If you want something done right...

Last night, my wife was craving burritos. We were feeling lazy, and more importantly, we are broke. The logical answer was homemade burritos. I'm a decent cook, no problem. I can make a good filling for burritos, but the exterior is problematic. We had no tortillas in the house. Like I said, we were feeling lazy and we're broke. What to do? What to do?


My wife says, "Why not make the tortillas?" She whips out a cookbook, and there is an authentic recipe. It seemed easy enough. Long story made short, it didn't go well. I couldn't get them thin enough. So, the thin (but not thin enough) ones were like saltine crackers that can break your teeth. Grandpa used to call it hardtack. The thicker ones were like raw dough with a tooth-breaking saltine crust.


I used to work the breakfast shift for a large fast-food chain. I worked with a little old lady named Maureen. Her only job was to come in from 5-7 a.m. to make the buttermilk biscuits. Trust me, most biscuits at most fast-food chains are mediocre, but edible. Hers were amazing. They were thick and dense, yet light and airy at the same time. They hovered in the rare place that is not soggy, not greasy, and not dry. A lot of people came in for Maureen's biscuits, including little old ladies who also made good biscuits. But everyone knew Maureen's were better. I'd tell you where to get them, but Maureen is most likely long gone. I know that particular locale ( just a link in the chain) is definitely long gone, because some lady in the drive-thru saw an employee whizzing in the orange drink. But the biscuits were good.


Here's the moral of the story. If you know a restaurant can make a food item better than you can, maybe you should just let them. It cuts both ways, though. If you know you can make something better (and possibly cheaper) at home, by all means , do it.