It is no surprise to my family, and those friends most close to me, that I have a certain lack in skills when it comes to cooking. I’ve been meaning to detail my experiences, as they are sure to bring either laughter or complete disbelief, in blog form and share them with anyone that happens to cross my internet path.
I have various blunders, mishaps, and general confusion around even the most basic of items. For example, I recently had to look up a video youtube on how to dice a squash (it was clearly a different style than “chop it up”, otherwise the recipe would have said so). Also fairly recently, I had to google images of butternut squash and learned that no, it is not the pretty ones I can buy for decoration for fall.
Several weeks ago I learned that swirling oil in a skillet like flipping pancakes (holding the handle and using wrist motions) above the burner of the stove is a very, very bad idea. Some oil decided to escape and plummit to the surface of the burner, landing in such a way as to make a large flame burst forth and nearly catch me in the face. In the process, I jumped back for protection and almost dropped hot oil on my foot. Lesson learned.
Today I attempted no recipe, unlike my other adventures where I’ve followed a crock-pot recipe. I simply was following the directions on the back of frozen chicken tenderloins. The chicken was plain and I wanted to add some flavor. There were directions for the oven (we have no grill) but they didn’t include adding anything flavorful. Next to those directions were some for the grill and it stated to add some seasoning, first you must run the chicken under luke warm water. Ah, no problem there. It said I needed to remove the frozen layer to add my seasoning (in this case, Dash – love the stuff) – that makes sense enough; I need a place to attach my yummy-ness. Pat dry with paper towel. Alright, I got to work – ran the chicken under the water, laid on a paper towel, and proceeded to rinse other chicken. Why didn’t the bag say my paper towel would then be glued to the chicken!! I guess “pat-dry” really doesn’t mean “rest on paper towel for 30 seconds until glued”. Ugh. I ran the water over the chicken again (hopefully) removing all remnants of paper towel. Shh, don’t tell my husband.
The chicken just got done, as did the rice (now that I’m I pro at – boiling water for a rice packet). Time to test the cooking!
More adventures in cooking, coming soon.
Kristina Kelly – www.kristinaseyes.com/blog