Things I learned…

Posted on April 5, 2008

(I am stealing this concept from another blog I read called Notes from the Trenches)

When choosing to make a new dish out of a recipe book that I know is more complicated than I am used to, I should:

1) Check to make sure I have ALL of the ingredients before I go to the grocery store, not just the veggies (missing sherry, because really, who keeps that around?)

2) Make sure that I have alternative ingredients for anything I have never heard of, because chances are I won’t be able to find those ingredients at the grocery store. (flageolot beans?)

3) Before beginning prep, read the recipe and figure out exactly how long it is going to take to cook, and then work backward. (For this particular dish, there was at least 1/2 hour of prep time, and 1 1/2 hours of cooking. I started cutting potatoes at 4:30 expecting a 5:30 dinner time, obviously didn’t make it.)

4) Before beginning prep, look up any cooking terms I am unfamiliar with. (Blanching and parboil?)

5) When planning a meal with a large amount of prep and cooking, find someone, anyone, to entertain the child. (Its hard to slice potatoes with a screaming toddler at your feet.)

6) Gather all ingredients and have everything measured out and ready to be put into the pot before I even turn on the stove. (Left a pot simmering for a few extra minutes to drain and rinse beans.)

7) Make sure you have all the pots and utensils necessary before cooking, and that they’re not in a running dish washer (yes…I ran the dishwasher right before I started cooking. Brilliant, party for one!)
Check to see how many people the dish feeds so you aren’t cooking something that feeds 8 when there are only 2 of you eating it. (We’ll offer it to Chloe, but I doubt she will eat it.)

9) Before putting the filling into a casserole dish, double check that everything, including the spices, are included, so you don’t have to dump it back out, add spices, and then dump it back in. (Luckily, I caught my mistake after only a couple of spoonfuls had been put in the casserole dish.)

10) Ignore husband when he whines about being hungry, it only stresses me out and makes me forget to do stuff, like add spices.