One day, late in the afternoon at our house, my nephew was standing in our kitchen with my son. I was cooking (an unusual event around here) and my son asked, What are you cooking for dinner?" in a very interested tone. My nephew said, "She's not cooking dinner," in a very confident tone. I said, "Well ... it just so happens ... I am cooking dinner," in defense of myself.
I was not offended by the comment my nephew made, as it is certainly quite an unusual sight to see me cooking and he was obviously confused by my actions. Now, mind you, he is not often around to see the times I actually do attempt to make these dinners for my family, but he is around enough to conclude that, unlike his mother, I am not much of a cook.
I'm not much of a cook at all. I don't like to cook and I'm not interested in learning new or better ways to improve my cooking. I can do many things and I am pretty good at a lot of things - cooking is not one of those things. I do what I can and what I have to, to feed my family - but no more. I can bake just about anything and have been known to do that often, but I am a miserable cook. I am sorry for that.
I am a good house-keeper though. What I lack in cooking skills, I make up for in cleanliness. I think my family would probably trade their clean rooms or bathrooms for a decent meal every dinner time - but it's not ever gonna happen.
I watch the cooking channel on TV a lot, but this does not make me a better cook. My family finds it amusing that I am so obsessed with watching this channel, knowing the poor cook that I am. I'm not sure what it is about these cooks that fascinates me ... but, I watch this channel all the time. My kids watch it too. I think we are all hoping that one day it will finally hit me - this habit of cooking interesting meals in thirty-minutes-or-less. It will never happen. I prefer to watch Rachael Ray slave over a pot of boiling water and turn out these fabulous meals with catchy names like Fiesta Summer Chicken or Tomato-Basil Meatloaf with Baby Garlic Potatoes, than to spend the time creating them myself.
On the upside ... Thanksgiving dinner will be at my house this year, but not to worry ... I'm really only in charge of the rolls, the mashed potatoes, the drinks, the ham and the turkey. That's right ... THE TURKEY! Can you say salmonella poisoning? (*hangs head in shame like a Culinary Institute drop-out*).