My little old Jamie Oliver (Learning to Cook)

Member Name: Scooobydooo

Product:	Learning to Cook
Date:	04/03/04 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: takes pressure off you

Disadvantages: none

I have been married now for nearly 8 years and what prompted me to write this is the lovely Tea that my hubby has just made.

I think back to 8 years ago when we decided to live together. His idea of a main meal was baked beans on toast and at the ripe old age of 34, this was a bit sad. After questioning him why he could not cook, he replied that in the forces, there was always the canteen and when he was not working away his mum cooked for him and did packed lunches. So as far as cooking was concerned it was a woman thing.

Oh boy was he going to be in for the shock of his life. If he thought that this woman was going to panda to his food intake when both of us worked full time, he was going to be in for the shock of his life.

What I have found about him is that if I ask him to do something directly, then he will um and ah about it and then say yes and then no until, I loose my rag and decided to go and do it myself. However after a while, I got used to this and decided to introduce him on the basics of cooking and that it is better to cook fresh then hearing something go ping in the microwave.

I must admit at first he moaned and we started with the basics, boiling an egg like Delia Smith did and at first he scoffed until, I said go ahead and prove to me you can do it. He couldnt and did not know how long to leave it.

A few quick instructions later and at last we were starting with basic things, and when I was cooking something that I thought that he could do, I would drag him into the kitchen to do it.

A couple of days later, I asked him to do a salad. It was just all thrown on a plate and looked unappetising and so I showed him how to decorate a salad so it looks and tastes nice nad how to make a simple oil. Great another one under his belt.

His favourite words were I Can't...CAN'T or WON'T and so this went on for a while. We progressed onto things like stews and if he could find an excuse
to bottle out he would. No one does it as nice as you do, or your gravy is so nice and mine is awful. No problem we will work together and I will show you how to do it. Mr Scoobydoo was gutted, but this is how I started to play him at his own game.

Then we went onto vegetables where he would undercook them and we would sit there at the table eating either sloppy vegetables or undercooked bullets waiting for me to give in and say ok I will do it, but I had to eat this foul food if only to stand my ground.

As time went by we progressed and maybe once a week when I was cooking I would say come and take a look at this and we progressed on to curry making which he is a dab hand at and how to cook rice and pasta, how to use cheeses and the difference between them.

So now he had all the basics of how to cook and what goes together and what meat is and how to see whether or not meat is fresh or not, we took it further and whilst I was on a baking trip day, I was cooking and making fresh pork pies when he appeared and started to nosey and said I wish I could do that. So I plonked the flour and all the ingriedients in front of him and lead him through making it and voila was he so impressed.

The next one was cakes and biscuits but he did try with the biscuits, unfortunatley they turned out black and like bullets and I did say to him do not worry we will try again and for the last couple of christmases he makes the mince pies and any other christmassy things.

It has taken me nearly 8 years of marriage to get him up to scratch but with perseverance where once I would ban him from the kitchen, he is now capable of using everything and the fact that I got the full range of George Foreman Goodies for christmas and he could not wait to get into the kitchen to use it.

Tonight I came home from work as he is at home and not at University today and there on the table was a lovely mince stew with broccoli, gravy, carrots, onions and
peas, with the most perfect gravy that you could wish for. For afters it was home made apple pie with home made custard.

This is what made me think about how easy it is to say I cannot do something without even giving it a try, now my Jamie Oliver locks me out of the kitchen and with todays men staying at home been house husbands, the mothers of today should teach them how to cook. In our house, I am the breadwinner, my hubby is the house husband. He loves been at home and doing the housework and cooking and then he can get on with his studies and he is starting his own business up from home. Me, I hate been at home and housework, but I love DIY and decorating and am currently designing our new kitchen and all the house is under decorating. We have been here 6 months and tempoarily decorated everywhere, now the time has come to do it all to a high standard.

Long gone have the days when men used to come home and the women have the dinner on the table. Now its my turn!

If we were both out working then it would be split. Ahhhhh wonder what he is doing for my supper....

Karen

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