Cloves

That goes in the arena of culinary mishaps. I’ve made a few major gaffes, especially before I got a culinary degree.

My cousin will never let me live down the uncooked “roasted” chicken I made him in a tiny apartment stove/oven. The pilot light went out and the skin looked gorgeous but the meat was raw. I re-lit the pilot, carved the chicken and sauteed it until done on the two-burner stove. Decades later he tells my siblings “your sister tried to kill me.”

I was living and working on the east coast and my family moved out west. I went to visit for the holidays and decided to cook them dinner from a very famous cookbook. The Bolognese sauce included 1/8 tsp. of cloves. I served the dinner and everyone said “cloves.” I made up my recipe from then on and have had no complaints, even when I make Moussaka and use cinnamon. Ok, that’s an error as well as I made it for guests so I could make it in advance so we could enjoy said guests. My husband hates eggplant. I’ve not made it since but am thinking of making it with zucchini as the “pasta” layers rather than grilled eggplant.

Mom and I went to a farmers’ market before I was married. I found this lovely little plant called Thai Chili. I was visiting family again and making a chicken chili, still before cooking school. I didn’t have an idea then as to Scoville Units, like Jalapeno is 3,000 – 5,000 and Habanero is about 300,000. Now ghost peppers are way out there.

I used 1/4 of what was in the recipe and no-one could eat it. For the next day or two I put in potatoes, carrots, everything but the kitchen sink but it was inedible. No, I didn’t give it to my former dog, she would have died right then and there.

Given one French and one Italian cooking school, I’ve not made grave errors since. There are actually successes and folks like my food. They actually say “Dee’s a chef.” I wouldn’t go so far, I’m a good cook that likes to cook for my family and entertain sometimes (when my husband doesn’t ask can we have so-and-so come over in 1/2 hour)?

Unless someone he knows and likes regularly comes over to see what I’m making for dinner, that’s a no, dear. I’m known to pick 5-6 cookbooks to open on my bed to come up with a menu. Then there are lists and shopping and prep. No, dear. Cheers and happy cooking! Dee