I don't remember whether I've told this story online before, but it's about a duck.
My husband and I lived not too far from his mother's place in the Bronx. My mother-in-law's brother went to her place and asked her to cook him a duck - he had already bought it and brought it to her. She knew next to nothing about cooking, and she tried at first, but the duck didn't seem to be getting *cooked*. My husband went over there, he had been planning to bring her back to our place where I was going to make dinner. Instead, he came home. An hour or so later my doorbell rings. My mother in law and her brother had brought the half-cooked duck for ME to cook for them. I had no idea how to cook a duck, but at least it was mentioned in Fanny Farmer. So my mother in law and her brother had come halfway across the Bronx on the bus, with a half-cooked duck in a plastic bag in her lap. I don't even EAT duck.
I cooked it, until it was thoroughly done. I think I tried to improvise either a sauce or a side dish involving fruit (duck a'l'orange, what what I was probably thinking). They ate it, while complaining that it wasn't the way they liked their duck cooked. (I ate a peanut-butter sandwich.) My mother-in-law never forgave me for marrying her son - she had intended for him to marry someone who was either beautiful or rich, and I've never been either of those things.
Every now and then I get someone (often my son or one of his friends) asking me how to cook something they don't understand. I have enough cookbooks to usually be able to figure it out, and then there's always the internet. I'm not sure whether I'm mighty, but sometimes I'm awesome :-)
I should too. I'm incredibly lazy about this and I know I could do so much better.
One step farther: Keeping knives sharp, and making them sharp again when they're not, is a skill I'd enjoy learning. But there's SO MUCH conflicting info out there! And investing in good equipment is spendy.
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malionette
no subject
Date: 2021-07-28 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-28 03:10 pm (UTC)My husband and I lived not too far from his mother's place in the Bronx. My mother-in-law's brother went to her place and asked her to cook him a duck - he had already bought it and brought it to her. She knew next to nothing about cooking, and she tried at first, but the duck didn't seem to be getting *cooked*. My husband went over there, he had been planning to bring her back to our place where I was going to make dinner. Instead, he came home. An hour or so later my doorbell rings. My mother in law and her brother had brought the half-cooked duck for ME to cook for them. I had no idea how to cook a duck, but at least it was mentioned in Fanny Farmer. So my mother in law and her brother had come halfway across the Bronx on the bus, with a half-cooked duck in a plastic bag in her lap. I don't even EAT duck.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-29 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-29 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-29 02:14 pm (UTC)Go you for doing the impossible. That makes you mighty. :)
no subject
Date: 2021-07-30 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-29 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-06 01:41 am (UTC)One step farther: Keeping knives sharp, and making them sharp again when they're not, is a skill I'd enjoy learning. But there's SO MUCH conflicting info out there! And investing in good equipment is spendy.