{"id":4600,"date":"2009-11-05T11:19:42","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T17:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withamymac.com\/news\/?p=4600"},"modified":"2009-11-05T11:22:20","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T17:22:20","slug":"amymac-cooking-mishaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withamymac.com\/news\/2009\/11\/05\/amymac-cooking-mishaps\/","title":{"rendered":"What Martha and her friends left out…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bad<\/a>Anyone following my tweets this week knows that I’ve spent much more time than usual in the kitchen.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no secret that I’m not a good cook.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have the time, patience or the attention span to be successful as a cook and I’m fine with it.\u00c2\u00a0 However, sometimes I have a burst of motivation to get ahead with meals, try a new recipe or experiment for the show.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Let me be the one to lift that Hollywood production veil for you…<\/p>\n

Foreshadowing – Explosions<\/strong>
\nShould’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.<\/p>\n

Incident #1 – Miscommunication <\/strong>
\nI read in Better Homes and Garden magazine that you can put soups in storage bags and then lay on a cookie sheet to freeze.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you can store them flat and upright.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought this was brilliant so I tried it.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

FAIL.<\/strong> Either the soup was still too warm or too heavy because it bust right through the bag!\u00c2\u00a0 I cleaned it up and used tupperware.<\/p>\n

Incident #2 – Equipment Failure<\/strong>
\nChris always asks for pot roast but I have no idea how to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 I tried it yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 I checked on it a couple of times and noticed that it wasn’t very warm.\u00c2\u00a0 I switched made sure it was on, plugged it and even switched outlets to troubleshoot.<\/p>\n

FAIL.<\/strong> At the end of 6 hours, it was still lukewarm, uncooked and Chris spent 5 hours cooking it on the stovetop last night.\u00c2\u00a0 We had cereal for dinner. The slow cooker, which made soup on Monday, has been labeled broken.<\/p>\n

The Unseen – Other things cooking shows and magazines don’t tell you or show you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chop Time<\/strong>
\nI had no idea how long it took to chop vegetables for these soups.\u00c2\u00a0 I cut, sliced and diced for an eternity!<\/p>\n

Clean Up<\/strong>
\nI have never seen any ‘after’ pictures or watched Martha do dishes.\u00c2\u00a0 My kitchen was destroyed and took an hour and 2 dishwasher loads to return to normal.<\/p>\n

Lessons<\/strong>
\nLive, learn and accept that you don’t have a team of people and experts to help you.<\/p>\n

Always plan on prep and clean up time.<\/p>\n

Check your equipment.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/strong>
\nMy soups turned out awesome and we will enjoy them for the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Amy Mac Easy Healthy Recipes<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone following my tweets this week knows that I’ve spent much more time than usual in the kitchen.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no secret that I’m not a good cook.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have the time, patience or the attention span to be successful as a cook and I’m fine with it.\u00c2\u00a0 However, sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,73,103,677,676,23,43,675,419,8,678,679,41,21],"class_list":["post-4600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amy-mac","tag-calories","tag-cooking","tag-cooking-disasters","tag-cooking-lessons","tag-fit-life","tag-food","tag-food-prep","tag-frozen-foods","tag-health","tag-kitchen-lessons","tag-tv-cooking-shows","tag-weightloss","tag-withamymac"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t