it's hard work...

... but not complicated. I was on my feets for eight hours yesterday, cooking the Simple Meals at work. Making a dish I would never, not ever, no absolutely not consider cooking at home: it had two big thick steaks in it - and the actual recipe calls for a roast. I don't know which of the two I would rather Not be preparing. But after I got over the yuck factor of raw beef (x 3 - as I reproduced the recipe over and over after washing dishes) it was not bad, and got lots of compliments.

I've begun to wonder if people would say: that's awful? Cooking burgers on Tuesday, according to the instructions, using a meat thermometer to gauge doneness of the meat. Stacking them up with three kinds of 'hot': cream cheese with peppers, pepper jack cheese, then poppers. A number of tasters said that it was too red for them, under-done by the standards of what they would normally consume. I wanted to say: I would not eat it under any circumstances. But I cooked, and they ate.

This one has roasted garlic on top. Cook a cup full of garlic buds in the oven, put it in the food processor, add herbs and spread on top of the nearly done meat. I did not try it, but everyone who walked by my cooking space commented on how good it smelled:' that's the garlic', I said. And remembered a helpful hint I read years ago: what to do, if you have been lollygagging around all day, not thinking about preparing a meal to put on the table when you family comes in, famished. Throw some diced onions in a frying pan, start cooking and stirring. It will make the house smell great, make the family believe something is going on, and give you a few minutes to pull a rabbit out of your hat. Plus many a main dish can be improved by, or starts with a sautéed onion.

I think I am acclimating. And getting better at it. But yesterday I really struggled to get two dishes done at the same time. This was a major problem when I started cooking, still at home, learning how to put a meal on the table. I remember how difficult it is to see into the nearly immediate future to figure out what order things should be prepped in. A long learning curve of when to start different dishes, what the sequence should be for it all to be ready and on the table at the same time. When you are a kid and are called to 'wash your hands, it's time to eat', you don't realize how complicated that dance can be. But when you start doing it in your own space, for yourself: a learning process, of continuous guesswork/confusion/doubt/mistakes. Especially without motherly advice.

The other recipe was for a bread pudding, that tasted more like an omelet. I would not have given it the pudding name, even though it had eggs, cream, and cubed bread from the bakery in it. Because it also had cheese, garlic, leeks, thyme. It was good, and tasty, but when you hear the words 'bread pudding', your brain and taste buds are thinking: dessert, something sweet and tasty to end the meal.