Sometimes you go into a recipe expecting the worst and getting the best. And other times, unfortunately, you expect tastiness, or at least decency, and feel the big, resounding thud of disappointment.

Having had such luck with the Fantastic Fish Pie, I was riding the sea of Jamie Oliver love and decided to splurge. While on a massive kitchen-replenishing run over the weekend, I picked up a leg of lamb for his Braised Five-Hour Lamb with Wine, Veg, and All That. The thought of a stew-like braised meal at the end of a cold weekend sounded like just the ticket. I didn't expect miracles, but I did expect the comfort of tasty food. I mean, he said it was a "trouble-free dinner" after all. Not for me. The end result had decent root veggies, but lamb that was a little tough (even with the time shortened to 4 hours), and a "gravy" that almost made me keel over in an oil coma. It was just grease city, and needed to be rid of the saucy oil before bowling and eating. This whole ordeal became even more annoying when I found out that the rest of the Internet world seems to love it.

That's the thing about cooking and baking. I love it to death, but it's so pricey and disheartening when it fails -- whether it is buying that pricey piece of lamb, using up a lot of electricity, and wishing you'd just had peanut butter and jelly, or buying all that fair-trade chocolate and having your baking fall flat. These days, it's even tougher when the money and effort doesn't give great results -- no splurge should end in failure, but it happens.

What are your recent cooking mishaps?

A cucumber. A pickle. They're the same thing, but are they fruits or vegetables?

Think you know your stuff? Take my little quiz here on a piece of paper and see the answers after the jump.

QUESTIONS - FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?

1. Cucumber
2. Potato
3. Bell Pepper
4. Corn
5. Tomato
6. Radish
7. Peanut
8. Acorn Squash
9. Artichoke
10. Snow Peas

Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the US and most of them are eaten in some fried form, such as potato chips or french fries. One medium potato represents one of the five servings of vegetables that you are supposed to eat every day, and it doesn't take many french fries to reach the size of a single potato. Because of this, it is not impressive to hear that companies like Frito-Lay and Kraft want to add vegetable-based chips and snacks to their product lines. The potato chips are already vegetable-based!

Adding dehydrated vegetables to snacks like Roasted Vegetable Ritz Crackers is just a way of getting consumers to buy more by capitalizing on a trend for an increased awareness for healthy eating. This doesn't mean that people are necessarily eating healthier, but they think that they are/should be. They will opt for the chip that has some additional "vegetables" in it because it sounds like it might be healthier, regardless of whether it actually is. One trend tracking company said "this may replace the whole-grain fad."

And is there anything behind it? Probably not. A fried chip is still not health food, regardless of whether the chip is potato or carrot. And as for adding bits of veggies to other foodstuffs, nutritionist Cynthia Lair explained the benefits - or lack thereof - by saying "once you pulverize and powder vegetables, there's not much left."

Depending on how you look at it, the Nation Trust's ugly vegetable competition is either a good idea or a bad one. On one hand, it gets kids involved in growing their own fruits and vegetables, which could start them with good habits for later in life. On the other hand, the sight of some of the "winners" could put them off veggies for quite some time.

The contest isn't just for children, though. It started as a way to cultivate some appreciation for ugly fruits and vegetables, most of which are underappreciated in the kitchen. There are multiple age categories: under 5, 5-7, 8-11, 11-16, 25-65 and over 65 years old. In each range there was a winner and this parsnip, grown by Mrs Hilary Nellist in the 25-65 group, took home the grand prize for the ugliest vegetable of the year.

There were no winners for the 16-25 category, which either means that they are all exceptional gardeners and can't grow ugly veggies or that gardening isn't exactly a cool past-time for that age group.

[via growabrain]

This might be interesting for those with foodies-in-training, as their options can be fairly limited when they're not really up to un-mushed foods yet. The Mercury News has a great guide with tips and tricks for cooking your own baby foods, all of which are useful in helping to select the most nutritious foods and prepare them safely. In general:

• Brightly colored produce, both fruits and vegetables usually pack more nutrients. They are more flavorful, so sugar should be unnecessary.
• Steaming is the quickest and easiest way to cook the vegetables quickly. Puree them in a food processor once they are tender; there is no need to cook them to death.
• Be vigilant about keeping surfaces clean while preparing the baby food, since babies are more sensitive to bacteria
• Refrigerate or freeze foods after cooking and cooling to room temperature without letting them sit out.
• Offer foods multiple times, but start with small batches in case it doesn't turn out to be a favorite.

One of the most interesting suggestions is to freeze the foods in ice cube trays for single-serving sizes after preparing them in large batches. Once frozen, you can defrost a cube or two as needed, and the cubes can be easily stored in a large plastic bag.

Red, yellow, green and purple - are rainbow carrots the way of the future? Perhaps, but they could more accurately be called the carrots of the past because they have a long history. Purple and yellow carrots were grown as many as 1,000 years ago in Asia and Western Europe, although selective breeding programs to produce such colors for commercial purposes are fairly recent. Carrots are now regularly bred in purple, red, yellow and white, in addition to orange, and scientists say that there is added nutritional benefit to choosing a colorful vegetable over a more conventional one.

Red carrots have extra lycopene, which is also found in tomatoes and is believed to lower blood pressure and help to reduce the risk of some cancers. Yellow carrots promote eye health with beta-carotene-like pigments, and purple carrots have powerful antioxidants.

Even with health benefits to recommend them, the carrots are not an easy sell. This is in part because neither consumers nor producers are really sure what to look for as a sign of a good purple carrot, whereas most people look for a good color and relatively smooth skin for an orange one. The bigger issue is that consumers don't know what they're going to taste like and are reluctant to branch out. But the carrots taste pretty much the same, regardless of their color, and some taste even sweeter than a standard carrot.

Some Trader Joe's locations started carrying the rainbow carrots this week, and they're worth a try if you see them there or at your local grocery store.

A woman in the UK who claims to have "been terrified of vegetables for more than 40 years" is now saying that she is on the path to curing her fear. The fear, known as lachanophobia, had been with 61-year old Krissie Palmer-Howarth since she was just 17. Since its onset, she says that she has not been capable of smelling vegetables or even speaking their names aloud without feeling sick. After a session of hypnotherapy, she can now stand near them without incident.

This treatment could be applied to others with food phobias, or even to picky eaters. Children aren't eating their broccoli? Stop by the hypnotherapy clinic on the way home from school.

And perhaps a similar treatment could help the poor people we saw earlier this year, whose fear of mustard and pickles was ruining their lives. Maury would probably air it as a followup episode, though it's hard to imagine more captivating TV than the original.

The tiger tomato has just made its formal debut at Marks & Spencer stores in Britain. The tomatoes are small, about the size of cherry tomatoes, but have dark red flesh accented with green stripes. Apparently, there is a growing demand for "novelty produce" to the point where farmers in the Isle of Wight are frantically working to develop new types of tomatoes. One of the next to hit the shelves will be the "strawmato," said to be very sweet and designed to pair with melted chocolate.

I can't honestly say that I like the idea of a tomato dipped in melted chocolate, no matter how sweet it is. I do, however, understand the desire for new and more unusual forms of produce. Isn't that why heirloom tomatoes and other less conventional fruits and veggies are popular? In fact, these tiger tomatoes sound like dwarf versions of the red zebra tomatoes, but perhaps more brightly colored.