Monday night I was invited to a birthday party for Tuesday night. I was asked to bring some kind of homemade food. After a long deliberation, I decided I would bring Campbell's Butternut Squash soup (pre-made and just heat it up). After a longer deliberation I decided that would be cheating. So I googled some butternut squash recipes and found that Campbell's had a fairly simple looking recipe on their website. By the way, when I told the host what I was bringing, she said, "oh so totally righteous!" Man, I better not let HER down! So Tuesday morning I called my sister and asked her if I could use her kitchen (cuz she has more & better cooking utensils than I), and her help (cuz she is a way more experienced cook than I). I went to Kroger on my lunch hour to gather the ingredients and read over the recipe a few times to make sure I understood.
I got to my sister's house at about 5:15 - 1 hour and 15 minutes until party time. Luckily, the party house was just right around the corner from my sister's house, so I knew I could spend the bulk of my available time cooking. After all, the recipe said Prep Time: 20 minutes (first lie), Cook Time: 25 minutes (second lie).
Without posting in-toto the entire debaucle, I will instead bullet-point a few of the highlights:
I got to my sister's house at about 5:15 - 1 hour and 15 minutes until party time. Luckily, the party house was just right around the corner from my sister's house, so I knew I could spend the bulk of my available time cooking. After all, the recipe said Prep Time: 20 minutes (first lie), Cook Time: 25 minutes (second lie).
Without posting in-toto the entire debaucle, I will instead bullet-point a few of the highlights:
- Who knew squash was so hard to peel and cube? David ended up doing the bulk of this for me. I am okay in admitting that dealing with squash should be a man's work. He also chopped the onion and cored the apples (yes - apples).
- I cut my finger attempting to peel and cube the squash. That was about the time David interceded.
- I burnt my sister's arm
- I burnt myself
- I broke my sister's blender (a wedding gift no less)
- I interrupted the kids' evening as I commandeered the kitchen and left no room for their dinner to be made. Boo-bear was wandering around aimlessly muttering muk, muk, muk...No doubt daized and overcome by great hunger.
- My sister's kitchen walls and counters now have a fresh coat of butternut-squash-soup-mixture splatter (hope you like that dull orange color)
- I didn't have enough time to clean up the kitchen - had to jet to the party!!
- Got to the party on time before the birthday girl so as not to ruin the suprise
- Everyone LOVED the soup. I thought it was too sweet.
- I learned I should have brought the pre-made version.
- I learned I have the best sister & brother-in-law in the WORLD. (sorry again about that whole mess)
I guess it's the beautiful learning moments like these that make us better people (or cooks) later on in life.
Comments
The people who have influenced my life the most--
1. Christ
2. Jay
3. Rachael Ray
I promise every meal she makes is in 30 minutes of less...esp. if you have an extra 2 pair of hands! YOu should finish in like 10!
YOu too grasshopper have much to learn but it can be done! You must believe!
No worries on the wedding present blender, I don't even remember who gave it to us!
I tried the soup that you brought back to the house, it was okay, it just wasn't my...wait for it...cup of soup! But that in no way reflects upon your culinary skills, I think I just don't care for squash.