Things don't always go as planned...

Apparently everyone else liked tonight's meal, but it didn't turn out as fabulous as I was hoping it would. I almost came up with another recipe to talk about, but then I thought, well, I can't always just be praising myself. I'm not some master cook who knows everything; I'm just a girl trying a bunch of stuff out and seeing what doesn't go wrong. Tonight I wanted to sort of combine what I did with the ham last week with the pepper sauce I made a few weeks back. I was hoping for this tangy/salty/sweet combo that was going to knock the guys off of their feet, but one or two excess ingredients later...here I am. I think I started out okay. I cut up the chicken and coated it with the mustard/brown sugar sauce, put the bacon in the oven, and diced up some peppers and put them, with some olive oil, in a pot. When I switched out the bacon for the chicken, I noticed there was a ton of oil, so I figured, why not add some of it to the peppers. I thought it'd add a little bit of flavor....but I honestly think this is what screwed things up. If there is a next time, I'll just leave it at the bacon itself. Every time I tried to add mustard to the pot to give it the same sauce as the chicken, it kept breaking up in the oil and not really doing anything. I tried adding a pinch of ginger, some salt, and even a chopped up apple, but nothing would fix it (I had already added brown sugar alright, but I didn't want it to be too sweet). Also, while I was trying to fix everything, the apple and pepper cooked down so small, you would have barely known they were there. Like I said though, everyone else seemed to think it was really good. I guess I just couldn't get past the lack of  the particular flavor I was going for and the excess of bacon grease aftertaste.  At least I didn't have to scrap the whole thing! That would have been a real punch to the cooking confidence. Though, as Alton Brown says in my newly acquired I'm Just Here for the Food 2.0, "if you do mess up a few dishes in the name of education--hey, it's only food."