swearswearswear

tomstickland

Don't give up. The trouble with recipes is that they give you no idea of tolerances - what happens if you cook for twice as long/half as long, what happens if you use a lot of more of one ingredient etc. So I suggest taking one recipe and following it several times and seeing what happens each time.

SmellyOldSock

I love baking and my motto is if it tastes good what doesn't matter what it looks like?

I'm not very good at fiddly things so all my stuff is 'rustic' (my hubbies term), but the kids eat it and it tastes fine!

Keep trying, don't give up!

best wishes
Charlotte

Benthosboy

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

As far as hubby is concerned, if he hasn't cooked it, he's in no position to critisise it. If he gives you any more trouble, you just tell him that if he's not careful, Mr. BadExample, Benthosboy and I could be introducing him to our friend, the meat grinder! :shocked:

Hang on a minute :rotfl: How did I get involved in this?

I'll have you know I'm just eating one of last night's HM scones and they are absolutely deeeeeeelish! Mind you, they look rather like cowpats
And there was the piece of steak I "cooked" a couple of weeks that cost me more calories to eat than it contained :rolleyes: And the chicken stock, soup, veggies, etc, etc........

When I consider the culinary disasters that have befallen me in the past month or so, I marvel at the fact that I'm still (almost) sane

Martyn.

arkonite_babe

Benthosboy wrote: »

When I consider the culinary disasters that have befallen me in the past month or so, I marvel at the fact that I'm still (almost) sane

Martyn.

I thought you'd lost the plot after the chicken stock disaster

arkonite_babe

mardatha wrote: »

:mad: after reading this thread and recipe lists, I got all keen & started cooking. Made banana bread which tastes nice but is burnt. Also did fruit cobbler which was half raw in the middle, chewy and disgusting.And finally flapjacks which taste ok but you have to eat with a spoon because they fell apart. At my age I should just give up and realize I never could cook and never will :mad::mad::mad:

Don't give up, I have had my fair share of disasters in my time and many of those were when I was working as a relief cook in a nursing home (try salvaging lunch for 100 people when your menu has gone wrong!) Hasn't put me off though. My lot are used to my experiments now, last disaster I had recently was making twinks hobnobs into flapjacks, I decided to use muesli. Didn't realise at the time that the oat content in the muesli was obviously lower than what a normal mix would have been and as a result the mix literally spewed all over the oven as it rose up out of the tin! It did make lovely breakfast cereal though so it wasn't lost oh and my dog is a good source for disasters too

Benthosboy

arkonite_babe wrote: »

I thought you'd lost the plot after the chicken stock disaster

I'm not sure I've ever had a plot, let alone lose it When Neville Chamberlain said: "we've never had it so good", he can't have meant me, I've never had it :rotfl:

Tonight I intend to spread my culinary wings and cook some kind of white, milk sauce thing :eek:

Mop and bucket anyone :rolleyes:

Martyn.

arkonite_babe

Benthosboy wrote: »

Tonight I intend to spread my culinary wings and cook some kind of white, milk sauce thing :eek:

Mop and bucket anyone :rolleyes:

Martyn.

Ah! That would be a Bechamel Sauce.

Here you go.......... http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/533084/displayVideo/Hi

There's even a video showing you how to do it

Enjoy and don't forget, this is the base for parsley, cheese and other types of sauce

Benthosboy

arkonite_babe wrote: »

Ah! That would be a Bechamel Sauce.

Here you go.......... http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/533084/displayVideo/Hi

There's even a video showing you how to do it

Enjoy and don't forget, this is the base for parsley, cheese and other types of sauce

Thanks for that, you are a star :T :A

I've had a quick look at the video and he looks even dodgier than me :cool:

Martyn.

arkonite_babe

One tip from me, again from experience over the years.......

Use a whisk instead of a wooden spoon, it's so much easier and helps prevent lumps. Don't worry about the roux sticking into the whisk, it will all come off as the milk is added. And don't forget to season as well, tastes too bland otherwise, some mustard is good in a cheese sauce too


Maybe I should just start a cookery blog???

BigMummaF

I'm another who can equally hold her head up with a sense of....."it was supposed to do that" & not only for cooking!:D

Trying to be health-concious, I've reduced the sugar in many recipes, but it obviously doesn't work for the hobnobs----10 days later & the dog's having them as frizbees:rotfl:
The cheese & ham muffins were crud too.

Before I changed cookers, I used to make lovely sponge cakes that rose every time but with this one a heavy rich fruit cake cooks extremely well on gas 2 in just over an hour Had the engineer out several times but he said it was ok, but if I allow extra time it cooks quickly & vise versa:o

Like others have said, use the 'discoveries' to your advantage....someone wise once wrote:-

"Cover it in custard & no-one will know":rotfl: :rotfl: