A new series of MasterChef is on our TVs. 3 weeks have gone by and contestants are being wittled down. There have been some talented people creating food that sounds and looks tantalising. There have also been creations that looked far from appetising. All the contestants take things very seriously and undoubtedly put a lot of effort in to their cooking. I have always liked watching food programmes and I do get inspired to try out new techniques and food in my kitchen. In my mind though I always get fantastic reviews from my family and they adore my food. In reality it's a mixed bag.
My biggest disaster in the kitchen was a tomato tarte tatin...never again. I must also point out at this point that I have a gluten-free diet so bread and pastry based dishes are temperamental and most of the time I try to aim for the high goal of the food being edible! So why do I hear you say did I attempt a tomato tarte tatin (which is basically tomatoes in pastry). Well because it looked good in my recipe book. Unfortunately it did not look good on my plate and it tasted even worse. It was a soggy inedible mess and my poor downcast boys and husband just stared at me with pitiful eyes probably thinking I had completely lost the plot and yearning for a take away. I did not make them eat it and I let them have free reign to rummage through the fridge to come up with a more pleasing alternative.
Thankfully I don't have many disasters that cause my family to be running to the phone to order in a take away, in fact we rarely have a take out. I may not please all my boys with the same meal in one evening but over the course of a week they are all satisfied with what comes out of my kitchen. I do find it difficult pleasing everyone, I have a pasta lover and a pasta hater, a potato lover and a potato hater, a vegetable lover and a vegetable hater, a spice lover and a spice hater and for one member of the family it is the end of the world when I serve anything with butternut squash or sweet potato.
Recently though I have been feeling completely uninspired in the kitchen and I find it amazing that food does end up on the plate at the end of the day. So I am trying to be re-infused with enthusiasm for creating delicious food for my family and gleaning tips and ideas from MasterChef. What have I learnt so far? Don't put holes in your ravioli (like I have time to make my own pasta), no one likes a scrambled egg custard, and people will always try to make a chocolate fondant even when everyone knows that they can go terribly wrong. In summary I have come away from this evening still looking for that inspiration and enthusiasm to get back into the kitchen.
In fact I have just grumbled my way through making Mr Faithful's breakfast bars (that only take 5 minutes to put together and then the oven does the rest of the work) because I just did not want to be in the kitchen any longer. I get days like this but I know it will be OK. I will get that motivation back but in the meantime I will keep asking God to give me patience and a serving heart and a better attitude. The truth is my family needs me. Mr Faithful won't mind me saying that he is not blessed when it comes to cooking. My family need to be fed and nourished and we do love spending time together around the dinner table. So I will continue to menu plan, food shop and cook and bake. It may not be MasterChef standard and I'm grateful that the food ends up on the plate at all rather than on the floor (yes that has happened on more than one occasion). I'll reserve high accolade for my food to the dream world and aim just to please my family for it's them that matter. In any case my boys will probably just pull faces if I ever try to serve them dishes like chicken, foie, quince ravioli or a salad of dandelion, poached quail's egg with a walnut vinaigrette.
Now the Great British Bake Off...that's another dream altogether....
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