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January 31, 2011
Learning the hard way
It's Monday night, and after a long day at work, I came home full of enthusiasm to work together with Dooley to make Chicken and Dumplings from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook . We had bought 5 pounds of bone-in chicken thighs, and got to work preparing everything. This dish is made entirely on the stovetop, and we should have learned our lesson about the large burner, but we got 'burned' again. Actually, the dish got burned. The directions say to simmer everything for an hour before you make the actual dumplings, so we went after the first 20 minutes to stir the pot, only to find, on opening the lid, that all the vegetables were stuck in a burnt gluey mess on the bottom. We were able to rescue the chicken, but threw everything else away and started over. This time we put it on a smaller burner and didn't leave the kitchen while it was simmering.
I wonder if we'll ever figure out how to use that large burner. It seems to run way too hot.
The meal was delicious, despite our difficulty. And we found that even in the stressful situation where the cooking has gone wrong, we can support each other instead of get upset. For Dooley and Doolia, that's a real milestone. It feels good.
Posted by jdooley at January 31, 2011 08:12 PM