I love cooking shows. What I don’t love is that they don’t reflect reality very well. Giada De Laurentiis’s perfect house, with her child who sits patiently in a high chair. That’s not my house.
No, in the future I think someone should do a cooking show while they are trying to tend to their two children. Let’s make it as real as possible. I want to see the child flinging refrigerator doors open yelling for popsicles while your hands are covered in chicken guts, Ms. Ray. I want to see teeny hands inching their way on to your cutting board while your sharp knife looms dangerously close because you’re trying to read the recipe.
Don’t get me started on how those 30 minute meals are so conventiently prepped for you, while I can’t find a damn thing my amongst my rotting vegetables. In order to do your thirty minute meals, sometimes I need to start around noon with the hopes that everything will be ready by 6.
Breathe. Deep Breathes.
I do love cooking shows. But please can I see one cooking show that reflects the challenges I encounter regularly when trying to get a meal on the table? I’m not you Ms. Ray.
Well, that’s obvious.
I’m not angry with you Ms. Ray and Ms. De Laurentiis. But maybe, just maybe, once we could see some cooking with children in tow, screaming, crying, messing with your oven knobs, spilling crap all over the floor.
I’m trying my best to cook meals at home. But I need to know that the chaos that goes on in my home at dinnertime isn’t mind to fend alone. I need support. I need to know there is light at the end of this what-I-thought-was-an-easy-recipe.
Oh well, I’ll still keep buying your celebrity chef stuff. I’m just saying.
What’s your dinnertime like? Any techniques to make it run smoothly and keep the kids O.C.C.U.P.I.E.D?
"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it." - Danny Kaye
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Oh I know how you feel. I have to plan days in advance to have anything in the house. But my husband has caught on and calls almost every night before he leaves work to see if I need anything. And at least once a week I say yes you need to handle dinner tonight!
But one trick I have done lately is feed the kids their dinner while I’m cooking the grown up food. And then they get popsicles or ice cream while we eat. Even frozen blue berries work with my two year olds.
Yay. Someone finally stood up and told the truth. Rachel Ray never made a thing in 30 minutes. PUHLEEZE.
I have the same issues you do. I tried making the 30 minute meals once. It took me hours.
Check out the first season of Top Chef Masters. Especially the dorm room episode. You get to see real cooking with issues. My favorite is when the French chef used a hot shower to help him finish cooking pasta because he didn’t have enough hot plates.
We are Top Chef watchers in our house, thou I some how missed the master’s series. Probably because I was missing Tom and Padma. Definitely want to check out that dorm episode, sounds too funny!
Multiple Mama, That’s sounds like a great strategy. I’m willing to give it a try. They always seem hungrier before my husband and I are, why not just give them their kid food first. I do like them to try the adult food thou. So perhaps I could save leftovers from the night before and make that their meal for the next day. Anyway, you are definitely on to something there. Thanks for stopping by!
I have the kids right there with me, helping me measure things, read recipes, get out what we need, etc. – it keeps them occupied and is a learning experience! If they knock something on the floor, they clean it up. And yes, this works with SMALL kids! If they can open the fridge and ask for a popsicle, they can open the fridge and get out an ingredient. If they can put their hand on a cutting board, they can put it on a rag to wipe up a mess.
Are you kidding me? I can make all of those 30 minute meals in 22 minutes tops : ) and that is because I AM DREAMING when I make them : )
Ha Ha! So funny about the kid that sits perfectly in the high chair, right? We all know that is NOT real in the slightest. Such a great post!
Kaishon, For a minute there I was in a state of WOW! And thinking you should take over for Ms. Rachel Ray. Haha!!!! Thanks for stopping by!
I sometimes feel like this, but I know myself: I wouldn’t watch a show that showed someone cooking in a messy kitchen like mine, with the teenager whining in the background. I get enough of that at home.
No Kidding!! And frankly, the shows often make stuff that there is No.Way.In.Hell my kids (or my hubby) would eat. I love watching the cooking shows… but I’m usually watching how they cut things up or how they prepare things more than what they’re making!!
I sometimes do what Sonicfreak does and get my kids to help me (the 9,3 and 18month old boys are more keen than my 11yr old daughter!)
We also have a computer in at the breakfast bar of the kitchen so sometimes the little ones are watching videos or playing sesame street games while I’m cooking (although I usually try to squeeze them off to do some blogging while the pasta is boiling!)
Oh and don’t forget the dog under foot and the husband suffering from another bout of refrigerator blindness! I love cooking shows too but I don’t have anyone to put the perfectly measured salt and baking powder in little clear glass bowls for me. And you’ll go broke buying pre-chopped veggies. I think you would be a great host for a “Reality Cooking Show”…
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