I cooked dinner for my friend, Loretta, tonight and asked that oh-so-risky question, “Any special requests?” She said she was craving enchiladas. No big deal to the average cook, but for me I went straight to panic — worried for days, then delayed cooking for hours after I should have started.
Finally braced myself and got going: Step 1: preheat oven to 350. I can do that. Step 2: Lightly grease 9×13 pan. No problem. Step 3: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in saucepan. I have a saucepan! And I can melt! By Step 4, I was sauteeing and simmering to beat the band. What was I so worried about? Yes, there was one tricky step that scared me from the beginning, but that was no reason to think the whole thing would be difficult. By the time I got to that step, I had so many other steps under my belt that it wasn’t so bad.
OK, now get ready for the big leap: when you think about it, most of life is like a recipe — there might be tricky steps along the way, and the outcome looks nothing like the individual ingredients, but the steps start out easy. Why panic about Step 10 before you’ve even gotten to Step 1?
All this waxing philosophical about how “life’s like a recipe”, I should probably say that I have yet to hear a review on the enchiladas. For all I know, they were inedible. They did look pretty, though!
Postscript — this email just in from Loretta: “The enchiladas were delicious! We all loved them.” I had no doubt.
