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Yesterday, inspired by the unusual cold weather here in Florida, I decided to make good, healthy, super tasty veggie soup. The kind of soup my grandmother used to make.
Hot Cop was excited to hear this because he’s tried my grandmother’s soup and it’s fantastic.
So I got out my soup pot and the recipe only to realize that I didn’t have three of the eight ingredients. That’s ok, I told myself. I’ll just substitute. Instead of red kidney beans, I used garbanzo beans. Instead of onion, I added extra garlic. Instead of thick egg noodles, I added quinoa.
Oh, and did I mention that I was missing two of the three necessary spices, too? I won’t bore you with my substitutions, mainly because I grabbed the first spice bottles on the shelves and added a bunch to the soup, and I can’t remember what I used.
The soup didn’t look right. It didn’t smell right either. And a quick taste test let me know that things were seriously awry. So I added MORE. More quinoa. More spices. More carrots.
None of it helped.
Here’s a little cooking tip from a new-cook-type: if you ever substitute quinoa for something, remember that it soaks up all of the liquid. Yeah, when all was said and done, my soup was a bit dry.
So dry that the carrots were still hard as rocks and never really cooked.
So dry that the quinoa was a bit crunchy.
So dry that the soup burned to the bottom of the pan.
Needless to say, the outcome was pretty awful. SUPER awful. When I tasted it, I got a little weepy, declared I’d never cook again, and decided to toss it in the trash.
But then Hot Cop did the unthinkable. Bad as that ‘soup’ was, horrible as it tasted, wrongly spiced and dry and with hard carrots, he used a big spoon to cut a big wad of ‘soup’ from the pot, put it in a bowl, and said, “It’s wonderful soup. You made it, so it has to be wonderful.” AND THEN HE ATE THE WHOLE BOWL OF SOUP.
I love that man. Seriously love, love, LOVE him.
I’ve vowed to never again make my grandmother’s soup without having all of the ingredients on hand. I think Hot Cop appreciates it, though he’d never admit it out loud.
I love him for that, too.
Have you ever tried to cook something and it didn’t turn out right? Did your family/friends eat it, or (what I’d probably do) say they’re sure you tried and offer to order Dominoes? Have you ever eaten at someone’s house or a restaurant and been served a horrible dish? What did you do?
Karen, Hot Cop is totally a keeper and please feel free to let him know that I said so.
Usually I am a pretty good cook, I have had a few spectacular failures though but over the years I got better until I tried to do Coq Au Vin. I marinated the chicken in a bottle of Burgundy and it came out purple. The rest of the meal was just as much of an epic fail with the exception of the roux which just happened to be the thing that started the dish. I have sworn to never do that dish again.
I did go to a restaurant once because it was a free meal (I just had to sit through someone trying to sell a mattress) and the meal was fatty and rather on the cold side. The only redeemable thing about it was the bread and butter. The butter was done using sun dried tomatoes and wonderful, so the person I went with and I went to the Coffee Club and got a better meal there. It was hot chips and their chips are to die for!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 4:34 am.
Kelly, I’ve always wanted to be a good cook. And I am — if I stick to the recipe. Every time I’ve strayed, I’ve had an Epic Fail.
You got a free meal for listening to a mattress sales pitch? I’d have tried that, too!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:37 am.
Aww, that man (Hot Cop) is just so sweet!
I mostly try baking. For the most part, I’m doing well. On the rare occasions that I had tried my hand to cook something, myself and my family did well. My brother, who was the recipient of said cooking, just ate it, knowing my limitations in the kitchen. There is this one dish that I did make, but the family just ate it. The other time that I did it, I had the help of my other brother to make it edible.
There is one time, late during the night, when we were celebrating my uncle’s birthday, that I got this chicken salad, and the chicken was burnt. I ate the greens, but for most of the chicken I didn’t eat it. No harm done, since I wasn’t paying for it. At least I got some dessert.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 5:25 am.
E.R., a good dessert can cover a multitude of sins. The next time I ruin a dish, I’ll whip up a dessert. Those, I can make all day … as my waistline can attest to!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:38 am.
LOL.
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:54 pm.
I can only remember one thing, but I only cooked that for meself. I treid a new recipe for chicken baked with tomatoes and I can’t remember what else. I did everything according to the recipe and it tasted horrible. Maybe it was supposed to taste that bad, but how would I know? It was the first and last time that I made it.
Otherwise I’m usually a good cook, except for the occasional burning of things, normally bread in the oven. But the best thing is coming home to my family, when my brother has some time on his hands and cooks for me/us. He originally wanted to become a cook a couple of years back and he’s amazing at that! Seriously. When I came home and my parents were away he had the kitchen all to himself and when I arrived he gave me lasagna, pizza and something else, which I can’t remember. Oh and Bayrische Creme which is a delicious dessert.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:44 am.
Steffi, now that’s a useful skill for a brother to have! My brother can only cook frozen meals, which was fine until he adopted my niece after my sister died last year. Now, he’s trying to learn to cook healthier meals. The good thing is that my niece, who is ten, is very good at following directions and she keeps him from making too many mistakes. They have a LOT of fun cooking together, too. I love that!
I’m going to have to look up Bayrische Creme. It sounds delish!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:40 am.
That sounds really good for both of them. That’s what my parents did with use, always tried to get us to help them cooking with carefully cutting and everything and see how my brother turned out. He doesn’t do it as a job, but in his free time, he does it a lot. He’s a nurse, wanting to become a doctor someday.
I’m more of a baker. I love making cupcakes and cookies, but rarely eat them myself.
It IS delish! I never had it before my brother made it, but since my parents bought this multifunctional Thermomix thingy, he’s been cooking more and more again.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:54 am.
I printed up a recipe for it today. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I PROMISE not to substitute ANYTHING.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:35 pm.
Haha good. Then it should work perfectly
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:14 pm.
Hot Cop is awesome. What a good guy! I don’t cook a lot. I have a few dishes that I ‘specialize’ in, but if I do try something new and it goes awry I just get mad at myself. If I don’t have all the ingredients I call a pro, like my mom, and get her input as to what would work as a substitute! Keep trying!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:49 am.
Kelly, I’m with you about doing a few ‘special’ dishes. This year, I’ve been trying to expand that to a few more. I have to say, I can rock a prime rib roast.
I wish my mom was good at substitutions. I think I inherited my non-substitution genes from her. :-/
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:41 am.
Aw, that’s sweet. IV would never do that. He usually just took a bite and said “You don’t need to make that one again.” i remember making some kind of veggie spaghetti that turned out green. Everything. The noodles too. It looked like I’d added grass to the mixture.
I have been to someone’s house who’d made something nasty. Luckily it was in a buffet situation so could be avoided.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:11 am.
Lori, I am certain that you tried with the dish and that is what counts.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:16 am.
I should cook buffet style. Then Hot Cop wouldn’t have to eat hard carrot soup. I bet he’d appreciate that.
I can’t imagine green veggie spaghetti, although my mother once ruined some gravy — they were thick like stuffing — so she added green food coloring so that it was bright, kelly green and served it. It didn’t make it taste any better, but it was certainly an interesting dish.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:43 am.
AWWWWW Karen, you have such a great guy there! I think I would’ve probably cried 1) because I was upset that I did such a lousy job with dinner and 2) because he actually ate it and said it was good because I made it! What a sweetheart!
I’m not a great cook but I do get by after all the years of doing so. I’ve had a few REALLY bad ones over the years, some bad enough to require a quick Chinese takeout or pizza pickup. Thankfully, none have been lately. Last night I made Chili for dinner. Didn’t have one of those packets or really any fresh veggies so I went online and got a seasoning recipe. HOLY HANNAH! It was really spicy! Had to add both cheese and sour cream to it just so it wouldn’t burn my throat on the way down. DH said it was really good but next time, I might want to cut back on the crushed red pepper in the recipe
He had 2 bowls so I guess it wasn’t too bad.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:16 am.
Hey JenG, either a banana or a glass of milk will help ease the burn of the chilli.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:18 am.
JenG, your really spicy chili made me laugh. I have to say, though, that Hot Cop probably would have loved it. He adores spicy food and we have this spice mixture called Pirate’s Bite that he loves to add to various things. It’s too hot for me to eat, though. Whew!
I think men have different spice levels than most women. Many of them do seem to lean toward the hot n spicy side!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:45 am.
I love me some Pirate Bite…and I don’t mean the spices.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:49 am.
Lol!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:36 pm.
I bet my DH would LOVE that Pirate’s Bite stuff. Where did you get it?? I doubt I can get it at Publix.. LOL!
The chili was so hot I had tears streaming out of my eyes and my formerly blocked up sinuses let loose too! PHEW! It was tasty but REALLY hot. I’d be happy to share the seasoning recipe for Hot Cop if you are interested
Found it on allrecipes.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chili-seasoning-mix-ii/
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:34 am.
Yeah, that is so sweet. Seriously.
I love it when my dh does stuff like that! Then, the next time he leaves his socks on the floor or doesn’t take out the trash, I remember *this* feeling and it makes it okay. This one time.
Hahahhaa
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:17 am.
Robin, it does cover a multitude of sins, doesn’t it? Almost like a really good dessert can make a bad meal palatable.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:46 am.
That just put a big smile on my face!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:03 am.
I’m so glad! He’s a sweetie.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:47 am.
What a sweet guy…. My sister-in-law is the holiday dinner chef..which she loves… only once can I remember her having difficulty.. she doubled a souffle receipe & didn’t take into account that it would take longer to cook…
Ummmm, bless her heart — it was dessert time before it was done.. but hey! it was a great tasting souffle!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:04 am.
Your poor sister! And nothing cooks slower than a meal that people are waiting on, too. It’s some sort of cosmic force that slooooows time in the oven. I hate that!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:48 am.
My mother could not make mac & cheese turn out good. It went into the trash.
I rarely cook. If I do decide to cook something, I check for ingredients before I start. Some recipes of mom’s were not written down with exact instructions. A lot of the items are added so it looks good.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:10 am.
TinaF, my grandmother’s recipes are always missing something, too. OR, she’ll throw in something like “Stir until it looks just right.” Really, grandma? If I knew when it looked ‘just right,’ I wouldn’t need a recipe!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:49 am.
Oh, yeah, he’s a keeper. That is SUCH a sweet story!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am.
He’s a good one, all right. Tonight he came home, glanced at the fridge as if afraid I’d kept some of the soup for further consumption, and said in a bright voice, “Let me take you out tonight!”
I hadn’t kept any of the soup, but I let him take me out, anyway.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:51 am.
Oh, what a sweetie!
I’m a pretty decent cook, and I do like to experiment, but I don’t have too many misses. Now, BAKING on the other hand? Terrible! My muffins are always too dry, my bread too dense, my pies too runny.
My dad has always been of the “It’s ok, I don’t mind, I’ll eat it anyway” school…which is a good thing, since the only my mom should be making for dinner is reservations. My hubby on the other hand, well, he used to be a cook before he went back to school. So, he eats it stoically, then suggests perhaps I should try a different recipe next time.
I’d say the biggest hits in our house are the simple ones, like tacos. We use ground chicken instead of meat (we don’t really eat meat anymore) and the boys LOVE it. We do tacos twice a week, I think!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:32 am.
Dana said: “…since the only my mom should be making for dinner is reservations.” LOL! I’m going to steal that.
It’s funny how many people can either bake or cook, but not always both. I’m a better baker, but I’ve been trying not to eat so much wheat, so I’ve cut back. Which is really too bad because I’m much better at that than cooking!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:53 am.
I feel like cooking is an art and baking is a science. I’m great at guessing at what would taste good together and throwing it in a pot or pan. The math and science required to invent new baking recipes? Not so much!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:19 pm.
Dana, that’s such an interesting way to look at it. I can see that, too.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:37 pm.
I once made chicken on the George Forman grill and it was terrible. Not because of the grill, but because I thought the cooking times meant for each side. I know, silly me, but I thought 9mins to cook chicken seemed to low, so I cooked it for 18mins. It was the worst chicken, it was soooo dry, and by dry I mean pretty much hard as a rock. Picture the turkey in Christmas Vacation. My hubby tried to eat it, but after his second bite he said he coudn’t eat the chicken, but everything else was great. I haven’t used my George Forman grill since.
I am not sure what my Grandma did to her stuffing this Christmas, but it was not good. She usually makes great stuffing, but this was like someone took dry bread and put it in a bledner. It was like dust with a few hard chunks of bread and some spices. There was not one ounce of moisture to it. We all ate it, though. Thank goodness for gravy.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:43 am.
Amy, I have two George Forman grills and use them all the time. Try marinating your chicken breast first and then just check them by cutting into them every so often. I think you might really enjoy using your grill once you get the timing down.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:47 am.
Thanks, Lisa. I might have to give it another try. I did make hamburgers with it one time (before my chicken fail) and they were good. Maybe I will give chicken another try, but this time I will have a back up.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:22 pm.
We call our George Foreman Grill ‘the panini press’ because that’s mostly what we do with it.
And yes, thank goodness for gravy! I’m a great turkey cooker, but my aunt was horrible at it and when it was her turn to do Thanksgiving … sheesh. But you can soften even the hardest and driest turkey with some good gravy and she always made marvelous gravy.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:55 am.
I love him for being so good to you! What a gentleman! My Dad is like that, no matter what my mom makes, he eats it and loves it. Now, my mom is a fantastic cook, but every now and then she has a “fail” but my dad insists its awesome.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:45 am.
Lisa, aw, that’s so sweet! Your dad sounds like such a gentleman.
And a good example, too!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:58 am.
It’s really great that people are sharing this infromaoitn.
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 12:36 am.
That is one awesome husband you have there Karen.
Nope, I’m fairly accomplished as a chaos cooker. So when I cook it’s awesome. However…baking is another matter entirely. I can mess up a batch of brownies.
About the only thing I bake well is pumpkin pie…and seriously, you buy the crust, you throw three cans and a couple of eggs together nd bake. Unless you burn, no way to mess it up. But then you’d think the same of brownies.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 9:50 am.
Pesky, brownies never LOOK done, do they? You almost have to sorta cook them, and then let them set for a while and see if they really did what they were supposed to do.
And you’re a good chaos cooker, eh? I bet you’re one of those people who can taste something, think a moment, and then say, “It needs more X.” I can’t do that, which is why I’m a recipe-only cook. As you can see, if I stray from the recipe, very bad things will happen.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:00 am.
Brownies (and your pumpkin pie actually) aren’t supposed to look done when they are done. You check a couple inches from the outer edge with the poke test instead of in the middle.. ’cause they set as they cool, but they’re still cooking a bit as they finish up and if you leave them ’til they look done they’ll be overdone.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:49 am.
Oops *still cooking a bit as they cool (not finish up) .. coffee must not’ve kicked in yet
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:14 am.
And now we know the rest of the story. Thanks, Miranda. I had no idea. (Why don’t they write that on the box? It would be so helpful.)
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:32 am.
Evil of them isn’t it. I found out the right way both from cooking shows, and a couple of from scratch brownie recipes that told you to check it off-center (those recipes worked great compared to others that said check in middle).
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:33 pm.
And now the rest of us know. Thank you for sharing!!!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:37 pm.
We always take the brownies out as soon as they smell like brownies. Being a couple hundred feet up off of sea level, it’s usually about 10-15 minutes shorter than the time that’s on the box.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:34 pm.
LOL yes…actually I am.
And as to brownies…YES! It’s almost done, almost done, almost done, BURNT!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:53 pm.
Pesky, you’re gonna hate me because not only can I cook but I can bake. Heck I did jam drops a while ago and had the first batch in the oven already when the power went out. I leftthem in the oven and they came out perfectly! Brownies are a snap to make or so I have also found too.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 4:34 pm.
See, I need you Miranda and Janae to do my baking.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:57 pm.
Now that there is a real man! What a guy
. That actually reminds me of my mom’s story of the first time she ever cooked for my dad. She made a big pot of chili, then watched lovingly as he ate a big bowl and declared it delicious. It was only when she took a bite that she instantly realized she had grabbed cinnamon instead of chili powder- bleck!!! She said she knew then and there what a good guy he was 
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:30 am.
Lol! Erin, that’s a lovely story.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:32 am.
One of the first things I made for my husband was my Mom’s spaghetti sauce. I followed her recipe which called for a clove of garlic. I didn’t remember my Mom peeling so much garlic. I did not taste it as it was cooking. I put it on top of the spaghetti and we sat down to eat. I took a mouthful and then immediately ran to the sink and spit it out. I thought one clove was one bulb of garlic and had peeled the entire bulb. I couldn’t eat it. My husband said it wasn’t so bad and ate it! We still laugh about it. I’d like to think he ate it so I wouldn’t feel bad, but I think it was because he was hungry and that was all we had for dinner!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:35 am.
Ouuuuch! Yeah, garlic has to be used sparingly, though it’s super good for you. Now we know that he has a good heart AND that his heart is good. Heh!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:34 am.
What a totally sweet husband you have! You are so blessed!
Many years ago, I decided I was going to be a master bread maker. I followed everything to the letter but the loaf of bread fell and turned into a hard brick. When I showed my disaster to my sister, her funny husband told me he wanted to keep it so he could shellac it and use it for a doorstop! He was such a good man but he passed away from Parkinson’s. We so miss his sense of humor!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:39 am.
Connie, what a funny guy! That sounds like something my dad would say, too.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:35 am.
Your sweetie sounds awesome. Mine probably wouldn’t have eaten that particular oopsie, but he has eaten others and then just suggested I alter the recipe or avoid it in the future. I don’t have loads of mess ups cooking or baking because I tend to have a good idea of what can substitute for what. Actually I learned a lot of what I know from watching the food network, Alton Brown especially as he explains the whys and the hows behind the cooking/baking methods
.
Mostly I’ve had good luck at restaurants, though one time the brownie they gave me could’ve been used to pound nails.. and the waitress looked confused when I asked for a better one and pointed this out to her by attempting and failing to chisel off a piece with my fork (must’ve been a long day for her).
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:08 am.
Miranda, your husband sounds terrific. And you were so sweet to just ask for another brownie when yours was rock-like. I was a waitress throughout college and yup, I bet it had been a long day for her.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:38 am.
Oh the hubby is terrific.. and I don’t know how sweet it was of me, I just really wanted some chocolate. I know the best way to get something like that fixed is to take a deep breath and then be polite (it’s not like the waitress can taste it first to make sure it’s ok). Probably she needed to microwave it and did so too long (or the brownie they had out for her to cut from was already out a little too long). So, I’m not sure it’s sweetness so much as just knowing how things work in a restaurant.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:33 pm.
Oh I did just think of an interesting fail.. we call it my Volcanic chili. The peppers didn’t seem too bad individually so I added the whole can (mini can) of chipotles in adobo. Hubby likes spice, but even he wanted heaps of cheese, sour cream and half the gallon of milk to go with it.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:15 pm.
Hot Cop is a good egg.
Most of the time, I am a pretty good cook – with occasional moments of OMGYUM! but I mostly stay in the “pretty good” range. I have definitely had my screw ups, some my fault, some not.. I once went to a spice shop and picked up chipotle chili powder. I was making chili and the smokiness of the chipotle chillies sounded interesting. So, being Texan, I liberally doused my beautiful chili with it and let it meld with the other ingredients. Then tasted. Good googly moogly…it was not traditional chili powder with chipotle chilies added.. no. It was ground chipotle chilies. That chili was HOT (and I am not one adverse to some heat.) So I did what any mischief-minded college student would do: I invited my guy friends over to watch the Cowboys play and said “the chili turned out way too hot, so I am going to order pizza.” Not ones to back down from a challenge – they ate it. There was lots of sweat, watery eyes and beverage drinking.. but it did not go to waste.
I have also undercooked a few things recently since I am still getting used to the longer cooking times at altitude.. but then I pop it back in the Dutch oven and finish them up with decent results (Boeuf bourguignon was one.. I called Ina Garten a lying wench.. 1.5 hours, indeed.)
oh, and for those “not such a good dish out” times, I claim upset stomach and then grab dinner on the way home.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:27 am.
I bought some chili powder while driving through New Mexico and I’m here to say that their hot and our hot here in the South are COMPLETELY different. Whew!
I never thought about the altitude, but you’re right — it makes a HUGE difference. When I moved from the mountains of TN to flat, sea-level Florida, it took me a few weeks to figure out what was happening. I thought my oven was the wrong temp, but it was all altitude.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:40 am.
Yeah, I learned that you have to confirm whether it is a chili powder blend or powdered ground chilies. Sound similar but VERY different.
Yeah, the altitude is a pain… though I recently found out that all the recipes in Barbara Samuel’s “How to Bake a Perfect Life” are all high-altitude friendly
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:07 pm.
I remember when I was about 4, my cousin and I would be out at my grandparents and would be helping my grandma make biscuits, we would roll and kneed them to much. They would be rock hard but my grandpa would still eat them and not complain.
I got into cooking when I was a teenager but made simple stuff so no big fails. When I went to college and got out on my own thats when I started really experimenting. Half the stuff I wouldn’t eat. So I ate Sonic or McDonald’s alot. Now I am pretty good at making up recipes and having them turn out pretty good.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:40 am.
Oh, the rock hard biscuits! Your grandpa sounds like s true sweetie.
My dad’s mother always made the driest, hardest, most tasteless biscuits, but my grandpa swore they were best that way. I was never sure if he really believed that, or if his taste buds had altered over the years, but we all avoided her biscuits.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:42 am.
Awwww. This is such a keeper story. Good for you for trying to cook (I’m sure you can; and it’s brave to substitute!)–and Good for him for saving your dignity. Good man!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:43 am.
I know how to cook … some things. But I really can’t stray from a recipe or I’m sunk. :-/
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:40 pm.
3 disasters come to mind. Once I made a Norwegian apple tort and forgot the flour. While it does not use much, it is pretty sad when there is none at all. Then, when dating DH, I once made dinner and used way too much salt in the veggies. He tasted first and ate. I tasted and gagged. (“Why didn’t you say something??!!) Ah, love. Then one other time I decided to make some shrimp in sherry wine sauce and put in wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much sherry. That time he decided it was inedible. That was an expensive mistake.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:47 am.
I’ve only cooked with red wine, and you have to be super careful of the amount. A little goes a loooong way.
Sounds like your guy is a keeper, too. Love is grand, isn’t it?
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:41 pm.
Karen, Hot Cop is definitely a keeper!
I had to chuckle at your story because that sounds like my daughter. She has to measure EVERYTHING and follow the recipe to the letter or something goes wrong. I measure nothing….I add a ‘little’ of this until it looks right, then a ‘pinch’ of that until it tastes right.
My mom was like that too. 
It was frustrating for me until I really started cooking, now I do it too. My daughter still doesn’t cook too much so she hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet.
She made some chicken and pasta for us one evening. God bless her….I think it WOULD have been really tasty, but she over-cooked the chicken AND pasta, so we got lemon peppered over-dry chicken breast, with mushy pasta and a lemon sauce. Plus her oven was electric at the time, so the bottom of the rolls were burned, but the tops weren’t brown.
Of course, we ate it because she had worked so hard, but it was terrible. 
My father-in-law cracks me up. He always says that my stuff isn’t ‘cooked enough’ because I don’t burn it. My MIL burns just about anything that she puts in the oven, so he is used to eating things that are burned. LOL
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:03 pm.
Julie, it’s funny how some people like everything cooked wayyyyyy too well. My f-i-l was like that. If it wasn’t burned, it wasn’t ‘done.’ We hated it when he wanted to grill. Blech!
Please tell your daughter that she has my complete and total sympathy. It’s tough when you try something and it just doesn’t work.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:45 pm.
Mr. G does a lot of the cooking around here. But he’s an inpatient cook so a lot of the meat he cooks is “rare.” I call it raw. I never complained because he’s nice enough to cook for me, but one night I had a Snapped moment. I told him, “I know why all those wives on Snapped kill their husbands. One too many raw chicken legs.” He makes sure the chicken is cooked all the way through now.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:09 pm.
I’m with you on the chicken. I cannot/will not eat chicken that’s not cooked alllll the wayyyy. Glad you told him!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:46 pm.
I love him, too! What a guy, Karen.
welcome to my kitchen world. I have absolutely no instincts when it comes to cooking. I am trying to remedy that, but it is slow going.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:15 pm.
Oh, and by the way, never double the spices in jambalaya. Never.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:15 pm.
Gotcha. I’m taking notes as I read through these posts. I need all of the help I can get.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:47 pm.
All I knew how to cook when I got married was red sauce and meatballs (I had an Italian aunt). My new husband’s favorite meal was country style steak with gravy and creamed potatoes. I called my Mom, she told me what to do, and I truly followed her instructions. I ended up with over cooked cube steak with colored water and potato soup. Much like Hot Cop new husband told me it was delicious. 38 years later we are no longer married but that remains one of my most treasured memories. BTW I still can not make gravy.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:42 pm.
Gravy’s way beyond me, too. Wayyyyyyy. :-/
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:47 pm.
The other day I was going to cook dinner and discovered that I had nothing defrosted. I called husband at work and he said don’t you have anything for soup and I said I had most things but I needed him to go to the store and get a few things-he said he was in the middle of a job and couldn’t leave just do the best I could. I made broth out of bullion cubes I had put every frozen veggie in the freezer I had and a couple of canned veggies I had and some rosemary and thyme and prayed for the best. The soup had no smell or taste to me and my son (the family food critic at 16)said it was the most dense soup with no taste he had ever had. Hubby ate it with no complaint.I guess I will never again be asked to make soup from scratch.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:58 pm.
Gail, I think I’m safe, too.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:48 pm.
What a keeper!
I’m actually a great cook. I think it’s because I started cooking with my mom when I was really young. I think I was making gravy on my own at 8, and by 10 I could make dinner on my own for our family of 9. At some point during that time, I realized that my mom was an ok cook, so I would experiment when I made dinner. However, there were a few dishes of hers that I never liked, so I never learned how to make them. Flash forward a few years to when my dh and I were first married.
So my dh asked me to make shepherd’s pie. No problem – meat, potatoes, veggies – sound great. I found a recipe, made it, and hated it. He loved it, but would have loved it better without some of the spices. I’ve since come to discover that he doesn’t like many spices, but I figure that’s his problem not mine. He eats what I make, lol. Anyway, back to the story, I made the shepherd’s pie, again, without spices this time. He RAVES about it, while I think it tastes like vomit. It wasn’t until I was on the phone with one of my sisters, that I realized why I didn’t like the shepherd’s pie. My sister reminded me of a casserole my mom would make with hamburger, corn, and sliced potatoes. It’s AWFUL; I always hated it. That’s what the shepherd’s pie reminded me of, so I never make it – ever. Then, my sister pointed out that our other sister, who was bulimic at the time, loves that casserole that tasted like vomit to us, which led to some inappropriate, snarky jokes. We’ve grown up since then.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:29 pm.
I’m not a big sherpherd’s pie person, either.
It’s interesting how people react to spices in so many different ways. Hot Cop LOVES hot stuff. I can’t stand ‘em. I love salt. He’d rather go without.
You know… now that I think about it, it’s probably a good thing if I never cook again! Lol!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:50 pm.
My dh would just use salt and pepper if I let him. However, I’m not big on salt, so I never use it when I’m cooking. I figure the other herbs that I use take the place of the salt. Occasionally, I add salt to my food afterwards. I LOVE the hot stuff, too.
Not cooking, again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:30 pm.
I completely forgotten ingredients until after it baked. vanilla; flour was a bad one to forget. in my defense I was distracted by a chatty Grandma. she loved the end result though and ate it on her ice cream. It was supposed to be oatmeal jam squares and it turned out oatmeal jam oatmeal.
Once I made biscuits and forgot baking powder. realized just before baking and had to wet the dough with milk then knead the baking powder in. whew! thank goodness they tasted fine! they were baked for a paying customer so they had to taste good
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:30 pm.
Kathy, I envy you your cooking magic. I really wish I had it, but I’m stuck with keeping to the simple recipes.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm.
aw shucks! I have my dad’s baking gene. my mom was great with stews and main meals but really bad at baking. my dad-just to see if he could do it, once made a chocolate mousse cake from scratch complete with hand whipped cream and chocolate shavings. from a Gourmet magazine recipe, it was YUMMY! and never made again. sigh
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:15 pm.
I made a cake once when I was a teen and the middle came out gooey and raw. I was so frustrated that I threw the cake pans in the sink and the raw goo splashed up and got all over everything. Then I was too mad to deal with it. So my boyfriend at the time, making ‘calm down, it’s okay’ noises the whole time, CLEANED IT ALL UP. And then he said that he was sure my next cake would turn out fine.
Next cake? What next cake?
But I’ll never forget how sweet he was about the whole thing. I can still see him wiping the batter off the kitchen drapes.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:32 pm.
Aw!!! That is ADORABLE!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm.
I once made doughnuts more suited to being paper-weights (or doorstops, according to my one brother.) Hubble ate one anyway. I do a lot of cooking, soups and stews are a winter speciality, and most from scratch without a recipe, but when I screw it up, I do it with gusto. Case in point, Fish Chowder. I hunted for cod fish. Couldn’t find it. Three markets later, saw cod, grabbed it, and went home to make soup. Lots of cream, lots of butter, diced potatoes & carrots, the who magilla. It was inedible. Seems I grabbed SALT cod, and since I didn’t soak the salt out, it was like eating Morton’s right out of the box. Fixing it required TWO 16 quart pots and quarts of cream, pounds of butter, and even then, it was still too salty. Haven’t made it since. So don’t feel bad. We’ve all had kitchen disasters. And Hubble manned-up to every one of mine. Sounds like Hot Cop is just as supportive. Lucky girl.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:34 pm.
Sounds like you have a keeper there, too! I can’t imagine trying to ‘fix’ salted cod. But it sounds like you had a plan. I wouldn’t have. :-/
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:52 pm.
Oh I am sure over the years that family and loved ones have said they loved what i cooked and ate it.. The only one who would say she didn’t was my mohter, god rest her soul. She was honest to a falt about food and so was my grandmother.
I try to say something good about another’s cooking.. I hate the way one of my SIL’s cook, but I always smile and say “good”..
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:37 pm.
That’s very nice of you. I do the same, though I expect honesty from Hot Cop because, well, I ASKED him what he thought, so I expected to hear it.
It’s always good to be polite. I’d really hate to hear about ALL of my cooking fails. The ones I know about are tough enough.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:53 pm.
At our house we still sometimes talk about the crispy eggplant disaster of 1993…the pain, the tears, the way the garbage disposal was worked overtime to conceal the ghastly crime.
Don’t try to make crispy eggplant at home; leave it to the professionals.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:50 pm.
That’s quite a crime scene … or a crumb scene. Or maybe both. Heh! I’m with you on eggplant. I’ve bought a few, but I always chuck ‘em and think, “That’s too hard.” They’re intimidating and with reason.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:56 pm.
You and Hot Cop are made for each other, Karen.
As for my own cooking efforts, who knew that the order in which you put the ingredients together matters? That’s just wrong.
And Karen, at least you didn’t set the curtains on fire this time. *g*
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 2:08 pm.
This time … heehee!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:56 pm.
Have I ever cooked something that turned out wrong? Errrrr…. yes. When I first started my cooking blog, I got the bright idea to make Tater Salad… potato salad made out of Tater Tots. I don’t even like Tater Tots, but for some reason, I thought they would taste yummy when mixed with mayonnaise and hard-boiled eggs. It was terrible. A greasy, inedible mess. I did post the recipe, but I put it under the category “Don’t Try This at Home.”
You have my sympathy. Love that Hot Cop had to “cut” the soup out of the bowl!!! What a guy. This is proof of when I always tell young women who are starting to believe all guys are jerks. There are good men out there, and they’re worth waiting for.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 3:27 pm.
Lol! Oh, Susan, that’s too funny! Tater tots in a salad. I’ve never seen that, and I’m not sure I want to. But I’m off to check out your recipes, anyway. You had a great one on there for chicken just this week. It looks yummmmy!
There are good men out there. And they are worth waiting on. Hot Cop is my Husband 2.0 and he’s a huuuge upgrade from Husband 1.0. Just huuuuge.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:58 pm.
If I am at a restaurant and it’s bad, it goes right back from whence it came. I do not pay for badly prepared food. If I am at someone’s home I try to disguise the fact I couldn’t choke it down.
Two meals I prepared stand out in everyone’s memory of truly bad ideas. One was mac & cheese from scratch, usually a great dish. For some unknown reason saying it was inedible would be a kind statement. After he got up from the table, where we had all been discussing the horrible meal, my dh leaned down to kiss me and say, “That was great babe, thanks.” We all looked at him like he had lost his tiny mind. The other was the last of a HUGE turkey we had been working on for days. I made turkey tacos that were epic in their badness. We tossed them and went out to eat.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 3:28 pm.
Aw. What a sweetie! I
Huge turkeys are tough to get done just right. They’re so close to the elements that they can dry out on the outside, and never get done on the inside.
I only know that because my grandmother was adamant that she wouldn’t cook a turkey over a certain weight and that was why.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm.
I am not a fan of huge turkeys either. My DH bought it for Thanksgiving where he had invited his Friday night pokers to join. Unfortunately none of them were sober at the time so no one remembered accepting.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 8:19 pm.
Should have said poker players, the joys of trying to multitask.
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:13 pm.
Heh. I wondered!
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:56 pm.
Wow did you find a keeper in Hot Cop
Lucky you!
My last cooking disaster was Christmas Eve. My daughter is a vegetarian (not the rest of the family…definitely carnivores). So instead of the Costco meatballs I found some Costco veggie meatballs for my crock-pot “Swedish Meatballs”: can of Cream Mushroom Soup and cup of Sour Cream. Throw it all in the crock-pot and let cook until ready, easy-peezy. DOESN’T WORK WITH VEGGIE MEATBALLS! We ended up with a pot of sweet mush. She liked it but the rest of us not so much. I sent the mess home with her…
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 4:04 pm.
Oh no! Veggie meatballs don’t hold together as well, hm? It sounds like good soup, if not good meatballs. :-/ Sorry!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:01 pm.
We love a spicy spagetti sauce. One day I was extremely tired (I work the graveyard shift, and many times 16 hours at a time) and put the hot peppers in and fell asleep. I usually taste test regularly to make sure it doesn’t get too spicy, but I didn’t – it was inedible, my oldest son loved it (he enters crazy hot-food eating contests), but the rest of us used a jar of sauce that day (and jar sauce is like eating box macaroni and cheese – its just so-so).
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 5:39 pm.
Hot Cop likes hot foods, too. Me, not so much. At least your son liked it!
Btw, 16 hours is crazy. I hope you’ve gotten some good sleep this week, at least!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:02 pm.
did i tell you that the 2nd time I made my chocolate carrot cake, I not only dropped it as it was coming out of the oven but also used a food processor’s wrong setting on the carrots and they ended up bitty chunks instead of blending into the finished cake? dropping it was a blessing but what a mess on the floor!
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 10:19 pm.
Oh yeah, been there, done that. As picky as Hubby is, though, he was nice about it. *G*
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:23 pm.
Beef Stew Casserole | Premeditated Leftovers says:
[...] was surfing the web under the guise of research yesterday when I discovered a humorous post titled Why I Love this Man. The author, Karen Hawkins, wanted to make her grandmother’s soup but didn’t have all [...]
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 3:35 am.
When I was a child sleeping over at friends I loathed meal times. My Mother is a great cook & these other Mother’s had no idea. I remember being served up a stew at one friend’s – all fat & gristle. I nearly threw up. I always said I was not hungry. So went home starving.
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 4:41 am.
Karen…
We used to go to a Chinese restaurant that made a wonderful dish called Buddah’s Delight. It had tofu and lots of Chinese veggies.
I decided to make it for dinner one night. Cut the veggies, bought the correct tofu, it looked great.
My hubby and I sat down to eat my wonderful new dish. After one bite (it was terrible), we looked at each other, put down our spoons and said……..”let’s go out to dinner”. Needless to say, Buddah, as well as anyone else, would not have been delighted with the dish I cooked! LOL
Posted on January 7, 2012 at 12:53 am.
At last! Someone with real epxiertse gives us the answer. Thanks!
Posted on January 25, 2012 at 11:28 pm.
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Posted on January 26, 2012 at 12:15 pm.