Good in Theory, Poor in Practice

Ideas that are Good in Theory but Poor in Practice

• throwing away your fat pants

• trusting your GPS implicitly on your way to Yosemite State Park

• getting two perms in grade five

• two for one sales on ice cream

• stretch mark cream

• meeting your year long chem lab partner in a line up

• using a ten inch pan for an eight inch cake recipe

• riding the gravitron

• fireworks in a provincial park

• trying the expert zipline course

• eating dessert three times a day while pregnant

I have been thinking lately about ideas that are good in theory but end up being unexpectedly bad in practice.  When we are young, we often don’t see the long term consequences of our decisions.  Apparently our brains are not fully developed until we are twenty-four so we are actually incapable of analyzing long term outcomes until our twenties.  If you have been around teenagers, this will not come as a surprise. Even now, I am often struck by how what seemed to be small decision at the time has had unforeseeable effects. By the way, I’ve tried the ‘wait until your brain is fully developed before making this decision’ argument and it is always ignored.

I think the Silver Palate’s Winter Vegetable Salad falls under this category of good in theory but poor in practice.  I like the idea of a salad of blanched broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and peas with a creamy dressing.  It sounds like it should be delicious but unfortunately the dressing lacked zip and made for a rather tasteless salad.  I guess all 350 Silver Palate recipes will not be winners so while I have crossed another recipe off my list, it will not be one that I make again.  Recipe here.

About these ads