"Martha" I'm Not!
I’m not a good cook or baker. (This isn’t all bad since my family not only doesn’t expect me to make meals, it prefers that I don’t!) I know why my culinary skills are less than stellar—I’ve learned this the hard way—but I can’t seem to make improvements. Old habits, especially in my case, are hard to change.
I read recipes, but I often don’t follow the steps as written. A recent example was a couple of loaves of sweet bread. Instead of doing step one…then step two…then step three, I put in the required ingredients as I took them out of the cupboard. Or so I thought. I mixed up the bread; poured it into the greased loaf pans and just as I was about to put the two loaves into the oven I realized that I had forgotten to add the three eggs (step one). The reason: the eggs were in the refrigerator; all the other ingredients were in the cupboards.
To remedy the situation, I had to pour the dough out of the pans and back into a bowl. The three eggs were added. Then I had to wash the pans, dry them and grease them again. For someone who doesn’t like working in the kitchen, these steps not only added time, but turned my initial enthusiasm into something far less.
Another mistake I make in cooking, and something I did when baking these loaves of bread, is to prematurely remove the food from the oven or stove top when I think the food is done. Forget what the recipe says! If something looks done, it must be done! Just because this bread recipe says to bake at 350 degrees for one hour, I knew they were done at 50 minutes. Sure I could have put a toothpick into the center, but who can find the toothpicks in my less-than-organized kitchen? So out came the bread and the first slice revealed a mushy, gooey center. So what did I do? You guessed it! I returned the loaves to the pans and put them back in the oven. (I’ve done this many times before.) The loaves came out 15 minutes later burned. Like many of my other baking attempts over the years, the two loaves ended up feeding the garbage disposal.
Under baking and under cooking is just one problem. I am also an expert at over cooking and over baking. If something doesn’t look done to me, I keep cooking or baking. Again, forget what the recipe says!
Needless to say I must have been daydreaming or sick during my home ec class in high school when cooking and baking were covered. Or I must have thought that I would never need these skills because I would be so rich that I would have my very own chef toiling away in the kitchen when I grew up.
There have been some advantages to my kitchen disasters. My children learned to cook and bake at very early ages—Now let’s see…were they in preschool?—and I husband willingly picked up takeout (still does) many times a week. Also, for friend and family celebrations, my assignment is to just bring the rolls (store bought, of course). Maybe it’s good at times to never learn how to do something well!