By Ayanna Black
As I prepared dinner for my family last week I chuckled to myself as I thought about the first dinner I prepared for my husband. We’d just gotten home from our honeymoon and I was all ready to cook this fabulously healthy meal: baked chicken, strings beans, baked potatoes, corn and rolls. So I washed the dishes and began cooking our dinner. The kitchen was smelling good and I was ready to serve dinner to my new husband!
Everything on the plate was good until I got to the corn. I thought it taste a little funny but I wanted to take another bite to make sure I wasn’t trippin’. The second bit confirmed it”...my corn taste like soap! I was praying that I hadn’t rinsed MY spoon off well enough but as I turned to look at my husband I knew that was not the case. After we’d made eye contact he broke out laughing and I was just sitting there unsure whether to laugh along or cry because my first meal was a flop. After a few seconds I began to laugh with him and explained what happen.
I wanted to really impress my husband with my cooking. His parents were older so they did pretty much everything from scratch. So I felt a little bit of pressure to deliver. I wouldn’t be embarrassed a second time. I wanted to move away from the canned foods and cook some “real” food.
So I called my mom to ask how to make baked short ribs and some other soulful side dishes. As she was giving instructions on how to prepare them, I stopped her and asked, ” Well, how much of this ingredient do you put in there?” She says, “You just have to eye it.” I say “Momma I can’t eye it – I need a measurement.” She says “Oh my God you new girls in the kitchen we don’t measure we eye it!”
I think to myself “I can do that, let me get dessert together.” I then call my aunt for her peach cobbler recipe and she starts giving me instructions on how to make it from scratch. I ask, “Don’t they sell dough in the store!” Needless to say the next call I made was for carryout!
Over the years I made sure that I mastered the cooking thing my way and to the point where everything is edible. We no longer eat canned food but it does come in a bag from the freezer section in the grocery store. I just don’t have time to pick greens, wash them, snap peas separate and sort them. That’s just to much. I still use my measuring cup and read the instructions on the back of the box as to how to prepare things. What can I say”...I’m a new girl in the kitchen.
How was the first meal you prepared for your mate? Are you an ole school cook or a new girl in the kitchen?
Ayanna is a married mom of busy triplets in Chicago. She’s a freelance parenting/marriage and technology blogger. Ayanna and her husband Damion are a featured couple in Ebony Magazine’s “Partner Project.” Ayanna is also the proud owner of ABlackWebDesign.com