Blokes Can Cook

My mum and Dad finally got the chance to go on a holiday and my brother went away camping. The result is one semi domesticated male being left home alone. From a previous blog on house-sitting I stated that the only area in which I felt very comfortable was cooking and food shopping. So I put on a dinner for a few friends and me.

Pursuing this has multiple purposes:

• Tests myself to be able to put on a dinner without assistance
• Teaches me a lot of little tricks for the kitchen
• An excuse to have friends over instead of spending the night alone
• A healthy ego massage when I get positive reports about the food

I have cooked for friends once before. On that occasion I did a lamb roast for a Sunday lunch. I surprised myself when I found that I was enjoying the process, even the tedious tasks such as peeling potatoes.

On the most recent occasion I chose a variety of recipes from Annette Sym’s books “Symply Too Good To Be True.” Due to the variety I found it hard to keep up with the different recipes. I did a fair bit of preparation the night before which helped a lot. It all managed to come together at serving time.

What was on the menu:

• Chicken Parmigiana (Book 2)
• Asian Salad (Book 3)
• Caesar Salad (Book 1)
• Potato Bake (Book 2)
• Chocolate Pudding (Book 3)