Lining cooking at home…

I was making our dinner this afternoon, so it will be ready when I get home from bellydance later tonight. I made chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots. Sounds yummy right?

I realized when making the carrots how I don’t cook like a home cook anymore. When I was a home cook, I would cut the carrots, put them in a pot of salted boiling water, and cook them until they were crisp-tender.

Next, I would get out a colander and drain the carrots. Then, I would take a sauté pan and melt some butter, then add the carrots, brown sugar, and salt. I would sauté until the brown sugar and butter got thick and bubbling.

What’s wrong with that? It seems correct, but it produces more dishes and takes more time to get to the same finished product, which in this case is glazed carrots.

Now, I throw carrots into one of my banged up, tried and true, restaurant-style steel frying pans and add about half a cup of water, a couple of tablespoons of butter, and brown sugar. I add a big pinch of kosher salt.

I crank the frying pan on high and cover it with another steel frying pan; I am always grateful Marty got me two of these pans instead of only one.

I let the carrots cook undisturbed for ten minutes and poked a paring knife in one of the carrots. They were crisp, tender! I took off the lid and cooked the carrots on medium for less than five minutes, and the glaze was shiny, bubbling, and thick.

What would have taken at least 25 minutes took less than 15 minutes. I don’t know about you, but ten minutes is a big deal in my world. Not having to wash another pot, lid and colander is priceless.

This is how they would do it on “the line” in a restaurant; quickly, efficiently, and most of all, delicious. I have never worked on the line in a busy restaurant, but I am training as I will someday. That is something on a to-do list of mine.

I am still struggling with fatigue and headaches from my new medicine, which could take more than two weeks to go away. I am still going to dance class tonight because I want to and won’t let a stupid headache get in the way of my joy.

Have a good night, everyone! I can’t wait to come home and eat the dinner I just made; it smells so damn good in here.🙂