It's Confession Time - I'm NO Chef

First I'd like to say "HI" to all my new followers. Thank you so much for following my blog!!

So I must confess that I cannot cook. I often think to myself what kind of mom can't cook, and occasionally I feel bad about this. If it weren't for my husband I think my kids and I would have to live on cereal. So people say, oh you can cook, you just don't try. Well let me tell you a little story about my first beef stew.

My husband and I had been married maybe a month and I decided I would be the perfect wife and make a stew that would be ready when he got back from choir practice. So I pulled out the cookbook. (A good place to start, right?) It called for stew meat, which we had. So I pulled it from the freezer, and thawed it a bit in the micro and then floured it and placed the meat in the bottom of the stew pot to cook.

I then looked at the rest of the recipe, and I was missing a few things. I did not have any potatoes, but I did have a can of peas. So I would substitute peas for potatoes. Perfect! Next item: carrots. Again, no carrots, but I did have a can of corn. So another substitution corn for carrots. This is going rather well I thought. Finally it called for green beans, which I did have. Whew! No substitution needed. Moving on...beef bouillon, got it....Worcestershire, got it. Finally I came to something I had not heard of "3 cups of vegetable juice". I must admit I still don't know where you find that in the store and I most certainly didn't have any on hand. What to substitute? Well I had 3 canned veggies, each with juice in the can, so I'd just add in 1 cup of each veggie juice. Problem solved!

So I did just as I described and when Chad got home I had my "delicious" stew all ready to eat. God bless my husband for eating an entire bowl. I thought it was pretty good, but I'm sure that's because I made it. I distinctly remember saying we should save the leftovers for another time, and then Chad making up some reason as to why we would not finish it time and it didn't make sense to do that. That is the kind way of saying, "That is the most awful thing I have ever tasted."

Needless to say that was pretty much the first and last time I ever made any meal with the exception of cereal or eggs or something that can be prepared in the microwave for my husband or family.

In fact, about 2 years ago my daughter go VERY scared when I took out a pan and began to brown some meat. My husband was on his way home and he was going to make his chili when he got there, so he asked me to brown the meat for him. As I got out a pan and the meat, my daughter's eyes got REALLY big and she said "Mom do you know what you are doing?" When I reassured her that is was OK, she then proceeded to say "Have you talked to dad? Does he know what you are doing? Did he tell you what to do?" Nothing like giving me a boost in confidence. LOL.

So there you have it. I feel so much better now that I have confessed my inadequacies in the kitchen. Hope you all have a great weekend, and cook something good for me!