2 times 4/3 when 4/3 is really 2 = lots of garlic!

Let me preface this with my math credentials: straight A's in math in high school, 3 semesters of college calculus, a semester of differential equations, and another semester of math that made my head spin so hard that I can't even remember what it was called. And statistics. Numerical analysis. Engineering classes. So anyway, I can multiply by 4/3, right?

So why is it that I am slowly losing my ability to follow a recipe? I caught myself doing this again last night, it's just an example but I seem to do this a lot. I was making a quiche, and actually following a recipe (rare for me, unless it's baked goods). It called for three eggs. I figured that the pan I was using was a little large, so did I double the recipe? No, that would be waaaay too easy. I figured I'd make it with 4 eggs instead of 3, since it was just a little bigger than a normal pie pan. So now I get to guess at measurements, each one not twice the original, but 4/3 the original. Being a math goddess, of course I just do it all in my head, right? Which was ok until I kept going down the list and some part of my head was convinced that I was doubling the recipe, instead of just increasing it by a third. That was ok for the greens, and for the parmesan cheese, but I probably should not have doubled the garlic (I can still taste that!). Oh, and I don't have a pastry mixer thingy any more (you know, that thing with a handle and little wires?), so I decided I'd just make a crust out of --- if any foodies are reading this, please just click away and get back to work or whatever you should be doing right now --- Bisquick! Except Bisquick isn't really for pie crusts, so it was a really thick biscuit-type thing (and I ad-libbed by adding cheese to the Bisquick "crust"). To complicate matters further, my new house has a convection oven. It will cook on "normal" mode as well, but why would I use the normal mode when I know convection is faster? (argh, I'm the same way in the car: why drive 65 when I know I can go 74 without getting pulled over?) So I'm always guessing on oven temperature (my rule of thumb lower temp by 15 degrees if using convection) and time (takes less time to cook, even at a lower temperature).

Anyway, whatever it was I made didn't look or taste anything like a quiche. It was OK, not knock-your-socks-off-great, but OK. It's a good thing my husband and I like garlic, because no self-respecting vampire would dare darken our door now.

I used to think I could cook. I mean, any idiot can follow a recipe, right? But one sad side effect of going out to eat at good restaurants so much is that I realize what a sucky cook I really am.