I never took home ec, I can't sew, I've never grown a garden and most of my cooking knowledge comes from the directions on the Lean Cuisine box. Despite being fully aware of my lack of domestic skills, I volunteered to cook dinner for B#1 last night. I warned him that I wasn't much of a cook and that there was a good possibility that I'd end up ordering in pizza (see my burnt brownie post) but being the brave soldier that he is, he eagerly agreed to the plan.
I went with a baked chicken dish that has always been my old standby though I don't think I've actually cooked for anyone in over a year ... possibly two. I didn't have any of my cookbooks with me (it's not like I actually USE them and they're an incredible waste of space in my car) so my johnny-on-the-spot Martha Stewart - a.k.a. Mom emailed me the recipe. So the menu was baked chicken, Country Style Chicken Kiev as it was called in our household, red potatoes with garlic, parsley and butter, and "salad." Of course what I called salad was green stuff in a bag, with some croutons and dressing, not a lot of stress with the prep there.
In the end, I don't think it was awful. I mean he ate it and didn't seem sick, and didn't report foodborne illness symptoms the next day. He said it was good, but let's be honest, when a woman cooks for you, any man with sense knows that you compliment the cook even if it sucks. I warned him that he had pretty much experienced the full range of my culinary skills such as they are.
And you know I wanted to take home ec in high school but my guidance counselor told me to take Physics instead! Let's see, at age 33 how often do I need to calculate trajectories? Angle of descent? Force applied on an object?? Stupid counselor.
2 comments:
Actually, I think it's really cool that your counselor wanted you to take physics. At least they weren't gendertyping you ;) Besides, all cooking takes practice. And if you hadn't done it since high school you'd still need the practice. From what I understand, home ec doesn't really teach you *that* much anyway!
For the future, try allrecipes.com. They have great recipes and they're easy to search, especially if you're hunting to do something with a particular ingredient, like artichokes, asparagus, or some other anonymous "a" veggie ;)
Point taken. I was just thinking that it was uncool that at my college prep high school, only the "deadbeats" were encouraged to take home ec or typing ... both skills that would prove useful whether college bound or not
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