The Writing Journey: Adventures in Cooking

Adventures in Cooking

Every now and then it’s important to venture out of the writing cave and do some other creative pursuit.

In this case, I thought I’d try cooking.

So, before I go any further, let me explain that I’m not the cook in my household. My hubby is. Except for days he has to work late.

Which means it’s my job to venture out of the writing cave and figure out a meal plan or we simply don’t eat that night

Now, to be completely truthful, in most cases when I’m in charge of dinner, it means some sort of take out. But, in this case, I thought I’d try one of those boxed meals. You know, the ones where they give you the ingredients and the recipe?

How hard could this be?

The answer? Well, it’s complicated.

Step 1 (actually pre-step): Go get the meal. In this case, I headed out to Fry’s grocery store to fetch one of the boxes. This one was called “Prep and Plated.” I had never heard of it but Fry’s sells it so it can’t be too bad.

After reading all the ingredients, I settled on Bacon, Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken because it was the only one without dairy.

Alrighty then. Bacon, Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken it is.

Step 1 (for real): Pour a glass of wine.

Step 2: Open up the box.

I spread out all the ingredients and read the colorful little recipe inside. Okay, this looks doable.

Step 3: Argh! Why can’t I get the ingredients out of their packaging?

Why is this so difficult? Shouldn’t they just pop open?

Finally had to resort to using the kitchen shears to cut all the little bags open. The directions didn’t say anything about using kitchen shears, they may want to consider adding that helpful little hint in.

Step 4: Drink some wine.

Step 5: Get the bacon frying on the stove. So far, so good. Now I need to get the baby broccoli ready.

Step 6: Argh! The bacon is burning!

Step 7: Rescue bacon. Scrape all the burned stuff off.

Step 8: Drink some wine.

Step 9: Be much more attentive getting the rest of the ingredients into the pan. Okay, we’re on a roll. Although everything seems to be cooking faster than the directions say it should be.

Step 10: Hubby wanders down. “Did you burn something?”

Step 11: Plate everything.

Hubby takes a few bites. “Well, the reason why you thought it was cooking faster is it’s not quite done,” he said. “The broccoli are still really crunchy.”

“You can eat broccoli raw,” I said. “It’s better that way. Retains its vitamins.”

“These potatoes aren’t done either,” he said.

“Those are radishes,” I said. “But at least the chicken is done.”

And, better yet, neither one of us got sick.