This past Monday night, my wife and I embarked on a new journey of sorts - putting together a meal for the entire family in 30 minutes.
The week before, our kids were having a fund-raiser at the local Barnes and Noble. Because of this, we bought some books to give as Christmas presents and also thought that it would be nice to purchase a book for ourselves as well. Because I'm a big fan of Rachel Ray, I had to have one of her 30 Minute Cookbooks. After all, when you have a family the size of ours, who wouldn't want to be able to put together a meal in 30 minutes.
Now understand I'm not a cook but I know I can follow directions (at least when I take the time to read them). However, making a meal completely from scratch is a bit challenging. For one, finding all the ingredients is a chore. Being someone that normally stays out of the kitchen, I had to wait until Cara made it home before I could gather all of the ingredients necessary. Then there is the language barrier. Let's just say that Rachel uses some words that I've never heard of before. Then there was the dicing, slicing, shredding, and peeling that needed to be done. Needless to say, there was no finishing this meal in the 30 minutes I had hoped for. I got started at 4:30 that afternoon and the meal was complete and ready for consumption at 6:30. So, the name for my new cookbook will be titled "How to make a 30 Minute Meal in 2 Hours."
Thankfully, the story has a good ending. The meatballs we made were huge and very delicious. Despite my son Zachary's admission that they looked "disgusting," he actually tried them and promptly declared them "delicious." Hearing that made the two hours in the kitchen worth the wait. The next time we try one of Rachel's 30 Minute Meals, we'll attempt to break the 2 hour barrier. I'll keep you posted...
