When I first started out to search for all the wonderful ingredients I had an inkling it would take me at least and hour and half. I was right!
Not only did I get out all the ingredients and have them mostly prepped and ready to go, as much as is possible in a kitchen with very little space for prepping, but I also had all the proper tools and pots out and in their places. (My tea kettle is still sitting on top of a bowl in a mysterious looking way as a result of me having to use every single eye on the stove) With everything ready, I nervously heated my cast iron frying pan without anything in it and with a lid on, which goes against all the rules of stove top cooking for me! Ah well, if this was how Rachael Ray does it, then I was going to do it too!
What happened next was when and where my disaster started. You know how it is when you enter a roller coaster ride, how there is no going back and no stopping until you are at the end. I felt a bit like this as soon as I put the bacon into the empty frying pan. No matter how much prep work I had done and how ready I felt I was, I really had to keep moving like a roller coaster must in order to maintain momentum needed to finish the meal!
I also felt like I was in the middle of a battle. The beef would be sizzling and popping while the noodles were in a raging boil. I would stir the noodles one minute and find out I needed to add more ingredients to the beef. When I thought I was nearly done, I found myself gazing at the kitchen table and stack of dishes and wishing I were a bit like Matilda for just this once and be able to clean and clear off all surfaces telepathically. All my dishes were being used or messy and table was unable to be set.
Fortunately, Nathan came to my rescue or was following his nose and drained the pasta before stirring in the butter, parsley, and chives at my request. Maybe it was because of the foreignness or the lovely fragrance seeping from each pot and pan, or simply out of kindness of his hear, he then moved to the stove and opened the lid to the pan and stirred in some flour to thicken the sauce, then moved on to the next pan and stirred the beans. I have never been able to get him in the kitchen to help me with dinner until now.
"You are taking way too long, dear! Come sit and eat with me!"
I sat and after a blessing we dipped in to the beef and pasta. I was so nervous.
It was delicious! A very messy, deliciously, wonderful beef bourguignon! Surreal even! After nearly two years of meals that I merely threw together as fast as I could just to get out of the kitchen for whatever reason called me away, I have found I still have the touch!
Thanks Nathan for believing in me and enjoying my first times with random, foreign recipes and menus. It was fun!
Thanks Nathan for believing in me and enjoying my first times with random, foreign recipes and menus. It was fun!
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