First Meal. First Failure

I debated writing about the first meal I cooked and even more so as I watch Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America” on TV. Chef Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine make it look easy and they claim a few simple tricks can make anyone a gourmet cook. I have yet to see that and hiding my kitchen failures won’t make me a better cook either.

The first meal of the year was an attempt at turkey tacos. It was exciting to go shopping for the ingredients which is the simple part because it’s not really cooking and $60 later I had enough for a few weeks. In the kitchen it was a whole other story. Turkey tacos are not easy if you’ve never cooked meat before and you’re clueless when it comes to putting it on the stove. How do you know when it’s done? Why isn’t it browning properly? Why is the meat falling apart in the pan?

Another let down was the avocado I picked for my guacamole. I purposely picked a ripe avocado only to realize it had gone bad while sitting there at the store. Imagine my surprise while cutting it up, spending $2 (hey, they’re not cheap!), and realizing I had a bad avocado and I couldn’t make my guacamole and meanwhile in my frustration, a few choice curse words later, my meat was burning on the stove. Do I eat this inedible creation? Sure, why not?

I had also gone out of the way to pick hot house tomatoes at the supermarket but after reading some articles online they’re not exactly the best choice when it comes to tacos even though their beefy taste was appealing. If you want to make tacos, you need Roma tomatoes for the garnish and save the hot house tomatoes for sauces. Who knew?

At the end of the night, I could barely get through one taco. After talking to a few friends, I also realized that turkey meat is lean and doesn’t cook well unless you blend it with a little bit of olive oil since fat is what makes the meat cook. Hmm. Here I was trying to make a lean meal without knowing how to cook it. All part of the fun, right?

First meal. First failure. Lesson learned. Life moves on and onto the next meal. 🙂