Cooking

I seem to have lost the urge to prepare food - oh yes, I still get hungry, and so unfortunately does the husband, and as I am the only one who knows how to work the cooker, I have to put something on a plate for a meal. You need a degree in electronics to work the hob, and the dials on the oven are so complicated, that despite the diagrams on each setting, it’s taken even me years to become adept at its operation.

Picky Picky

Having had years of cooking, sometimes twice a night as the kids would want fish fingers and baked beans when I had put together, oh I don’t know, maybe chili con carne - something I had prepared that actually had some taste that I could hide the real vegetables in. They were the Inspector Morse of Food, and could detect a piece of tomato within seconds of it arriving in front of them, sighing and designating a pile at the side of the plate for things ‘I don’t eat’ to push it into.

I suppose I am bored with food, shopping for it, preparing it, eating it, clearing up after it, then adding little pots of leftovers that get pushed to the back of the fridge to go green or to become unrecognisable lumps in the freezer because I forgot to put a label on it.

Food Envy

I envy those that can take a look in the store cupboard and whip something up something so incredibly easy and appetising that it gets your tastebuds going into overload. I have friends, and indeed family, who consider cooking and preparing food to be an art form, and get huge enjoyment out of it, from roaming the aisles and inspecting labels to even going to more exotic shops for a certain ingredient they can’t find, following a recipe to the letter or even clever enough to substitute something or add something extra to put their own twist on a recipe to make it their own.

Me – I can’t even follow a recipe printed in black and white without leaving something crucial out, realising at the end, then thinking, nah, nobody will notice – but of course they do. I have even cooked lettuce in error and tried to pass it off as overcooked greens. I have made caramel cookies that were so hard you could break your teeth on them. I have tried making frothy coffee – that ends up like a cup of something brown with sludgy white stuff floating on the top. I have a stack of recipe books – some I have even opened and flicked through. Magazine recipes – well forget it, their pictures are surely not genuine compared to my sad finished product.

Cooking at School

Yet, believe it or not, I came top of the class at Home Ec. classes – I could make a Victoria Sponge to die for, just by weighing everything against the two eggs that went in, remembering to grease the pan first, pre-heating the oven and whipping cream so well that it could stand up on its own. I was renowned for carefully writing the recipe down stage by stage, to the point the teacher would embarrassingly hold my work up as an example to those who had failed. Oh yes. I was good once.

Air Fryer

Now, something has revived my interest – an Air Fryer. I used to be a bit sceptical – writing it off as another device to clutter up my kitchen counter. But it’s so simple to use, and I can’t wait to start cooking a whole chicken dinner in it in one go. I made some breakfast in it, toast, bacon and eggs in just 10 minutes, no toaster or frying pan in sight, and clean up was a cinch. I have joined a Facebook page and studied everyone’s recipes and managed to cook some chicken pieces in a delicious coating, and chips to die for.

I am actually eager to try something new, and it’s so simple, that I might even get the husband to cook something in it!

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan