I don't get it.

I don't get it. I took a whole chicken yesterday, defrosted, and spent quite some time cleaning it, taking off the skin, cutting it into parts, removing the fat, and preparing 2 dishes- one with the dark meat pieces and one with the white.
The dark meat was browned on both sides and then submerged in a blended pineapple-garlic sauce with curry. It was cooked for about an hour in the sauce. The white meat was cubed into small pieces and prepared in a frying pan with chopped onions and a generous application of curry, cumin, paprika, garlic, and salt. I even followed the recipe (for once) and used the measuring spoons for the spices (for once). These both seemed completely fool-proof. Where's the  risk? Of course they'll be a hit.

They both flopped. I mean, flopped. The pineapple dish was so bland that it tasted raw even though that was impossible. The white meat cubes (the recipe is called Shwarma, though its a modified Shwarma of course) were just not as good as usual, and the flavor seemed purely paprika, nothing else. Imagine. It was gross. 

So, mistakes happen and I know that I can't get a perfect 10 with cooking every time, but what I don't get is this: it seems like the more effort I put into cooking, the worse it comes out. 

The opposite is also true: I always serve homemade bread for breakfast, and last night, after my husband went to sleep early, I realized I didn't have any bread for his breakfast the next morning (even commercial bread would have been fine, but we had nothing). And because our apartment is small, I can't work in the kitchen with the light on while he's asleep. So I made bread almost in the dark (with the refrigerator door open for light), let it rise, and popped it into the toaster oven in the dark, hoping that the dials were pointing to the correct numbers. And went to sleep. And, irony of ironies, this bread came out, by far, the best and most beautiful I have ever made. 

I don't get it. 


p.s. I was engrossed in phone conversation with my friend Maya during the chicken efforts. I wonder if this led to a lack of  focus on the part of the chef...