What to do when a recipe doesn't work...

Have you ever noticed how some recipes look really good on paper but just don't work? I had that experience recently with a pasta and broccoli recipe. I made it just like the recipe dictated but it came out tasting like really lousy hospital food.

As a result, I'd like to offer some suggestions for what to do when a recipe doesn't work.

1) Double check the recipe to make sure you didn't forget anything.
2) Add spices. If your recipe is as bland as baby food, raid your cupboard to see what you can do to "spice" it up.
3) Add garlic. This mostly applies to guys. They seem to love garlic for some strange reason...
4) Add your own "special ingredient". Whenever I make brownies from a mix, I throw in chocolate chips. Your own additions can be a huge improvement.
5) Add cheese. Cheese can turn some really lousy dishes into real treats.

Rich (a co-worker) emailed me a friendly suggestion today. He says "Having left-over's three days in a row isn't bad if you add more ketchup to it."

So if you're anything like Rich, you can always just ketchup.