Another chance at dinner

[davidn]

When Whitney was out at Shakespeare in the Park last year, I was left to cook dinner for myself, and it didn't really go all that well. So tonight was a chance to redeem myself for that and prove that things really can be all right if one of us is out of the house. When we found out that a pair of solidly frozen burgers were the quickest things to cook for the evening, she was understandably a little nervous and insisted on getting them apart herself so that I would avoid the most dangerous stage of the process - after all, even something as simple as a burger and frozen onion rings involves both the hobs and the oven, doubling the potential for issues.

But neither of those things caused a problem at all - usually when it's just heating things up, I can be reasonably competent if I really concentrate. In fact, everything progressed smoothly, although once again I overdid the burger in my usual fear of undercooking it, and if one glosses over the way that I set the oven gloves on fire, the evening passed without any sort of incident whatsoever.

Comments

[xaq.livejournal.com]

As someone who enjoys the occasional bit of cooking and baking, I have to say, that's asking a bit more of me to gloss over than I can really stomach.

Or, to put it another way...How the crap did you set oven mitts on fire!?

[davidn]

It occurs to me that this might be the first time since we re-found each other that I've put up a cooking post - believe me, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

[kjorteo]

He's right, you know. No one went to the hospital this time, so you should be congratulating him.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's a step up from me actually burning myself the last time I tried using the oven... I still have the mark.
A very small step, however.

[davidn]

I could see it as an improvement as I didn't actually injure myself.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

You cook the burgers from frozen? I would probably overcook too to avoid undercooking.

Question, can you get diced or chopped onion frozen in the US, as in prepacks. I have only ever seen onion rings here and it seems weird that onions are not sold presliced for those wanting to 'save time'.

[davidn]

Oddly, for a country where pre-packaged convenience is so paramount, I can't recall seeing diced onions... perhaps if you got them from a supermarket salad bar? Much like pre-sliced mushrooms, of course, they would go off much more quickly.

I do cook them from frozen - usually I turn it on at a low heat and cover it with a saucepan lid to sort of steam it through to thaw it.

[pami-zee.livejournal.com]

If you're desperate to save time, http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-International-GOC-300-Onion-Chopper/dp/B000A389IM is pretty good - I've seen it used at a cooking festival.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I am not one of those, hence the 'save time' in inverted commas. I just cut the onion up when either the kettle is boiling or the meat frying, and that saves time as I am doing something whilst I wait. I would be wary of buying it too as it is coming at an angle with a plastic handle and it is probably difficult to resharpen the blades.

[davidn]

There's a now-infamous one of those which is sold by the scout from Team Fortress and used to be on television all the time here.

We have an egg slicing... wire thing, which I also use to grate cheese - I'm an undiscovered genius.