The Boulder Ripples

THE RESOLUTION: Cook/Bake something new
CHALLENGE  ACCOMPLISHMENT # 1

BONUS:
THE RESOLUTION: Meaningful get togethers
CHALLENGE  ACCOMPLISHMENT # 3

The concept of cooking has long been one that defied me. The years I lived on my own even conceived great friendships between myself and the frozen food aisle. In fact, the long standing joke for my relationship with cooking has boiled down to this: "I burn water."

In the spirit of ThirteenSquared I confess that my lack of cooking skills is really nothing more than a reflection of my lack of patience and enthusiasm for immediate gratification. That's really not to say that frozen, pre-made fat and preservative-laden meals are overly gratifying but it's ready to eat 5 minutes after my stomach screams 'feed me' for the 10th time that evening. I really have tried to cook before. That's how I ended up 'burning water':
      Step 1 Boil water for pasta
      Step 2 Eat a bowl of cereal while water boils
      Step 3 Completely forget about water until the smell of burning pot fills apartment

April recently made this comment about me with regards to creating ThirteenSquared for my resolution:

      "Some throw a rock into a pond and then stand back to watch the ripples.
       YOU ... throw a boulder!"


Perhaps this is again a perfect illustration of her point: My first attempt at cooking something for challenge #6 is non other than making an entire turkey dinner! That's right, a full 4kg turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, some other mashed thing which I still don't know the name of, roasted flat beans and more. So I'm going to go ahead and tell you now that I cannot take credit for the majority of these things. April, my cooking mentor, life-support provider (and charming side-kick as she prefers) will humbly return the credit to me but I'm telling you now, she shopped, she prepped, she told me what to do every step of the way and she definitely stepped up to being the one to crack the turkey open and remove all of its once life-enabling organs while I stood back watching in horror.

I eventually kicked it into gear and achieved magic by shoving a 10kg turkey's worth of stuffing into our poor half size little bird. He took it like a champ I tell you! The next day, while all on my own, I actually had to cook the thing which of course meant hourly calls to April's office to question every possibility and eventually do some improvisations to prevent the complete dehydration of my now leathery-looking friend. I got to mash, beat, baste, mix, chop, drain, cut, scoop and serve a total of 8 dishes (turkey, mashed potatoes, not-so-turnips, flat beans, stuffing, cream corn, cranberry sauce and gravy).

Now I'm definitely not bragging here, it may in fact be that I just have some wonderful friends who are great liars, but the meal (and the evening) was crowned a success! I was able to feed 5 people and was left with enough leftovers for at least another couple of meals. Speaking of that successful evening though, it certainly made for a great, big, happy checkmark under another resolution category: "Meaningful get togethers". Possibly the most social and fun Monday ever, we played Yahtzee and Headbanz until it was almost Tuesday! (This is the moment I confess that I am totally a closet geek and have been wanting a games night like this for a half-dozen years... and now I want more.) So dear friends, thank you for coming to my impromptu dinner party. I hope you had fun helping me with my resolutions and may I see you again on ThirteenSquared.


One woman. One year. 15 and 16 down. 153 to go.