The empty flour bag can stop a confident morning sooner than a difficult recipe.

Ambition fails on supplies more often than on skill. You have the technique, the time and the enthusiasm, and none of it survives the discovery that the one basic ingredient ran out last week. Complicated things are usually beaten by simple absences, which is a quietly annoying feature of most plans.

Before you start anything you are looking forward to, check what it needs while you are still cheerful about it. Lay it out on the counter. Five minutes of looking beforehand protects an hour of goodwill that is surprisingly hard to get back once it goes.