Cooking Like a Pro

I found this post in my drafts folder, from who-knows-when.

Yesterday, Husbinator went to a wedding (this must have been that COVID-so-only-ten-guests wedding), so I made dinner. Technically, I served leftovers, but there wasn't enough for a whole dinner, so I turned it into stir fry.

No problemo. I've seen Husbinator do this enough times that I know what ingredients I want for stir fry. Namely onions & garlic, because I always want those, and bell pepper, but not too much because we're running low. I won't use zucchini, because the boys often won't eat it, or carrots, because they're annoying to cook. The remaining options are green beans or broccoli, and I know to choose broccoli because boys prefer it over green beans.

I also know how to cook stir fry. Namely mise en place, because things always go more smoothly when everything is ready to go before anything starts cooking, and the into-the-pan-order is first onions, then garlic, then pepper, then frozen broccoli, so everything gets cooked without getting mushy. 

What I don't know is how to season stir fry. Granted, I could play around, but I won't win. 

So I figure I'll help myself out, and use leftover fats and sauces that were so yummy that I froze them instead of throwing them out. I rummaged through the freezer and pulled out garlic margarine from a few weeks ago, fat from Husbinator's Zimmern beef from before that, and a mystery dark gravy from a flieshig container at the very bottom of the freezer. 

So I mise en placed, heated the pan, melted the fats, sautéed onion, (remembered to put rice in the rice cooker) added garlic, added bell pepper, added broccoli and mystery gravy, stirred till mystery gravy melted, then turned off the stove and covered the pan.

We sat down to dinner, and I figured I'd save everyone aggravation by telling the boys that the stir-fry doesn't taste quite like Abba's, and they are free to choose to just eat rice and soy sauce. I also decided to treat myself and just let FF pick out whatever he wanted from the pan, because he loves serving himself. 

So FF ate rice and broccoli and chicken, which is a fine dinner. But BSM only ate the offered rice and soy sauce, and he wouldn't touch the stir-fry no matter how patiently I sat in wait. The boys never touch the stir-fry initially, but they almost always eat it in the end. What was going on tonight? 

I asked BSM vaguely what was up, and he said that I said it didn't taste like Abba's, so BSM isn't interested. OK, I say, it's not exactly like Abba's, but it's pretty close. That was the truth, too. The stir fry hadn't been that great when I tasted it initially, but it turned out all it needed was one last mix and time to sit, and by now it really does taste great.

Skeptically, BSM allows me to serve him a small scoop of whatever comes. He takes a skeptical bite, and says with happy outrage, "It tastes exactly like Abba's!" and proceeds to chow down.

I did it! Granted, I used Husbinator-created flavoring agents, but I'll take what I can get!