When you are a full time working mom and wife you learn many skills, multi tasking, efficient use of your time, running on minimal sleep, prioritizing tasks, etc. etc....
What you (or just me maybe) don't do is spend time learning to cook anything new (clean, keep up with laundry, complete paperwork on time, relax, etc. etc. oh wait that's all mom's). I spent all my mommy years learning a new meal once in awhile only after someone else tried it and gave me step by step clear easy instructions (too many steps and I gave up) and then just recycling my healthiest and family favourite's because you can become efficient at making a few things and buying the groceries for these things. Easy to get groceries if you make sure you always keep the exact same things in stock and it's easy.
And if you hate the grocery store as mush as I do you avoid anything like a new recipe that may require you to frequent the store more often or have to go in search of something you cannot find.
Monday is Pita pizza night, Tuesday is Quesadilla night, Wednesday is Chicken and Veg...etc. etc....
WELL, this mommy now gets to stay at home and is learning a whole new variety of things, different style of multi tasking different only because this never skill set never actually changes if you are a girl, but the one I never thought I'd do...drum roll...
Cooking varieties of foods or at least trying to and by variety I mean only sort of barely trying a few things outside my comfort zone - pasta and mexican casseroles.
Tonight Cheese and Spinach stuffed Manicotti
it's easy the recipe said, quick it said, 20 mins to prepare it said
a recipe I will never make again as it does call for about 8 weeks worth of a person's serving of a variety of cheese, which is not what I consider to be cheese in moderation, unless I spend the entire summer not eating cheese
AND what the recipe neglects to tell you is stuffing a wobbly Manicotti noodle is NOT Awesome
20 mins to prepare...RIGHT!
looks good though doesn't it?
So you mix your cheeses (ricotta, mozza, cream cheese, egg and pepper) and spinach in a bowl - easy,
then you attempt to stuff the noodle
I first put the cheeses into a bag and cut a tip per the recipe
brilliant
I'll just squeeze the cheese into the tubular noodle...right
WRONG...the cheese sort of squeezes, but in blobs that just get stuck at the entrance to the noodle that wobbles in your hand
so you try to stabilize the noodle with the other hand while squeezing the cheese at the same time
now cheese is just spilling on the counter and down the outside of the noodle
I try to stuff said wobbly noodle using a fork
well this does work as half the cheese gets into the noodle while the other half spills on the counter, but it doesn't just carefully glide itself into the middle of the noodle
you must push the cheese down the noodle (still wobbly) without the noodle splitting or smushing as you do it...right
When I finally have the hang of stuffing the noodles I then become so efficient that I just stuff the cheese filling right out the other side of the noodle and the the cheese filling is now on the floor, which I don't notice until I've stepped into it of course
Finally last wobbly and now sticky from sitting on the counter noodle and I get it 1/4 way stuffed and you guessed it no more filling....stupid stuffed pasta
Oh well some poor person gets to have noodle no cheese
and that is how this poor momma tries out her new recipes
No comments:
Post a Comment