Domestic Goddesticity
I’m all for feminism and being a career woman. The only problem is that I like a bit of domestic bliss as well and therein lies the problem. I just don’t have time for both. In my ideal world I would be holding down a sensible and high flying job during the day and spending my evenings and weekends, socialising, baking, reading, shopping and taking long walks followed by hot baths. It all sounds like heaven. Sadly it would appear that I don’t have time for heaven, as was brought home to me over the weekend.
It should have been so simple. With a busy week in front of me (our big event happening this coming Saturday) I was going to do some leisurely cooking and baking in advance and then freezing it, ready to be defrosted for quick and easy eating after a long day.
The plan was to make Chicken Paprika and some bread as an accompaniment. Delicious, or so I thought.
First to be made was the Chicken Paprika. Secure in the knowledge that I had correctly followed the recipe, I dished the chicken into individual portions to be stored in the freezer. It was on opening the fridge/freezer door that I noticed the yoghurt which I had forgotten to add to the Chicken Paprika. I can now expect to find my tongue ablaze with Paprika on eating this first delicacy.
I then realised that I had burned the pot I had cooked it in. Not just a little burn. Oh no, the kind of burn that a days soaking, a few hours boiling and some CIF couldn’t shift. I’ve now given up and will try to put a positive spin on the black crusty thing lurking at the bottom of my pot.
Now I know that Bread is a recurring theme of this blog so I apologise in advance but my second disaster was with yeast and dough. I made it once, it didn’t work out. I made it a second time and it was fine. I rested on my laurels and forgot the phrase “pride comes before a fall”. Oh and what a spectacular fall this was. I fell right out of those laurels and bashed my head on the ground, with not even a soft bit of bread to break my fall.
My excuse is that I was rushing the bread because, again, I didn’t have a lot of spare time. Secondly I thought that as I was now an experienced bread maker, I could cut corners, experiment and generally do what I wanted. THIS IS WRONG. ALWAYS RESPECT THE BREAD OR IT WILL NOT RESPECT YOU.
Corners were cut, quantities were changed and the result was a charred soggy mess that took me 5 ½ hours to achieve. I could have wept. In fact, I almost did, but I had visitors coming, so I had to keep my chin up, buy some cake and carry on.
When they did arrive, one look at the bread told them the sorry tale and when their toddler tried to take some, he was hastily dragged away by his mum.
Of course I am putting this lack of culinary skill down to the lack of time I had to do it. Nothing to do with just not being the domestic goddess that I would dearly wish to be.
It should have been so simple. With a busy week in front of me (our big event happening this coming Saturday) I was going to do some leisurely cooking and baking in advance and then freezing it, ready to be defrosted for quick and easy eating after a long day.
The plan was to make Chicken Paprika and some bread as an accompaniment. Delicious, or so I thought.
First to be made was the Chicken Paprika. Secure in the knowledge that I had correctly followed the recipe, I dished the chicken into individual portions to be stored in the freezer. It was on opening the fridge/freezer door that I noticed the yoghurt which I had forgotten to add to the Chicken Paprika. I can now expect to find my tongue ablaze with Paprika on eating this first delicacy.
I then realised that I had burned the pot I had cooked it in. Not just a little burn. Oh no, the kind of burn that a days soaking, a few hours boiling and some CIF couldn’t shift. I’ve now given up and will try to put a positive spin on the black crusty thing lurking at the bottom of my pot.
Now I know that Bread is a recurring theme of this blog so I apologise in advance but my second disaster was with yeast and dough. I made it once, it didn’t work out. I made it a second time and it was fine. I rested on my laurels and forgot the phrase “pride comes before a fall”. Oh and what a spectacular fall this was. I fell right out of those laurels and bashed my head on the ground, with not even a soft bit of bread to break my fall.
My excuse is that I was rushing the bread because, again, I didn’t have a lot of spare time. Secondly I thought that as I was now an experienced bread maker, I could cut corners, experiment and generally do what I wanted. THIS IS WRONG. ALWAYS RESPECT THE BREAD OR IT WILL NOT RESPECT YOU.
Corners were cut, quantities were changed and the result was a charred soggy mess that took me 5 ½ hours to achieve. I could have wept. In fact, I almost did, but I had visitors coming, so I had to keep my chin up, buy some cake and carry on.
When they did arrive, one look at the bread told them the sorry tale and when their toddler tried to take some, he was hastily dragged away by his mum.
Of course I am putting this lack of culinary skill down to the lack of time I had to do it. Nothing to do with just not being the domestic goddess that I would dearly wish to be.
8 comments:
Don't worry about it - we've all made some inedible food at one point or another. I've had disasters with rice noodle soup, kale and, most recently, corn pancakes. You can't win them all.
Thanks Katie - that makes me feel a bit better
My most recent disaster in the kitchen was an elegant strawberry shortcake. The shortcake was a bit short on the cake front and was rock solid, the cream wouldn't whip (despite me threatening it with several different mixers) so I did the only sensible thing and bought one. It looked lovely sitting on the kitchen table while I ate the beautiful strawberries.
You are very brave even attempting a strawberry shortcake. I'm feeling much better knowing that I'm not the only one who has the odd disaster. Thanks a lot NMOO. Of course I hope you told everyone that you had made it yourself.
The hot baths bit sounds like fun.
Thanks ILG. I'm glad you are enjoying my posts.
Have you got yourself a stalker Gwen?
Nice one!
VS
It would seem so wouldn't it. You know you've made it in Blogland when..............
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