I enjoy thinking about food, especially planning food for an intimate dinner or a casual Sunday brunch. I lose myself in daydreaming about what I’ll make and how I’ll prepare each dish, from the prep work to the rotation schedule for when each dish goes into the oven next.

So, with so much energy spent on planning, it’s a shock to learn that a dish you’ve daydreamed about so strongly (and felt was a creative mix of flavors) turns out to be an existing, published recipe. I spent days thinking through this fruit salad which I planned to coat with a ginger syrup and bits of mint. Before starting it though, I did a quick Google search to see if anyone had made anything quite like it.

To my disappointment, an exact recipe already existed. Damn you, Epicurious!
[click to continue…]