I have always enjoyed food and the pleasure it brings to other people. With the exception of zucchini I can’t think of too many foods I do not like. Because I started cooking at an early age (about 10), I expected to receive high praise for everything I made, even if it was just a layered Jell-o mold with whipped cream.
I still have and use that Jell-o cookbook today.
One of my favorite things to cook was beef barley stew in the crock pot. It seemed so grown up and my mom really liked a day off from dinner duty. Of course not everything I made turned out perfect….so let me stop you from making some of my past, most tragic, mistakes.
Chocolate Pudding: Read Instructions Carefully – Using the Betty Crocker Cookbook, I learned to make a most delicious chocolate pudding. I liked to make it when we had company because everyone would ooh and ahh. It was rich and creamy and it’s fairly easy to make but you must read the directions all the way to the end before starting.
I think I practically ruined one of my mom’s favorite pans when I skipped the part about stirring constantly and let it boil for 4 minutes while I talked on the phone. Scorched! For the record, you cannot save scorched pudding. It tastes terrible and has burned pan flecks all through it. Ice cream to the rescue!
The Cracker Snafu of 1984 – I was hosting a Princess House Crystal party—it’s kind of like a Tupperware party only with crystal glasses, bowls and platters. The representative had loaned me all of her nice dishes to use for the party appetizers. I made punch to serve in crystal goblets and dips to serve in fine bowls but the platters threw me for a loop.
After much thought I decided to serve cheese and crackers. I spent hours layering cheese, meat, olives and pickles on crackers for the party. The platters looked beautiful.
You can imagine how surprised I was to find a huge gross mushy mess hours later when I “unveiled” them at the party. Who knew crackers wouldn’t hold up under all that moisture? Take it from me—serve crackers in a pretty basket beside the cheese tray.
It pays to keep a wellstocked cupboard – About a year after we moved to South Haven we invited two neighbor families over for an afternoon of dinner and cards. I worked all morning to make homemade chicken noodle soup…. the house smelled like heaven! The soup was perfect. Just minutes before the guests were to walk through the door a cupboard shelf collapsed and all the dishes fell to the stove below and right into the soup. Broken glass was everywhere. I couldn’t serve the soup and risk someone accidentally eating glass shards so I quickly grabbed cheese, bread and cans of tomato soup for a meal of grilled cheese and notso homemade soup, I am sure they wondered why the house smelled like chicken soup, but no one complained.
The greatest message I can give you is to not lose your cool. Have fun with food and if it doesn’t turn out exactly as you planned, just go with it. Your friends want to ohh and ahh over you, not your chocolate pudding! Eating is really an indoor sport. You play three times a day, so it’s well worth your while to make the game as pleasant as possible. Dorothy Draper
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