Mama Knows Best

I really really love to cook. I like cooking for myself and enjoying my meal, but I looooooove cooking for other people.

Choice characteristics of my kitchen self? Above all else, I aim to please. Aside from that, I credit my mother with my ability to multitask in the kitchen, my ability to improvise with ingredients, and my general disregard for following recipes.

On occasion (perhaps four or five times a year) I actually follow a recipe step for step, and frankly, it rarely goes well. Most recent occurrence? Last week when I had friends over for dinner. I place all of the blame on Jamie Oliver.

Now, I get it, he's cute, charming, has an adorable accent, and makes exceedingly yummy food... But I am not charmed. Or impressed. Or pleased with the outcome of "Jamie Oliver's Tray Baked Chicken" recipe, published in Parade magazine a few Sundays ago.

The chicken was perfect, which I'm excited to tell you, since after eight years of being a vegetarian (bacon brought me back in August 2009), I still experience a brief moment of doubt when I cook with meat. The garlic cloves roasted to a delicious golden brown, as did the onion and redskin potatoes, but the sweet potatoes were still crunchy. After over an hour of being in the oven?! Crunchy? Really? So, I can't lie, I improvised a little and added red and yellow peppers, broccoli, and a few purple potatoes to spruce up the recipe... but I didn't mess with the basic ingredients, set-up, or cook time and it just didn't come out right!

My frustration probably stems more from the fact that I didn't wow my friends with the meal that evening than the fact that Jamie Oliver's Tray Baked Chicken didn't come out as it should have. In all fairness, I diced up the left overs yesterday afternoon and made an absolutely delicious soup which was promptly devoured by my housemates. But I've learned my lesson yet again. Mama knows best. Recipes should be treated as guidelines. The best meals come from within and end up within ;)