Back in March of 2011, I wrote a post for World Moms Blog titled “Searching for My Inner Domestic Goddess,” which detailed my numerous shortcomings in the traditional homemaking department. Since writing that post, I have spent some time trying to broaden my domestic horizons, specifically in the kitchen, and I am pleased to report that I no longer think I can accurately claim “I can’t cook.”
Now, I am not great. Not by any stretch. I make many meals that could be described as edible at best. But I am learning and have successfully pulled off some new dishes. Check out this root vegetable pie!
Tara's Root Vegetable Pie!
It’s pretty and tasty and not nearly as hard to make as I thought it would be. I guess that last part of the prior sentence has been my biggest breakthrough with kitchen confidence – that many things are really just a matter of chopping, sorting and adding at the right time. For this dish in particular, I cooked with beets and turnips for the very first time in my life.
I’ve seen these vegetables in grocery stores, but I would ask myself “What the heck am I supposed to do with that?” and then reach for the carrots. Well, it turns out that you cut them up, dribble them with olive oil, and put them in the oven. Then you have cooked beets and turnips that taste great with minimal effort and can be added to all sorts of things. Imagine that!
Yet, I still have my share of failures. For example, I was making gravy for Thanksgiving dinner from one of those instant flavor packets (yes….I know…stop shaking your head), and I didn’t add the turkey-essence-powder at the right time, so I ended up with clumpy, watery gravy.
For crying out loud, IT’S INSTANT GRAVY. It takes a special kind of person to mess that up.
And I have worked on meals that went directly into the trash. Plus we still do a ton of quick, convenient meals. But I have done a better job of meal planning and have worked on some strategies to support my cooking efforts. For example, I am trying to make the more time consuming meals at lunchtime instead of dinner. My husband is not usually home by the time our kids need to eat, and it’s a zoo during the hour leading up to dinnertime. So if I make the tougher stuff over lunch when I am just home with my toddler, I can reheat it for dinner and have time for any back up food preparation (My kids are picky eaters, and I do usually have something basic for them as a fallback).
With this boost in confidence, I recently took my newly honed cooking skills outside the home. I volunteered to organize a teacher appreciation dinner at my son’s school during parent-teacher conferences and made two of the main entrees myself (Shepard’s Pie and Mushroom Casserole).
Impressive! Tara's Shepard's Pie & Mushroom Casserole.
They were a hit, and the PTSA President referred to me as the “Meal Chair” for the event (ME! The “Meal Chair!” Who would have thought?!).
But, perhaps, one of the best parts of putting in more effort in the kitchen is pulling off some dishes like this one.
Tara's Pagach!
This is a Pagach, which is basically a giant doughy ball stuffed with mashed potatoes. It’s something I grew up eating, but as I now live 3000 miles away from my hometown, I don’t come across it much. To be able to make things like this when I am missing my family really does put the “comfort” in comfort food.
I don’t know what’s next for me in the kitchen, but I am no longer overwhelmed to find out. I am proud of having improved my kitchen-street-smarts. I have been able to think on my feet when missing certain ingredients. I have learned how much a “glug” is. I understand the umami factor and what types of things produce it. I have gone rogue and used white wine instead of apple juice in a recipe. I own 2 aprons. And, I can correctly pronounce “quinoa.” Perhaps my inner domestic goddess is just a late bloomer and now starting to emerge. Better late than never.
What has been your latest domestic success? (And feel free to share a funny failure too!)
This has been an original post to World Moms Blog by Tara B. of Washington, USA.
Photo credits to the author.
I have to admit I have no idea how to pronounce “quinoa” – and I have no idea what it is! I am well impressed! 🙂
Hee hee 🙂 I didn’t know either…and I have said it many different ways to people who have politely corrected me. It’s a grain that you cook like rice, and it’s a full protein to boot. It’s pronounced “keen-wah.” Thanks for your comment!
I have to share a failure as I am no where near a domestic anything to be honest. In my second year of marriage I got addicted to the food network and somehow got the idea that I could so totally easily cook a three course meal for my husband! I can’t remember exactly but I think it was a Salad, veal milanese and some sort of chocolate dessert. Once I was in the kitchen I was a total mess and everything went wrong which was totally fine cause it was only for my husband to taste, he has to love me no matter what. When dinner time finally came along he walked into the house WITH A FRIEND!!! I was fuming! I could not believe he actually invited someone over when he knew I was cooking! lol. At that point I ordered out and had both my meal and the take out meal side by side so they can be polite and taste it but also so they don’t starve.
How resourceful of you! I think it’s wise to always have good take out as a fall back 😉 Actually, I relied on take out a lot in the past, but since we moved out to the country, it just isn’t an option. I am forced to meal plan and eat what’s in the house.
While your meal didn’t work as you plan, it does make for a funny story. It reminds me of Bridget Jones Diary (not sure if you read or saw it), where she makes a soup and ties some veggies with blue thread, which turns the soup blue, and her friends at her dinner party try to politely eat it. I would totally do something like that!
Thanks for your commets.
YAY for you, girl!
Ugh, I’m a text book cook you know I need a whole recipe to make something. So I’m not particularly proud with my domestic skills. I had burnt so much stuffs baking and I blamed the oven or the recipes lol.
Big kudos to you 😀
Thanks Tatter Scoops! And I am a text book cook too, which is why I am so confused when I still mess up a recipe, considering I did it according to the book. But I am trying to cook more so I can better think on my feet. And blaming the oven and/or the recipe is completely reasonable, in my opinion. There are forces at work in our kitchens that are beyond our control 😉
I have messed up many meals but keep on cooking! That is how you learn. Like the meatballs that I decided to add so extra spinich that turned out green – they definitely didn’t look like my grandfather’s! Or the baby bread sticks that I made for big girl when she was a toddler – I soon found her feeding them to the cat – he wouldn’t eat them either 🙂 Congrats, Tara continuing to try. Like any other skill, it is the only way to get better. And trust me, those picky eaters will thank you some day!
Ha! The cat wouldn’t eat them…that is too funny, and it does make me feel better. Your feedback rings so true. I finally realized that there is only so much reading of recipes or listening to “The Splendid Table” that will improve my kitchen smarts. The real way to get better is to just try more often. I always just find it so time consuming, but the more I do it, the easier it is to know how to stock a pantry and pull togther meals via a plan and on the fly. Thanks for all your encouragement, Angela!
Good for you.
Please let me know if you want any recipes and for what.
Thanks Susie! I always welcome new recipes. I particularly like ones where you chop and cut up stuff and throw it in a pot. I don’t mind having lots of ingredients…I just do best when the cooking steps don’t need to be timed to the right minute. If you have something like that, please send it along. And I hope you are enjoying a great start to the year.
I am a exactly by the recipe person too. I recently started meal planning again, and my goal is to cook 5 nights a week, and make at least one new recipe each week instead of just sticking to old favorites. It’s going pretty well so far!
Way to go, Rachael! I love your recipe board. Organization is so important, and the visual reminder is a great way to stick to your goals. Keep me posted on how it is going and any super easy recipes I should try. Thanks for your comments.
Impressive!!! I’m bad at recipes. I start throwing in things that I think might make it even better. A fraction of the time it works!! lol
Jen 🙂
But you never know if you don’t try, right? If you have patience, I think experimentation is awesome. My sons and I just baked some banana bread, and I used apple sauce instead of oil to make it a little lower in fat (as I also added in chocolate chips that were not in the recipe and felt the need to compensate for calories elsewhere). My son asked me, “will this work?” and I said, “we’ll find out!” I am betting that no matter how it turns out, if it has chocolate, we’ll all eat it. Thanks for commenting!
Nice post! I love to cook especially ethnic food but find it hard to find he time. When I was in Morocco I bought a huge clay tagine and hauled it home thinking I would impress my husband by My cooling skills. Needless to say it still sits in the corner of my room almost a year later untouched ! If only us moms had more time huh?!
More time is right! I am trying something new to make the most of our pre-dinner time, which is being more organized so that my older son helps me with getting dinner together so I am not trying to entertain him while prepping dinner. Will see if it lasts. As for your tagine…that sounds so cool, especially since you got it abroad. When you do finally use it, it will bring back so many fun memories! Let me know how it goes. And thanks for commenting.
Um, I consider myself a good cook, but you really lost me on glug and umami! 🙂 Can you help a fellow mom out?
I have a recipe page on my blog if you’re ever inspired to try French cuisine (most of the dishes are French and easy) and have cooked with turnips and beets, etc. I learned a lot about those vegetables when living here.
I believe a glug is about 2 tablespoons. And umami refers to foods that don’t add alot of their own flavor to a dish but enhance the flavors of the other ingredients they are cooked with. For example, fish oils have umami and make the other stuff on the meal “pop.” (at least, I think that is what these things mean 😉 ).
Thanks for your comments and the tips on your blog. I will definitely check it out!
You go girl! (And love that you followed up from a prior post!) I’ve been experimenting a lot with beans – found a lentil recipe we like if you are interested. The Mark Bittman cookbooks are pretty good for giving you basic recipes (with extra ideas for variations) for just about everything…a great addition to any recipe cooker’s library. Keep having fun in the kitchen!
Thanks Eva! Yes, I would welcome the recipe. I love beans, but my guys do not so much, so I need to try new and interesting recipes to temp them. Thanks for the tip!
Way to go! I’m also a late bloomer in the cooking department but I really enjoy it and have gotten more confident over the years. Now that I’m in Indonesia (where most everything is available), I’m looking forward to trying lots of new things. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks for commenting, Shaula! And keep me posted on any particulary great and easy recipes you come across 😉
Wow! Great job!
You’re an inspiration for someone like me who hates cooking but I’ve had to start doing it more and more so that my daughter grows up eating healthy and sees me modeling those skills.
That’s a great point….setting an example for the kids. My sons are super picky eaters, and they won’t eat much of what I cook. But I am hoping to get them to nibble here and there and and least be exposed to as much of a variety of foods as possible. Thanks for your comments, and let me know how it goes in your kitchen 😉