The Kitchen Chronicles: Blunders

For some of you cooking is your thing, and the kitchen is were you thrive. My mom is that way. She is a natural, and you would think the tradition would be passed down to the daughter, but not in my family. My brother was the one with the easy bake oven. Now he specializes in French crepes and I specialize in eating them!

My first kitchen memory is making breakfast for my dad. I had the brilliant idea that I would get up early and have it be a big surprise. I don’t know how I managed it, but one Saturday morning I was the first one up and I went into the kitchen to prepare a special meal for him. I decided to stick with something I know, good thinking! At the tender age of 7 there was little about cooking breakfast that I did know. So I pull a box of corn flakes out of the pantry and I add the ingredients (milk), top it all off with a spoon and put it in the refrigerator because we wouldn’t want it to spoil. There it sat until my dad woke up a couple hours later to find the soggy bowl of corn flakes waiting for him.

Of course I matured over time and when I got married I was anxious to become the perfect housewife and have a delectable feast prepared and awaiting my hard working husbands arrival. I decided to try my hand at ham and chicken croquettes. Too much grease in too much heat would result in my first visit from the fire department .

My initial reaction was to call my husband “I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO THE PAN IS ON FIRE!!” I screamed, when another flame leapt into the air melting the plastic light cover overhead. I dropped the phone disconnecting my call with my husband (leaving him terrified) and that is when I called 911. I then did the stop, drop, and crawl move to make my way outside. The firemen came and extinguished the flame. Our landlords were very gracious and luckily not too much had to be replaced other than the wall paper and vent-a-hood.

So as you can see my intentions are always good, but I have a ways to go before I can fill my mom’s apron. However, I am up for the challenge and the kitchen chronicles have just begun.