Stay cool…….
I wanted to make a good lunch for my children and husband this morning on a beautiful, blissful Sunday. I concede that I have been out of practice for a long time ever since my domestic helper became much better at her culinary skills and my husband had delegated all cooking to her. Ouch! I feel quite redundant to have my place in the kitchen usurped. One wifey role was removed.
When my helper took her day off this morning, I decided that it was my chance to seize on this opportunity to impress everyone. I had offered to buy everybody lunch but the children were nostalgic for home-cooked food. Early in the morning, I was up and about and headed for the supermarket to buy several nice Australian flown pork steak and some minced chicken meat. I also bought salad, tomatoes and russet potatoes to make mashed potatoes.
When I got back, I washed and marinated the pork pieces with some salt and pepper and a dash of whiskey and oil. I tenderized it with my stainless steel tenderizer. I also made chicken burger meat.
Salad with chopped cherry tomatoes seasoned with balsamic sauce and pepper done! Boiled potatoes, mashed with some butter, salt, and pepper ready! Soup with pork bones, carrot, and potatoes with some salt and a dash of Chinese wine stewed! It was 12.30 pm and I messaged the children to come over to eat.
I had already grilled the pork in the boiler at 220degrees Celsius and for 40 minutes, turning them over in between. When all arrived, I quickly served the pork cutlets with my homemade sauce of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and mustard.
It did not go well. My son, Marcus said, “ It tastes terrible! Look, try it!” He was sorely disappointed. My other son, being more diplomatic insisted on eating it.
Indeed, it was stiff and not even considered chewable. “Ok, guys, I understand. Just don’t eat it. Put it aside. I am sure your Uncle’s dog Gucci will have a field day later with these choice cuts.” I am not one to make excuses if I did something badly. Luckily, I had made some meat burgers I called version of shake shack burgers( comprised of minced chicken with chopped onions, mushrooms, carrots, chopped spring onions, seasoned with some sauce and a dash of sesame oil). That turned out acceptable but no great shake.
Fortunately, my husband was in good humor today. Bad food usually threw him off balance, mentally. Only the best quality and tasty food should be consumed given our age and decreasing time on this planet. There is no time to lose on untasty food where eating is considered one of the joys of aging.
Being a connoisseur of fine food and a good cook himself, he added, “ Your mum spent 5 hours in the kitchen. Her food can help you to lose weight, guys(if you end up not eating, that is)Let’s have some fried eggs instead.”
I could have lost my cool having offered my precious Sunday time to cook for everyone when in the first place, I had offered to treat everybody to lunch at a Pasta restaurant that I have discovered recently. It would have prevented this fiasco. But, losing my cool with myself and expressing my frustrations would not help matters.
“Hey guys, let me buy you all a treat next time. At least, I know this will not be my second career. We need to fail now and then to become better at what we do, right?” My husband chimed in which was totally out of character today, “ This is not considered a failure at all, honey”. Showing some compassion, perhaps?
I went back into the kitchen. Somehow, the frying pan and stick were not co-operating with me. Not even the eggs. The sunny-side-up eggs turned out to be fried with egg yolks broken. The yolk has streaked over the white, one was twisted and took the form of a squid with a yellow tail. My helper would fry eggs that were not only crispy in the base but the yolks would be in perfect shapes.
“Oh no, why like these?”, the boys remarked. “Guys, these eggs are called ‘Walking on Sunshine’. My husband added, “Art food today”.
Everyone chilled and continued eating since the man of the house often set the mood. No one dared to grouch further. They started shaking their heads and ate the eggs anyway. Marcus started to laugh but he actually came in a foul mood due to unknown reasons and the lunch had not helped.
I am not a bad cook. Just out of practice for a long time after my Michelin standard domestic helper took over the kitchen completely and there were no more requests for my cooking the last few years.
Nevertheless, all’s not lost. The lunch ended blissfully. Everyone was still relaxed and I cleared the massive pile of dishes which I insisted on doing by myself as I considered my children guests since they are living on their own.
The next time, I will secretly practice my dish until the quality is deemed right, with my helper as my mentor. I am also glad that I deflected some natural negative reactions to the incident by not whining nor giving excuses nor blaming them for not accepting my treat.
All this shall pass as they say. I am just concerned and determined to have another peaceful Sunday. Amen!
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