Writing Wrongs

April 03, 2007

I�ve been cooking.

I�ll pause while everyone collects their breath, gasps, and otherwise expresses signs of disbelief.

Done? Good.

Seriously, I have been cooking. Why? Cuz cooking the same five meals for dinner over and over and over and over again is boring.

Never fear, I�m still into efficient and simple. If a recipe requires a special knife that did not come in the knife block we own, I�m not interested. Ditto exotic herbs that must be picked the moment the sun crests the horizon and not a minute later or, omigod, you�ll ruin, ruin the dish.

I considered Rachael Ray. She seems to be the queen of thirty minute meals. I remain intimidated, at best. Many of her recipes seem to be along the lines of: Red snapper with sweet anchovy-pine nut sauce and caramelized zucchini. Sounds like something Bob would like.

My kids? So not eating that.

So. The dilemma. I may try Rachael in the future. I�m sure there�s a very good reason an entire wall sectional at my local Borders is dedicated to her books.

I also vetoed those books where you cook all weekend. Cuz, you know, that�s what I want to do all weekend long. Slave over a hot stove. Then I can go to work all week long. Joy. Ditto the whole double batch and freezing technique. Maybe everyone else in the world has gi-normous freezers, but we do not.

Also going back on the shelf were the books that proclaimed �thirty minutes,� but �expect to work really, really hard for those thirty minutes.� Again. They�re missing the point. My idea of �thirty minutes� is spend ten on prep and let that sucker simmer for twenty.

I did find one book I really like and so far, a few of the recipes are keepers, too. It�s The 5:30 Challenge: 5 Ingredients, 30 Minutes, Dinner on the Table.

So far the bowtie noodles with Greek-style meat sauce is a winner. And who knew all you have to do to make a gorgonzola cream sauce is put gorgonzola and half and half in a skillet and chase it around for a while. Next time, I�m boiling up some gnocchi to go with that.

And I learned that Kyra loves pesto. She calls it �dirty sketti� and has been asking for it every night. Andrew, of course, has been asking for the make-your-own Gordita kit every night.

Some things never change.

On the menu tonight?

Make-your-own Gorditas.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 12:41 p.m.

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