Did you ever have to completely own that maybe you didn’t know better than the recipe? Then you understand my pain right now.

Well, Happy Post-Thanksgiving everyone. During this time of year when everyone is coming off the high of cook-a-thons of their own, I had felt a little left out. This year after planning and finally making it through our wedding day, holidays were hardly on our radar. It was almost a surprise when I realized Thanksgiving was a week out after we got back from “honeymooning” in Sedona for a few days. By that time any other year, I would have been researching recipes for a few weeks already, narrowing in on the top six, and then planning my glamorous shopping excursion followed up by a culinary frenzy.

I love what I do.

But this year, we decided to let the holiday onus of cooking transfer from under our roof to that of my parents. But that fateful Thanksgiving Day 2014, my mother had offhandedly mentioned a recipe she had been looking at that made my mouth water, and I immediately decided that this weekend I would test it out. I mean, c’mon – who doesn’t like the sound of Vegan Italian Meatloaf Cupcakes? And look at that picture! Makes my mouth water even now.

But oh my god, it was the biggest, most epic cooking fail I have EVER experienced that I actually laughed out loud. And who couldn’t use a laugh, too? So here, I bear my soul to you…

Click on the pretty picture above, and it will take you to the recipe. I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of cook. I may look at a recipe for ingredients, and then make the rest up as I go along. It usually gets me through quite successfully. But this time, I made quite the tactical error. This recipe clearly does NOT say to blend the “meatloaf” ingredients. But as I was trying to mix the mess of ingredients that it gave me, I could NOT imagine the clunky-looking conglomerate ever being cohesive enough to create “cupcakes.” So, I threw caution to the wind.

“Psssh, this person obviously does not know what she’s talking about,” I thought smugly, and proceeded to blend the entire batch, and scoop them one by one into two muffin tins, and carefully craft the creamy potato “icing” on top with a layer of unsweetened ketchup smothered underneath. I was pretty dang proud of those muffins.

The result? Mushy stuff that NEVER solidified, and came out looking burnt on the outside (where the heck did the potato go??) and completely mushy on the inside. After feeling annoyed and sorry for myself for a brief moment, I actually giggled when the less burnt ones fell out onto cookie sheet. It looked like complete carnage. Well, it had been hours since I had started my would-be masterpiece and was by now starving. When life gives you lemons – you eat them anyway – with ketchup. Yeah, ketchup makes it better.

Well, at least they’re still somewhat edible. Have a holiday-related or kitchen carnage story of your own that you’re willing to laugh with us about? I’d love to hear them. Please feel free to share below!

Until then, bon apetit, and be well!