Don't Look Back in Anger

Last week I had started to prepare a chicken pot pie to bring to my sister's house for Thursday dinner. I cooked up onions, carrots, peas, the sauce... shredded a chicken. The pie part of the chicken pot pie was topping the "filling" with puff pastry.
I had read the package wrong regarding the puff pastry, so instead of bringing it to my sisters place for supper, I put the filling in the fridge to use the next day. Life happened, and I was unable to eat the pot pie on Friday, so I put it in the freezer.

Fast forward to today. I pulled the pot pie out of the freezer this morning and left it in the fridge. When I got home from work I pulled the puff pastry out of the freezer. After two hours (as per the instructions) instead of having thawed puff pastry I had still-frozen puff pastry. As per the same instructions, I put the puff pastry in the microwave for two minutes.

Thank you instructions. #1) it should have been thawed after two hours at room temp, it was frozen solid still
#2) It said for fast defrost, microwave for 2-4 minutes.

Even after only microwaving for the lowest time recommended, I had been left with an oily, messy, doughy ball of goop. There is no way that mess was salvageable.

Brings me to the following advice. If you are going to be in the habit of trying new recipes, and working with unfamiliar ingredients... stock up on some easy backup foods like:
- frozen pizza
- dried pasta & canned sauces
- taco kits (store ground beef in the freezer)
- hamburger helper (same as above)
- canned soup
Sure, none of these things are impressive, but if you have spent a half hour/hour whatever on making a dish that somehow was ruined... you will appreciate having these simple backups ready to in only a short time. (And it sure beats trying to make something out of whatever is lying around the pantry)