Sunday 28 February 2010

You can boil a potato!

I moved out of home at about 19 and into a lovely apartment with two friends. This was fairly smooth and not at all traumatic (well not for me, my mother may not agree) Things went along nicely until one night when I discovered that without a microwave I had no idea how to cook a potato! Lucky for me my mum was available 24/7 on the phone. Mum answered her mobile and proceeded to explain that I could boil a potato in a nice pot of water! Really? WOW who would have known? Several days later I discovered that this phone conversation had taken place in front of several of mum's friends and I had been cause for great amusement. Not long after this I acquired a boyfriend who did ALL the cooking. What joy! So I barely set foot in a kitchen for several years. When this relationship broke up I spent a fortune on eating out. At age 24 I moved in with my then boyfriend (now husband). The first few dinners consisted of pizza or Chinese take away while we sorted the house out. Then when J went off to work on the Monday morning and returned late that night he innocently asked "What's for dinner?" "WHAT, you expect me to cook?" I asked, a bit astonished. "Well do you expect me to cook?" he asked. "Yes", I replied. "Every night", he asked. "Well……" And then I got the point, if I expected to have an equal division of chores then I would have to cook too. My first meal was a disaster (I can't even remember what it may have been) and I dare say that for some time my meals-unless consisting of prepared sauces etc- would have been pretty awful. I burnt rice, undercooked, over cooked and mixed terrible flavours with abandon. Thankfully J cooked several nights a week so didn't starve and he had the good grace not to gag or complain while I found my cooking skills. Six years later and my husband cooks very rarely, I am head cook for the family and most of the time I am happy with this arrangement (having to do the dishes as well is another matter entirely) I am no gourmet cook but I can hold my own and have even pulled off Christmas lunch for the whole family, which is a whole story in itself! For some time now I have wanted to start doing more cooking with my girls, but the mess (I can wreck the kitchen perfectly well on my own thank you) the fuss and the cleaning up afterward have put me off. Today though I remembered the potato incident and decided that I better bite the bullet. So we made jelly, nice easy simple not messy jelly and the girls loved it!

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