Fabulous Dinner

So there I was. A wreck. My sister had just called to announce she’d gotten engaged and was bringing the new future member of the family to MY house for dinner in ONE hour!! Talk about thinking ahead! Never on earth was I gonna have enough time to order take out from any posh decent restaurant to impress the man (whom I’ve never met before…yeah…love at first sight happens according to my sister), my zero cooking skills were of no help at that moment, and my MIA chef husband was of course…MIA.

I ran down to the kitchen, opened all cabinets and fridge, started putting things on the counter and took a step back: I had come up with a dozen different tins I had absolutely no idea what they were for, several spices and powders, still no clue where to go with them, a pack of pasta, some rice, and from the fridge, some hard as rock frozen meats, eatable cheeses, a pack of prawns, and some veggies. So what do I do? I went for the things I recognized: the pasta (forget the rice…pasta had cooking instructions on the packet), the prawns (I figured, they taste sooooo good when hubby makes them….can’t go wrong there), an onion, some garlic ( I’ve seen him putting garlic into his cooking), salt and pepper. How far was I going to get with only that, don’t ask me! I was lost.

Then I remembered…his collection of hand written recipes under the shelf. I quickly flipped pages remembering he had been going on about this easy recipe for pasta with prawns the other day, and how even someone like me who was hopeless in the kitchen could actually accomplish it (didn’t really appreciate that part…but oh, well…some facts you just gotta deal with). And won’t you believe it: the book was marked with just the perfect recipe for the things I actually knew what they were: Pasta with Prawns, Rocket and Feta. Well…figuring the “rocket” was going to be a toughie so I decided to play it safe and read the labels on the veggie bags. Nevertheless, heaven sent it was.

So I start putting the stuff together: made sure I read the instructions for cooking the pasta (yes, I am THAT bad), and went according to the recipe: 4 tablespoons of olive oil to fry 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 small onion sliced, and 1 red pepper cored, seeded and diced (I hadn’t thought of that one at all). So while the pasta was about done (you know when it gets soft but not too soft), I started frying for like 4 minutes. When the 4 minutes were up, I tossed in the prawns, rocket and feta. When the prawns started looking pinkish, I added the pasta (which was already drained of course, I do have some common sense, haha), and mixed everything well. I added salt and pepper and served four fantastic dinners, just in time to hear my husband pulling in the driveway followed by my sister and her beau.

Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if they didn’t plan it? You know, the coming without notice, the marked book under the shelf, him going on about the recipe before, the arriving together….sounds fishy-er by the moment! Anyway, I must say that for being useless in the kitchen, the following of the recipe didn’t go bad at all and they were actually pretty impressed with the pasta. They ate it all!

From that day, I decided not to be such a disaster in the kitchen (much to my mother in law’s peace of heart), and subscribed to “Taste Italia” (much to my husband’s delight). I didn’t want to spend too much in it…not being my favorite hobby in the world learning about food, but was pleasantly surprised when the subscription I obtained for a year cost me so little for an entire year. Magazines started coming in and I started taking a liking to the kitchen. The recipes I’ve gotten have actually worked! They are easy to follow and the ingredients are not complicated to get at all. I must say, so far it has been an good investment and I like the “impress them all” feeling I get after a well followed recipe. I’m thinking I might even subscribe next to “Delicious”! I’m become and addict!

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