Cooking
I have come to the conclusion that I am a poor cook. I'm not a bad cook, but I'm just not that great at it. Give me a meal in a box and I can whip it up no problem. Hamburger helper, tacos, spaghetti, curry, etc. etc. are things I tend to make a lot (cheap and fast). But when it actually involves making from scratch...well...it always tastes better if someone else does it.
Thanksgiving was a bust. It was just me and Chris, but still... I tried to put a turkey breast roast in the slow cooker, fancy and healthy mashed potatoes that were mostly cauliflower, brown gravy (from an envelope), turkey stuffing (stove top, natch), and crescent rolls. The stuffing was fine. It's hard to eff up Stove Top, after all. The turkey was ok, but we ended up getting a dark meat/light meat boneless roast instead of just breast and the dark meat was basically just shitty left over meat. The gravy was tasteless. The potatoes were AWFUL despite what my kind husband said. But worst of all...was the rolls.
Now these were the Pillsbury Crescent rolls. You know, the kind in the can that you roll up and stick in the oven for 14 minutes. Yes, I royally screwed those up and it pretty much ruined the meal for me. You see, our oven doesn't cook bread right. It tends to burn the bottoms of rolls and biscuits without thoroughly cooking the roll through. I have tried turning down the over, putting the rolls on the highest rack, and other things but it always burned the rolls on the bottom. This time, I was going to be smart, I turned the over down so the bottoms wouldn't get burned so badly and then at the end, I was going to turn the broiler on for about 10 second to toast the tops and finish the rolls off so they weren't too soft. Well...I boned that by having something else get done right after I turned the broiler on. I ended up leaving them in for about a minute. They were charcoal. It was so stupid. I should have just used the toaster over or made different biscuits...but they were beyond ruined. They were comically ruined. Seriously...little black lumps on the cookie sheet (which I'm beginning to this is the culprit for the burning shit).
By that time I was ready to dump everything into the garbage. I think next year we will just buy a pre-cooked turkey or go out for a nice T-day dinner. In all the time I save, maybe I will go work in a soup kitchen or something. Stupid cooking!
Blah...cooking sucks. When we go out or buy pre-made stuff, it always tastes better than my best effort. I've decided to try to get Chris to cook more. Or at least come up with ideas. He's more imaginative than I am with food. I just need to cure him of his fear of screwing up while cooking. I think he would be a great cook if he applied himself. I have applied myself and it just doesn't seem to be working. Hmph...
Thanksgiving was a bust. It was just me and Chris, but still... I tried to put a turkey breast roast in the slow cooker, fancy and healthy mashed potatoes that were mostly cauliflower, brown gravy (from an envelope), turkey stuffing (stove top, natch), and crescent rolls. The stuffing was fine. It's hard to eff up Stove Top, after all. The turkey was ok, but we ended up getting a dark meat/light meat boneless roast instead of just breast and the dark meat was basically just shitty left over meat. The gravy was tasteless. The potatoes were AWFUL despite what my kind husband said. But worst of all...was the rolls.
Now these were the Pillsbury Crescent rolls. You know, the kind in the can that you roll up and stick in the oven for 14 minutes. Yes, I royally screwed those up and it pretty much ruined the meal for me. You see, our oven doesn't cook bread right. It tends to burn the bottoms of rolls and biscuits without thoroughly cooking the roll through. I have tried turning down the over, putting the rolls on the highest rack, and other things but it always burned the rolls on the bottom. This time, I was going to be smart, I turned the over down so the bottoms wouldn't get burned so badly and then at the end, I was going to turn the broiler on for about 10 second to toast the tops and finish the rolls off so they weren't too soft. Well...I boned that by having something else get done right after I turned the broiler on. I ended up leaving them in for about a minute. They were charcoal. It was so stupid. I should have just used the toaster over or made different biscuits...but they were beyond ruined. They were comically ruined. Seriously...little black lumps on the cookie sheet (which I'm beginning to this is the culprit for the burning shit).
By that time I was ready to dump everything into the garbage. I think next year we will just buy a pre-cooked turkey or go out for a nice T-day dinner. In all the time I save, maybe I will go work in a soup kitchen or something. Stupid cooking!
Blah...cooking sucks. When we go out or buy pre-made stuff, it always tastes better than my best effort. I've decided to try to get Chris to cook more. Or at least come up with ideas. He's more imaginative than I am with food. I just need to cure him of his fear of screwing up while cooking. I think he would be a great cook if he applied himself. I have applied myself and it just doesn't seem to be working. Hmph...