What’s for dinner?

Cooking isn’t exactly my passion but eating most certainly is. For a long time I enjoyed awesome food without sweating it out in the kitchen. My mom dished out the best delicacies while growing up. The TKM LH provided much excitement in food during college...I loved the feast days...I really enjoyed the nei chor and the biriyaani etc...

Mostly the delight was greater since I really could indulge in all those without trying to analyze if anything was wrong with it, any measure of the ingredients- spices - salt- lesser or more. I was just savoring it and I did realize any gross disproportion of the ingredients only if it majorly assaulted my taste buds.

Now I find myself in the other shoes. I am the cook and I have very extreme customers to cater for. My children and husband- all male. Not trying to sound like men are fussier about food but this bunch definitely is.

They just right about reject anything they find unattractive. NO graceful words about it either.

My littlest one, who can’t yet express himself in any adjectives, just pushes my hand away and sometimes kicks the bowl from which I am feeding him on the spoon.

My elder one just says- not tasty...he has started giving me hints on what could be done to improve my failed dish...`My husband - the boss  ...just quizzes me  about the flame  - he blames it all on a full flame of the stove..Always leave it on the low flame- that is his quick fix for every miserable plate.

It was amongst such low confidence levels that I found myself one weekend with few guest coming over for dinner. The first major dinner for me to manage all alone. I had a cook all these years -a   baby sitter +cook in one. She loved cooking and would always bring out awesome food- all kinds of food. Guests for dinner were no trouble at all.

Now me the chosen one - I expected that wanting to turn into a full time mom had such hidden risks involved but my knees did buckle at this first encounter.

I decided that I would try out butter chicken and pepper chicken and roughly outline the action plan in my head. So many restaurants just across the road. If it didn’t work out I could always  run out and be in time with perfect curries.

 would like to think that as a result of my mothers prayers both my butter chicken and pepper chicken turned out pretty yummy. My guests were hogging on it and so were the male population in my family which could eat meat yet.

So here I am basking the glory of the finger licking butter chicken and pepper chicken.

Can’t say that I am all fired up and rearing to cook. I still am lost. What’s for dinner is still a thorn in my flesh.

As for me chocos or noodles or sub will work just fine any time of the day.