What Martha and her friends left out…
Anyone following my tweets this week knows that I’ve spent much more time than usual in the kitchen. It’s no secret that I’m not a good cook. I don’t have the time, patience or the attention span to be successful as a cook and I’m fine with it. However, sometimes I have a burst of motivation to get ahead with meals, try a new recipe or experiment for the show. This week was one of those weeks and I spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon making 3 soups – vegetable, chili and chicken with wild rice – so we could freeze some for later and enjoy this week.
Let me be the one to lift that Hollywood production veil for you…
Foreshadowing – Explosions
Should’ve known it would be a rough day when on the way home from the grocery store, my milk exploded in the back, then my sparkling water exploded all over me at lunch.
Incident #1 – Miscommunication
I read in Better Homes and Garden magazine that you can put soups in storage bags and then lay on a cookie sheet to freeze. Then you can store them flat and upright. I thought this was brilliant so I tried it.
FAIL. Either the soup was still too warm or too heavy because it bust right through the bag! I cleaned it up and used tupperware.
Incident #2 – Equipment Failure
Chris always asks for pot roast but I have no idea how to make it. I tried it yesterday. I seared it on all sides (thank you Gordon Ramsay) then put it in the slow cooker for 6 hours with grilled onions and chicken broth. I checked on it a couple of times and noticed that it wasn’t very warm. I switched made sure it was on, plugged it and even switched outlets to troubleshoot.
FAIL. At the end of 6 hours, it was still lukewarm, uncooked and Chris spent 5 hours cooking it on the stovetop last night. We had cereal for dinner. The slow cooker, which made soup on Monday, has been labeled broken.
The Unseen – Other things cooking shows and magazines don’t tell you or show you.
Chop Time
I had no idea how long it took to chop vegetables for these soups. I cut, sliced and diced for an eternity!
Clean Up
I have never seen any ‘after’ pictures or watched Martha do dishes. My kitchen was destroyed and took an hour and 2 dishwasher loads to return to normal.
Lessons
Live, learn and accept that you don’t have a team of people and experts to help you.
Always plan on prep and clean up time.
Check your equipment.
Overall
My soups turned out awesome and we will enjoy them for the coming weeks.