you loved it and you are proud of your accomplishments, please share them with me! Post on Instagram and tag me @TheFromScratchBody and use the hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it! I promise I will be proud of you too!