Cooking skills have never been top priority in our household. I can turn out an acceptable meal, but I don't enjoy the process, and even my best efforts are ones that I can chuck in the slow cooker and forget about it. Neil loves to cook, but hasn't got a clue what he is doing, and the results are very variable. I shut up and say nowt, because he is more than willing to prepare a dinner for me every night, but the starting point for these meals is often a pre-packaged meal from the supermarket.
Last week he came home in triumph, brandishing a 'bargain' he had purchased in Tesco - half price at only £1 - a ready meal for one consisting of penne pasta in a tomato & basil sauce. Something finally clicked into gear in my brain and I was appalled! 'But darling, you could make this yourself and feed 6 people for £1, AND it would be tastier'. So we decided to have a go at real cooking. Co-incidentally, a few days later I watched a TV programme in which pre-packaged diet food was given short shrift for its poor nutritional value and suspect ingredients.
Now Julia will delight in telling people (and it is a funny story) about my first foray into cooking when I had to phone her up several times to get step-by-step instructions on making a chicken casserole. However, this happened over 40 years ago, and several marriages later, I have accumulated some knowledge about basic cooking techniques, although not much more joy in the process. But I am a Virgo, and 2 things I love are following instructions and showing others the right way (my way) of doing something. So you can imagine the fun I had, in the kitchen with my lovely husband, as we worked our way through the recipe for a vegetarian pasta bake (actually a lasagne of sorts). Neil was beside himself with excitement, almost unable to wait till it was cooked to see how it had turned out. I do believe this was his first cooking attempt starting from scratch with fresh ingredients and a recipe book.
It turned out lovely, probably cost about £2.50, was enough for 6 people and we had great fun doing it. Neil unfortunately thinks he has cracked it and wants to move straight to the Maddhur Jaffrey style of cooking, but I will take him through a few more basics before we move on to ingredients like Norwegian Beaver Cheese and Mexican Yaks Milk.
