Thursday, 16th October 2008

What do I cook now?

Each and every day my mind circulates  around the subject “cooking”. Of course, I know that many people have the same fun or maybe problem. But if you have to care for a family you need to think how to feed them and with which kind of food. But here start the difficulties already. Everybody has a certain preference for certain foodstuff and do not like very much to tolerate the taste of the others. As example: my daughter does not like meat and carrots, my son is not very fond of vegetable and my husband has preferences, he likes sandwiches and pizza. If my children could choose, they would eat every day pancake, kaiserschmarrn (cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins), rice pudding, spaghetti (just plain or with ketchup) or pizza. I think everybody in this “food-strange” family likes pizza and spaghetti – even me – but not every day.
I do like very much to try out new recipes. But even here I do not raise too much cheer. Mostly,  at least one of my beloved family members starts to grumble. I  think you feel how difficult it is for me to find a solution to satisfy all of them.

And so, I thought, it´s a brilliant  idea to generate a food-plan which covers one week to gain the advantage for me to strain myself once a week only. A mix of different kind of meals should satisfy everybody.
But this concept did not work at all. Sometimes I or somebody else from the family was not very much keen on the meal which the program offered, or we got visitors or we went out and so on. So that project was dropped and I looked for another alternative.
And again I had a bright idea. I produced a list containing all that kind of food which the family-members liked. I fixed the list on the fridge door combined with the strong hope that this new attempt will lead to some success.
Unfortunately I was not very lucky again. I think the list is still there, but hidden behind notes, labels, photos  and other papers. Or did it disappear already? Maybe as drawing paper? Nobody knows. But one is for sure, I haven’t seen it for the last one year.
Some times ago I met a friend of mine and she explained to me how they are solving similar problems.
Everybody has the opportunity to place once a week his or her special food-wish to the chief cook of the family.
And I thought - that is it!
The others should think about my daily problems and take over the responsibility.
But the result was again not that what I was looking for.
Each Monday my daughter wanted spaghetti and sometimes rice pudding. Tuesday and Wednesday I am usually out to earn money and the time after was too short to prepare a full meal. Thursday my son asked for rice pudding too and on weekend the chief of the family was fixed on pizza.
You can imagine that this business was not predestined for success.
Now I am at the beginning again: what do I cook? I torture my brain where I go and every time.
And the never ending story continues: ”I do not like vegetable, I prefer pancake” or “can I remove the meat from the goulash”, “I hate that  sauce” and so on. Or the other way round: “Why do you paint with the balsamic cream this strange figures on the rim of your plate? We are at home and not in a restaurant.”

But anyhow. Let´s start  with my next recipe: 
Tarte Flambee with arugula.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220 °C.
2. Yeast dough: Mix flour, oil, water, yeast, salt, garlic and nutmeg – dough has to be soft.
3. Peel onions and slice them thinly.
4. Roll the dough in a thin layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle it a little bit with salt and pepper.
5. Mix Crème Fraîche or sour cream with whipping cream and brush dough with it. Sprinkle onions and ham on the top.
6. Bake tarte 15 – 20 min until it is crispy.
7. Clean and wash arugula.
8. Distribute arugula and serve it hot.

And what happened when I proudly served my latest product.
My five year old daughter commented really disgusted: “I was expecting a pizza but that´s no pizza at all!” And my son added with whiny voice: “I wanted a pizza and not such a strange something!”