Wednesday 30 March 2011

The Disaster Doesn't Have to be in the Cooking

It might be in the expression used in thanking Doris for the lovely food she cooks:


I've just had a lovely dinner of risotto, cooked expertly by Marie Pendle. It was as good as Uncle Ben's 2-minute Microwave Risotto!
Yesterday at 20:06 ·  ·  · 
    • Marie Pendle you are so talking yourself out of being cooked for and having your dinner when you walk in from work, you know
      Yesterday at 20:06 ·  ·  3 people
    • Rick Brown It was a compliment! I really enjoy Uncle Ben's 2-minute Microwave Risotto!
      Yesterday at 20:41 · 
    • Marie Pendle Lucky that, you might be eating a lot more of it ¬_¬
      Yesterday at 20:42 · 
    • Gary Axtell Ah, Spring. Where love blooms anew, and risotto flies through the air. ;)
      Yesterday at 20:56 · 
    • David Miller Clean socks and fresh Risotto the same day, wheee ;)
      23 hours ago · 
    • Rick Brown I'm a lucky, lucky man. I've just been told so!
      23 hours ago · 

Another Facebook Crossposting

This wasn't a disaster, but I think that the Facebook comments make it worthwhile for inclusion:


No cookery disaster, so no blog entry. However, it surprised me yesterday when I discovered that there is an audible difference between grating cheese and grating knuckle skin. I hadn't realised that you could tell what you were grating by the sound it makes!
Sunday at 13:03 ·  ·  · 
  • Claire Thomas likes this.
    • Katherine Beaudette Uh...that's one warning sign, I suppose...
      Sunday at 13:05 · 
    • Cara Gatenby Just please don't invest in a mandolin slicer!!
      Sunday at 13:09 · 
    • Katherine Beaudette Why would he want to slice mandolins? They're not very tasty...

      ;)
      Sunday at 13:10 · 
    • Marie Pendle we have a mandolin, he's not allowed anywhere near it :)
      Sunday at 13:15 ·  ·  2 people
    • Cara Gatenby Thank God for that, he'll keep all of his fingers then :-). Lock it away in case he gets tempted.
      Sunday at 13:27 · 
    • Penelope Z Weinberger the cheese doesn't yelp...
      Sunday at 15:06 · 
    • Gary Axtell Remind me never to taste any port wine cheddar served by you! ;)
      Sunday at 15:29 · 
    • Ben Pettifer Slightly concerned that your nervous system
      operates at less than the speed of sound...
      Sunday at 16:16 · 
    • Leanne Victoria Brown please don't grate your fingers off until after the wedding, id rather have pictures with someone that has 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand!!
      Sunday at 17:25 · 
    • Marie Pendle I'll put him in mittens for the next eighteen months ;)
      Sunday at 17:28 ·  ·  1 person
    • Gary Axtell A mitten like this, you mean?

      http://tinyurl.com/48vvc6w
      Sunday at 18:09 · 
    • Karl Reeves Ragh wine and blood cheese. Very Klingon dish. Quapla!
      Sunday at 23:07 · 
    • Elfy Fett I distinctly remember grating my fingers, as a kid, while grating carrots for a salad. No bueno.
      Sunday at 23:18 · 
    • Karinne Taylor What Ben said.
      Monday at 12:26 · 

Thursday 24 March 2011

Herbs on Salmon

Doris is out this evening, so I'm fending for myself.

Looking in the fridge, I see some out-of-date mince, some out-of-date chicken and some out-of-date salmon. They are only a day-or-two out-of-date, and Doris has told me in the past that those dates don't take correct refrigeration into account, so I'm safe with any of them.

Salmon, I choose you!

Ok, I have two skinless salmon fillets. I have seen salmon fried in the past, but the instructions on the side of the packet only say to bake them (25 minutes) or to microwave them (2 minutes). Therefore, to the microwave!

On the way to the microwave, I notice the rack of dried herbs. I recall that I've seen herbs served on fish, so I decide to see what would go well with salmon.

I sniff basil, rosemary, marjoram, parsley and oregano. One smells like tea, one like curry, and the others I can't really tell.

I don't want my salmon tasting of tea or curry, so I select rosemary to sprinkle on one fillet before microwaving it, and oregano to sprinkle on the other.

I'm feeling almost like a cook!

After microwaving, I retrieve them, serve them and eat them.

The only difference I can tell between rosemary and oregano is the size of the numerous bits that I need to pick out of my teeth!

Monday 7 March 2011

I think I'm learning stuff!

I am! I really think so!

Over the weekend, we visited our good friends Rawk & Lillith, and their impossibly cute infant daughter. I helped Rawk cook the meal that we had by slicing vegetables.

I managed to explode squash seeds all over the kitchen when Rawk wasn't monitoring my actions. He turned around and wordlessly handed me a spoon to scoop the seeds out properly, rather than me struggling with the vegetable knife with which I'd sliced the gourd open.

He showed me what to do with a leek. I already knew what to do with the other vegetables, although I was too slow at chopping so he cut some potatoes to throw into the bowl.

Last night, I cooked pasta bolognese for Doris. No disasters, and I included an onion and a leek in my bolognese. She even complimented my meal on Facebook, so it must have been an improvement to my notmal cooking!

I've also stumbled across a couple of web sites. I will read them in due course, but if I don't copy the names down, I know I'll forget:
http://startcooking.com/
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
Other suggestions of useful web sites for worse-than-beginners are welcome.

I think I'm learning stuff!

I am! I really think so!

Over the weekend, we visited Rawk & Lillith. I helped Rawk by slicing vegetables for the meal that we had.

Ok, I managed to explode squash seeds all over the kitchen when Rawk wasn't monitoring my actions. He turned around and wordlessly handed me a spoon to scoop the seeds out properly, rather than me struggling with the vegetable knife with which I'd sliced the gourd open.

He showed me what to do with a leek. I already knew what to do with the other vegetables, although I was too slow at chopping so he cut some potatoes.

Last night, I cooked pasta bolognese for Doris. No disasters, and I included an onion and a leek in my bolognese. She even complimented my meal on Facebook,

Thursday 3 March 2011

3 Eggs, Beaten

Doris fancied something quick for dinner this evening. She selected scrambled egg on toast, as she was quite hungry. Off I popped to the kitchen (after verifying the ingredients for scrambled egg).

The first egg, broke perfectly (well, with one piece of eggshell that I had to retrieve out of the pyrex bowl).

The second egg, I broke it against the side of the bowl and the shell shattered, leaving the membrane mostly intact. I had to drop the egg into the bowl whilst I fished out all of the eggshell shards.

The third egg ... I pulled it out of the eggbox. It left a piece of eggshell there, and the albumen started seeping out of it. I threw it across the kitchen to land in the bowl before much more of the egg escaped.

When I asked Doris if she would like me to pour the albumen from the eggbox into the bowl, she suggested that I pour it into our recycling bin instead.