…something changed in the last week.
On Wednesday evening, I was so uninspired that I randomly decided to go ingredient shopping. ‘For what?’, I subconsciously thought at first, but then Macaroni Cheese began to dominate my cerebral horizons.
Rather than spend a small handful of pounds buying a ready made version of the much loved tea time treat, I wanted to take the initiative and make it myself – having something cooked by myself to be almost proud of.
I bought all of the required ingredients after a short trip round my local town – and then got going once in the kitchen. Every potential was there for things to go absolutely wrong, particularly given how laughably lamentable I am at cooking. Midweek didn’t necessarily represent the first time me trying to make something in the kitchen – I’ve put pasta sauce over…pasta, put toast into a toaster and made a cup of tea. But they don’t count. I wanted to show myself I had some skill for a change!
And my lack of culinary skills isn’t all that surprising, but is disappointing – it makes me somewhat shockingly undesirable. Why would anyone ever want to love a man like me who can’t cook? And as if romance will be coming in my direction any time soon anyway!
But I digress. Meanwhile, over to the action in the kitchen. Firstly, I took a pan and put it on the cooker. I poured three cupfuls of milk into the pan and put the heat onto a reasonably moderate level. It didn’t really boil, which was annoying. The lack of boiling of the milk meant little progress was being made and represented a setback which had all the power to floor me to defeat. But I had other ideas – cue in the spirali!
Next followed a reasonable amount of butter which didn’t move things much further forward. But, like a crucial turning point in a game of football, grated cheese dramatically boosted my hopes of culinary success.
Finally, the hopeless mixture I was making began to transform into something a bit like the final product I was aiming for. I mixed and mixed and mixed – a bit of salt, pepper and coconut was added to make the meal all the more worthwhile.
The final product eventually went into my mouth…and it actually was Macaroni Cheese! Oh my goodness – have I an unrecognised talent after all?!
I think it’s daft of me to get carried away over successfully making Macaroni Cheese at the first time of asking – people will laugh at this thinking I’m just being silly. However, my experience in the kitchen earlier this week was a strange yet welcome confidence booster. It might not have been the best looking Macaroni Cheese, but as far as the taste was concerned, it wisnae bad!
You can never truly knock yourself unless you try something you think at first you’re useless at, when in fact you are truly amazing at, like in my case (steady on, Anas you utter Manace!).
What’s next on the food menu for me?