I’m not a cook. Sure, I can make a casserole and anything involving a crock pot, but without a very detailed recipe and ingredients I can pronounce I’m lost. Jack may have appreciated this nugget of information before he got down on one knee, but it’s too late now. Early in our marriage my mantra was “If it comes in a box, bag, can, or jar, I can cook it.” People we worked with used to give me Hamburger Helper coupons, which I appreciated, because we ate a LOT of Hamburger Helper. I’d like to think I’ve developed at least a little bit since then.
Jack recently bought me a whole slew of gorgeous new appliances. I’m not sure if he thought it would inspire me to start cooking, but he seemed dismayed when I announced to a friend that the pretty stainless steel items were like the earrings for my kitchen. None-the-less, when he finds me standing near them with a spatula in my hand, he gets really excited.
Last Saturday, we endured a pretty bad blizzard. I thought I would treat my family with cream of potato and bacon soup. When Jack came home from work that morning, the entire house smelled delicious. I couldn’t wait to share my creation with the entire family. I followed the recipe to a tee. I hand chopped the vegetables, carefully brought the broth to a boil, observed all the cooking times as outlined on the recipe I found online. Then about an hour in it happened. The smell filled the house. Not the pleasant bacon and soup smell that had been filling the house up to this point, but the smell of something that had gone terribly wrong. In approximately 3 minutes I managed to scorch the soup to the bottom of the pan and turn my beautiful soup into a pan of stinky mashed potatoes. I frantically poured the potatoes out of the pan into a bowl and feverishly added milk to try to regain some semblance of soup. In the end a couple of people choked down a bowl and the rest has come to its resting place in the fridge. Waiting a moldy death.
Talk about letting the wind out of my sails. This is why I don’t cook.
In an effort to claim my revenge yesterday I made white chicken chili. I used a proven recipe provided by some friends at church and recreated by my husband on at least one occasion. It was so successful I made it again tonight.
Here’s the recipe for cooks of all levels.
| 2 chicken breasts, diced 6 strips bacon, cooked & chopped 2 cans chicken broth 2 cans (4 oz) green chilies 1 tsp. cumin 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/2 small onion, chopped | 2-4 garlic cloves, chopped 2 cans northern beans 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. dried oregano 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper 1 cup sour cream 1 cup half & half |
| Sauté chicken, onion, and bacon until chicken is no longer pink, add garlic the last few minutes. Transfer to a soup pot and add remaining ingredients except sour cream and half & half. bring to a boil then simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in sour cream and half & half and cook until heated through. |
