. . . well for starters, he’s male and I’m female so that just wouldn’t work but in my bid to be homemaker extraordinaire I have been trying to make a little more effort in the kitchen. I’ve never been much of a ready meal cook anyway so it’s not like I’m a bad cook, I just don’t really enjoy it. Well, that is to say, I didn’t really enjoy it until I started to make a little more effort with it in the last few months. I would happily bake cakes until the cows come home but then I might be mistaken for a heifer myself so I’m trying to curb that hobby a little.
I reached a point when doing the food shopping that I was bored with picking up the same things week in, week out but again, that was down to me as I’m not much of a meat-eater. I don’t like the texture of it and so I just don’t bother cooking it, but recently I have started to linger for longer in the meat aisle and have started to buy beef, pork and lamb instead of my safety net chicken and as a result I have found some great new recipes which Hubby and Mum are delighted with. In return I get a sense of satisfaction that I have cooked something which they love, my Mum even sent me a text to tell me how proud she was of me (and that’s not new because I know that she is, but we’ve never ventured into the realms of cookery before).
I’m slowly getting to grips with my slow cooker, I have dusted off my steamer and I’m trying out some of the recipes in some of my 30 or so cookery books. Last night on the menu I made Spanish Pork Casserole which was pretty darn tasty (although I only ate three pieces of pork), I’m getting pretty good at Stroganoff, I’m a whizz at pasta dishes but there are a few things which guarantee I will never be Jamie Oliver . . . if I buy meat and leave it in the fridge until I want to use it, I forget about it until it’s gone off and I have to throw it away. If I put it in the freezer, I forget to take it out and then my meal plan goes out of the window because I don’t have the necessary meat. On Tuesday I cooked a tasty stir fry but it was only as we sat down to eat that I realised I had forgotten to add the chicken.
Tonight my plan was to make a simple roast beef dinner but the meat was still frozen solid so I had to switch plans to my emergency stash of steak pies in the freezer (minced beef for me). I prepared all the vegetables and popped them in the steamer, then I coated my parsnips in olive oil before putting them in the toaster oven to roast and all was going well. Mum walked through the door and declared “ooh something smells nice” and then as I started to tell her what was for tea, it hit me (not the tea) I had forgotten potatoes. Quick dive into the cupboard in the hope that Curly’s instant mash potato was in stock, nope all gone so we had to resort McCain Potato Waffles. Not exactly the look and feel of the meal I was hoping for but it was tasty nonetheless. As I said, I think Jamie can sleep comfortably in his bed at night, there’s not much chance of me stealing his job any time soon!
Have you had any kitchen disasters, please make me feel better by sharing your stories – or perhaps you could make one up out of sympathy?