Come dine with me...

Inspired by the TV show I've started a regular 'Come dine with me' experience of my own. Each week hubby, father-in-law, sis-in-law and myself take turns to cook a meal. Two weeks ago it was hubby's first turn and the phrase 'await with baited breath' does not even begin to covey the anticipation. To make clear why this was such a momentous occasion let me tell you a little bit about hubby chef. He is not. He has not and 99% of the time he will not. On the rare occasions I take out my glad rags for a night with the girls and leave hubby to fend for himself he reverts to caveman status. Alongside grunts and bashing me over the head with a club he transfroms into a modern day hunter gatherer. He orders take out. Seriously, frozen pizza is beyond him.

To exemplify his lack of inner 'Jamie Oliver pukka-ness' you need to be familiar with his first attempts at cooking. Hubby's first steps up the mountain of cookery was 'cheese on toast'-this was to become his Everest. The first time unsupervised attempts were made a severe cut thumb ensued as he tried to slice the cheese. Needless to say we now stock a regular supply of pre-sliced cheese. On his second attempt he managed to cut his leg-yes that's right his leg! At the time our oven grill combi was low level and he managed to walk into the open door with such force that his leg was left with a bloodied gash and yet again I had to step in. On his third attempt the oven blew up. I have no idea what caused this but it was like Karma telling us that hubby would not be the next Gino D'Acampo.

Many years of training later he is now able to grill cheese on toast independently and each time is rewarded with a smiley face and a gold star. So I'm sure you can imagine my trepidation the first time he attempted a meal. I decided that hubby wasn't quire ready for independent working and would need some support from an adult. So the cooking process was peppered with a small amount of guidance, "what do I put these on?", "how should I cook these?" and so on. Once the meal was under way however I left him to it and sat myself down to await the feast. Thirty minutes later we sat around the table and all tucked in to a delicious meal of burger and chips. It may not be the most adventurous of menus but I was exceptionally proud that he had at long last cooked his first meal. The teacher in me would probably write the following for his Home Ec report; "Kevin still needs some support in this area but when he tries he is able to produce some lovely results, keep trying Kevin!"