I have a love hate relationship with all things culinary.
The thing is I am a creative person and I love to eat. So one would thing the kitchen would be the perfect place for me. However, there is just too much pressure.
I like for the creative mood to strike me every couple of days or so. But that’s not how the people’s stomachs in my house operate. The people I live with like to eat three meals a day.
And then there is this issue with fresh things going bad. I can go to the store, buy all kinds of breads and fresh meats and lots of green things but by the time I get it all put away, I have used up all my brain cells.
I then need a few days to feel motivated to do something with all those supplies. By then half of it has gone bad. Then I feel terrible and resort back to boxed items that only need to have water added.
You know it’s bad when the lack of your kitchen savvy starts to effect the way your kids think about cooking. The other day my 9 year old daughter was pretending she was the next Rachel Ray as she demonstrated to her pretend TV audience how to make sweet rolls.
She first instructed her audience to lay out all the ingredients, preheat the oven and melt some butter in the microwave.
Then she took a triangle of crescent roll dough from a tube and told her audience to butter one side and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. “Then you take a marshmallow and hold it up. You check all sides of it make sure there is no mold. Then you wrap the crescent roll around it.”
Excuse me?
Did my child just instruct the pretend thousands watching her show that the marshmallows from my kitchen must be checked for mold?
Clearly I will not be hearing from the real Rachel Ray anytime soon asking me to be a guest on her show.
Unless of course she decided to do some sort of extreme homemaker makeover, then I would make a mighty fine candidate for sure.
The thing is I am a creative person and I love to eat. So one would thing the kitchen would be the perfect place for me. However, there is just too much pressure.
I like for the creative mood to strike me every couple of days or so. But that’s not how the people’s stomachs in my house operate. The people I live with like to eat three meals a day.
And then there is this issue with fresh things going bad. I can go to the store, buy all kinds of breads and fresh meats and lots of green things but by the time I get it all put away, I have used up all my brain cells.
I then need a few days to feel motivated to do something with all those supplies. By then half of it has gone bad. Then I feel terrible and resort back to boxed items that only need to have water added.
You know it’s bad when the lack of your kitchen savvy starts to effect the way your kids think about cooking. The other day my 9 year old daughter was pretending she was the next Rachel Ray as she demonstrated to her pretend TV audience how to make sweet rolls.
She first instructed her audience to lay out all the ingredients, preheat the oven and melt some butter in the microwave.
Then she took a triangle of crescent roll dough from a tube and told her audience to butter one side and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. “Then you take a marshmallow and hold it up. You check all sides of it make sure there is no mold. Then you wrap the crescent roll around it.”
Excuse me?
Did my child just instruct the pretend thousands watching her show that the marshmallows from my kitchen must be checked for mold?
Clearly I will not be hearing from the real Rachel Ray anytime soon asking me to be a guest on her show.
Unless of course she decided to do some sort of extreme homemaker makeover, then I would make a mighty fine candidate for sure.
38 Comments:
I know exactly what you mean. To make matters worse, once you finally spend an hour or two in the kitchen cooking something from your fresh(ish) ingredients, your family goes and eats it. (!!!) I know that's the whole point, but anything I put that much time into planning, shopping for and preparing needs to be admired for at least a week.
But then there's that whole mold thing again.
What I'm waiting for is those Star Trek replicators, or that thing on the Jetsons where you tell the computer what you want and it makes it.
That and a laundry-bot.
The Merrill house is a Hamburger Helper, Ragu sauce, Hot Pockets, cereal for supper house! I have about five things I can cook "from scratch" and I just cook this over and over with some convenience food meals thrown in between. Shoot me an email if you want my super easy, but yummy to the family recipes that they never get tired of eating! And...hopefully this will make you feel better..........your books are yummy to my hungry heart that craves God's truth!
They really need to make marshmallows in smaller bags because I have enough guilt in my life without the moldy marshmallows jumping on. I throw a a half a bag of marshmallows away every six months.
I've successfully convinced my children that mold is a seasoning. Much like oregano.
All I can say my friend is that I'd be providing some stiff competition when it comes to that Rachel Ray make-over!!!
I love it when you write about your culinary challenges. Surrounded here by friends who ENJOY the kitchen (that must be an oxymoron), it's comforting to know I have a friend South of the border who understands my woes!
There's nothing wrong with adding water to a mix or opening a box of frozen whatever, as long as it's done with love!
"Better is a dinner of microwaved frozen food where love is than a six-course gourmet dinner and hatred therewith" Proverbs 15:17 (personalized!)
Have a great day.
Love ya,
Joy
Amen Joy!
What I do is seem to do is buy fresh fruits and vegitables and leave them to rot.
Last week I thought I would be smart and make a double recipe of some chicken rice thing. It turned out to be something I will never make again. My poor husband has been eating it for lunch the past week. I won't touch it.
Our children:
So observant, so honest, so cute!
Have a great day.
Blessings, Cindy
(snort) Everyone knows the first step with a MARSHMALLOW is to bang it on the counter to see if it still has any give left in it! :-) Obviously, I operate much like you do -- and pretend-Rachel-Ray would have lots of glorious instructions about what to do with things that come out of the refrigerator, as well...
Lysa, I think I've said this before: we MUST be related :-)
(And Suzie Eller thinks we look alike! What a compliment for me, to look like you!) Apparently I cook like you too!
She's a smart girl. I don't like mold on my marshmallows either. Too funny!!
I know exactly what you're talking about!! I am so glad I'm not alone! I realized this weekend as I came home from the store - that while I'd bought everything for the evening meals for the week, I'd totally forgot breakfast for my husband for the week. *sigh*
I tell ya... It feels great to read your blog this morning. Thanks for making me feel slightly more normal ;)
I know exactly what you're talking about!! I am so glad I'm not alone! I realized this weekend as I came home from the store - that while I'd bought everything for the evening meals for the week, I'd totally forgot breakfast for my husband for the week. *sigh*
I tell ya... It feels great to read your blog this morning. Thanks for making me feel slightly more normal ;)
Oh Lysa, I will be having Gene read this post. Just the other day he threw out what once was a head of cauliflower, but somehow after weeks of being in the bottom drawer turned into a green watery substance. It was disgusting. He was complaining, I don't know why you waste money on this stuff.
I calmly answered, "because Gene, I want my family to be healthy."
If only I could remember to serve the cauliflower with the hamburger helper, my man would have nothing to complain about! ;) And I would feel less guilty about our box meal.
~sigh~ I've accepted that I cannot do it all. Some things have to be sacrificed!
That's hilarious about the moldy marshmellows!
Can I sign up for Brooke's next extreme makeover? : )
I have had a lot of Kitchen guilt lately, too. My first grade daughter was given an assignment from school to eat five servings a day of fruit and veggies for one month and record it on the calendar they provided. Ugh! It is NOT happening!
As someone who struggles with this as well, it is really comforting and refreshing to read your posts and the other comments here.
Thanks to you, Lysa, and to those who chimed in in agreement.
Hah! I have things growing in my crisper drawer right now that need pitched but, well, I'm scared to open them. They used to be things like tomatoes, lettuce and I think one of them was a cucumber but I won't put money on it.
If you add one ingredient to something along the lines of hamburger helper, one not listed on the box, you have created an original recipe! :) I have lots of "original recipe" items such as this!
Who needs Rachel Ray when we have you...RealWorld Ray of Cooking. :)
Have a great week y'all!
The way I look at it, Lysa, is a girl can only do so much. I can either write an article or toss moldy food out of the crisper.
By the way, my marshmallows don't mold, they harden into one sticky blob, which, I believe, could be used to to hold the space shuttle together.
crescent rolls and marshmallow? dude! i need that recipe!
crescent rolls and marshmallow? dude! i need that recipe!
crescent rolls and marshmallow? dude! i need that recipe!
sorry about that! i don't know how i managed to publish my comment 3 times. feel free to delete some!
maybe it's God saying i REALLY need that recipe?
Right there with you, Lysa. Just never quite got the hang of the kitchen thing. Every now and then I get a hankerin to cook or bake or something, but it's always short lived. Same with caring for plants.
My daughter has been watching Food Network for years, probably out of necessity or because she was tired of frozen pizza. Now, at 13 she cooks 50% of the meals. When we have guests, she cooks. When we take dinner to someone in need, she cooks. In fact, any time anyone tastes anything good that comes from our house they automatically assume she made it.
That's funny about the mold comment. Every few months I suddenly remember that the pantry and refrigerator haven't been cleaned out in a while. Oh my goodness, what unique "treasures" we find.
Right there with you, Lysa. Just never quite got the hang of the kitchen thing. Every now and then I get a hankerin to cook or bake or something, but it's always short lived. Same with caring for plants.
My daughter has been watching Food Network for years, probably out of necessity or because she was tired of frozen pizza. Now, at 13 she cooks 50% of the meals. When we have guests, she cooks. When we take dinner to someone in need, she cooks. In fact, any time anyone tastes anything good that comes from our house they automatically assume she made it.
That's funny about the mold comment. Every few months I suddenly remember that the pantry and refrigerator haven't been cleaned out in a while. Oh my goodness, what unique "treasures" we find.
I totally understand!! I buy the healthy stuff and then when I cook it; my husband (all 140 lbs of him) is not hungary because he ate his meal for the week at work and my grandson wouldn't dare eat something you couldn't eat with your fingers and have it drenched in pools of catsup!
So I have spent the week's grocery budget on me... this is not a good thing at all.
Rachel Ray would be hard pressed to please the male population in one meal at our house!!!
My biggest problem is time, time, and time. I have three kids who are busy with sports, a husband who works 24 hour shifts and is gone 1/3 of the time. (The benefit is that he makes the best darn homemade enchilada's you will ever try!) Tuesday evenings, after 6pm is the only time it is relatively safe to assume I can get everyone at the dinner table.
I went to the grocery store yesterday and planned for the next two weeks. We'll see how it goes. I did make Tuna casserole yesterday, with leftovers for today. Next Sunday I will make homemade Chop Suey that will be leftovers on Monday. Then I have about 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper and at least one box of Mac and Cheese. This will carry me for at least a couple of meals.
And I have my "own" Rachel Ray. Except her name is Pat and she is my mother-in-law. People solicite her to cook for them. Then there is me, who has a few recipies I make really well and the rest if boxed..
Have a great day!
Julie
Your daughter is so stinkin' cute! Check for mold. That cracks me up. I'm with Sarah though - you need to check it to make sure it's not hard as a bring, able to be used as a rock in a slingshot first!
Oh Lysa!! You make me laugh!! And you remind me so much of myself. I'm with ya on this one, lol.
And your daughter is a hoot too!!
Blessings,
Michelle in CA
I never have marshmallows in my house. I buy them to make s'mores but my kids keep doing science experiments with them instead. They make taffy, blow them up in the microwave ect I am in a total rut right now with meal preparation. I saw some web site that you can go to and enter what you have in the frig and then it comes up with a recipe for you to make. When I can actually get the food teleported in I might just try it.
Have a happy day!!
I hear you! We have this problem in our house, which is only exacerbated by the fact that we shop at Costco... yes, perishables go bad. Sad times.
~Luke
Too funny! Checking mold, expiration dates...yi yi yi! Lysa, I'm the same way. Some kind of domestic bug hit me last night and I bought food from afar (Walmart). I slapped a roast in the crockpot with potatoes and carrots and lipton onion soup mix and remembered to turn it on low. Got out to the car and remembered to go back in and add water. It will be ready for supper when we come in from work, I pray. I was telling a friend that I wondered what hit me to actually use the crockpot and she thinks it's age. Bwahahaha! She asked what the occasion was. She knows me so well....
At least she didn't think green marshmallows were normal. That is a big plus for you. Being a Chef I just want to rush to your house and show you it doesn't have to be so bad. When I was a soccer mom, I developed a two week rotation menu that worked for everyone. This came complete with grocery list. I am thinking I might market this. But if I can give you any tips in the kitchen let me know. I would love to help.
God Bless,
Chef Diane
Still plugging cooking co-op. I cook one day a week (for 4 families), and 3 days a week a delicious meal is delivered to my home. Then we have leftovers, church night, and take out the other nights. Easy.
I've never had a marshmallow mold. But as Julie Gillies said, I have had one giant sticky mess.
(the better to make smores with!)
Don't feel bad. I have the same thing going on here. I buy fresh because it's healthier. I cook with it but then it's the leftovers that get me. I plan another meal to use the scrap ingredients but LIFE happens before I can get back in the kitchen. Alas, microwave meals... At least then, there's no waste!
Keep smiling!
Sanya
I am the same way. I am determined to be creative in the kitchen, I buy all that stuff, forget I have it, it goes bad. Or better yet I spend hours preparing something and no on else likes it. apparently they are quite content with that little glove guy on the box
So does it make you feel better that AT LEAST 30 others are willing to admit they are right there with you. Too funny that you posted about that today. I have just started a few posts about meal planning/couponing and debated just how much of the "real" stuff I should share. I am very open with personal bedlam on my blog, but thought...hmm...do I tell that we eat expired stuff all the time? hee hee
I'll just send them here. :)
We are kindred culinary spirits.
Next time warn us on just how funny the post will be! I just chocked on my "gourmet" peanut butter & jelly!
Lynn
That's hilarious. No offense. Not that you MIGHT have mold on your marshies but that your daughter would say that to her pretend audience. Don't ya just love the mind of kids. My 5 and 7 year old neices play pretend stuff all the time. If only they new how "real" life is.
Post a Comment
Home