3 Blokes, a blender and a bag of chickpeas, learning to cook.
Cooking for 10 Crazy Women (and I’m still alive)
11Jan2007 Filed under: Misc Author: redeyeIn November I had my first big cooking test, you could call it my first grading. It was Gee’s (my lady) birthday and she was having her friends round for some eating and drinking. Foolishly I offered to cook for them without actually realising what I was saying. Cooking for 10? Generally I have trouble making breakfast for the kids, despite MCC.
So I spent days deciding what to cook that wasn’t too heavy, would go well with copious amounts of alcohol and frankly was manageable by me. I settled on Thai Green Curry, the first ever MCC dish.
I found the whole cooking for others, well, stressful; Generally it went down really well, but was it because I’m not the chef of the house or because I was being “sweet”, or was it genuinely actually ok? To my tastes it was great, which if it was just for me would be fine. Does cooking for others mean you have to find the lowest common denominator of taste to appeal to all palettes? Or do you just not worry and get on with it? I think I need more practice and if nothing else I think Gee would agree with me. 
9 Responses to “Cooking for 10 Crazy Women (and I’m still alive)”
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We measure in pinches, punches, seconds and bra sizes. We love food, we just need to learn more about how to cook it.
JulieT
January 11th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Just get on with it, when you’re cooking for others. Try to make the dish as nice as possible, and otherwise, forget it. You’ll drive yourself crazy, otherwise.
In the photo it looks like everyone is happy, I say success!
Graydon
January 12th, 2007 at 8:01 am
I say go with it as well… but temper with your knowledge of the guests.
Don’t know a thing… go middle of the road with heat / spice and chunks of vegetables.
I’ve cooked for the wife’s bunco group a couple of times (12 people) and have found the “standard traditional stuff done with a bit of flare” work well.
For me that means some chicken fajitas with a kick of chipotle seasoning and lime… or a hearty spaghetti sauce light on chunks of vegetables, but heavy on meat.
But dessert is what they will remember… especially if you can get the weight watchers of the group going back for seconds… or thirds.
redeye
January 12th, 2007 at 9:17 am
You can tell, I think, from the pathetic tone to my post that I’m still mentally scarred by the whole cooking for “groups of mad women”…
If you look in the top left of the picture you can see Lucia wryly laughing to herself at the prospect of having to eat whats in front of her…
As it happens it was enjoyable, more so than I made out above.
redeye
January 12th, 2007 at 9:18 am
As for the dessert, I was ready to do the Chocolate mousse but for some reason Gee didn’t want me too.
JulieT
January 12th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
She was afraid if her girlfriends ate the chocolate mousse, one of them would steal you away.
redeye
January 12th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
lol, yes, you could be right…
Kathy Maister startcooking
January 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Just about anything looks and tastes better by candle light. If all else fails-dim the lights!
Having said that, it looks like everyone is really digging in to the curry. Well done!
redeye
January 16th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Kathy, I think that I’ll have to add that to the tips section.
[Does that mean then when things go really wrong you just turn off the lights altogether?]
Kathy Maister startcooking
January 16th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Absolutely. Then get take-out!