Cooking is hard!

nobody@vox.com(dewitte) — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:30:44 -0400

Dang - Well, I'm not really THAT surprised, since I've done it before, but I certainly reset my belief system on what's involved in putting together a whole meal.

When I think back about the meals I used to cook when I was a kid for my parents, it would involve putting the frozen Salisbury steak in the oven and putting the instant potato flakes into the boiling water.

Yesterday, for Mother's day I cooked meatloaf that is packed into these red and green pepper rings that we saw on the Food Network show, "Cooking for Real", along with some fresh steamed asparagus and mashed potatoes. Yikes! Jamie stayed out of the kitchen, which is exactly what she should do for a Mother's day dinner. She did pop in once to throw something in the trash and hinted "You might want to slow down cooking those potatoes because they will get done too fast" Too fast?

Oh, well - about 10 minutes later and at least 45 minutes before the meatloaf was ready (I was still putting stuff in the mixing bowl), I announced that if anyone was interested, the mashed potatoes were all ready.

Cooking, unlike say anything else you might do on the planet, isn't something you do back to back. You have to figure out all the cooking times and try to work it so that everything is done at the same time. Jamie pulls this off without a hitch again and again - meanwhile I throw things in the microwave to keep them warm. I also had this great idea that I was going to use an old iron frying pan to sear the meatloaf. I went into the garage, got it off the wall where it was hanging and scrubbed it out. After getting it up to temperature and putting in just the right amount of oil, I put in a meatloaf "sample" so we could taste it. About a minute later, I remembered why I hated iron frying pans. They are great for cornbread, but the meatloaf bonded with it immediately like they were old long lost school pals. Nope, not going to fight it. I carried it out on the deck and sat it on a pile of cardboard (no, it didn't catch fire, so nothing comes out of that). I took out one of Jamie's fancy non-stick pans and moved forward.

The "sample" wasn't right - didn't have enough taste, so I "made the recipe mine" by adding steak sauce and a few handfuls of other spices. Perfection at last. You stuff the pepper rings and then fry both sides, then you put it in the oven to bake for about 25 minutes.

It turned out good. I put a lot more salt and pepper than I would have ever imagined in both the potatoes and the meatloaf, but all in all it was good. We had enough left over to pack a small bread pan so I did that and let it bake for a bit. Maybe it will make a quick sandwich.

Considering the amount of time and expertise required to make everything come out at the exact same moment, I can see why a cook could be a little ticked off when people aren't around the table when everything is ready.

My camera phone isn't the greatest, but it looked like this:

5/11/08

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Happy Mother's Day!

nobody@vox.com(dewitte) — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:36:46 -0400

Happy Mother's Day to every one of you who is a mom and especially Jamie who is one of the best moms around anywhere!!

Red Velvet Bouquet

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4d 69 69 20 44 65 57 69 74 74 65

Cooking is hard!

Happy Mother's Day!