Interesting Stuff

Again, tonight, I screwed up cooking something. When I was at the
grocery store, I had bought a tube of croisants and some white
chocolate chips, figuring I could make chocolate croisants. Tonight, I
did so. First, I got the tube out of the freezer, and tried unrolling
the dough. This didn’t work so well, because the dough was frozen
solid. Rereading the label, I was supposed to refridgerate it, instead
of freezing. Oops… I’ll warm it in my hands for a bit. After a minute
with no change, I decided I’ll be there all night at this rate, so I
put the dough in the microwave, and had it defrost for 30sec. Well,
when I took it out, the outside was warm/hot, and really sticky and
stretchy. The inside was still frozen. Which makes sense, if you think
about it (for the details of why this makes sense, IM or email me. It’s
too nerdy to put in an LJ, even for me). Screw it, I think. I’m making
these croisants, even if they are a little stretchy. So I’m tearing
along the perforations to make the pieces the right size. The ones on
the outside just stretch, and don’t tear, so they come out misshapen.
The ones on the inside I can barely keep from cracking. I put in the
chocolate chips, and put them in the oven. The package says to bake for
11-13 minutes, or until golden brown. I set the timer for 9 minutes,
and figure I’ll check on them then. After 6 minutes, I check back, and
they’re definitely done. The room has a hint of smoke in it, and they
certainly smell done. I take them out, only to discover that one pan of
croissants is already burnt on the bottom. 11-13 minutes my foot! I
guess they turned out OK. But this isn’t the only time this summer I’ve
messed up cooking. Early in the summer, some friends and I were in the
habit of making dinner together, 1 person cooking for all of us each
night, so that we only had to cook 1 night each week (but for 5
people). For my first day, I decided to make a lemon-artichoke chicken
dish that I got a recipe for. It looked pretty simple – put the chicken
in the oven, and everything else in a pot. Then wait. I also put some
rice in a rice cooker. Well, I managed to somehow mess up the rice.
That’s right – I messed up rice in a rice cooker.
It started bubbling out the top, and got everything starchy. And on top
of that, something from the night before had dripped onto the bottom of
the oven, and burnt while I was cooking. It set off the smoke alarms,
and CampSec had to come to turn them off (I’m the only one this summer
that I know of to have set of the smoke alarms – well done, everyone
else!). Well, after the smoke alarms, I looked at my chicken, and it
wasn’t done yet… so I put it back in the oven. The meal came out ok,
but my ego didn’t. So… yeah. Apparently I need to learn how to cook.
People say it’s easy, and you just mix stuff together and toss it in
the oven, but I don’t seem to be able to do that. Well, practice makes
perfect, I suppose. :-P