Cook Off

Recently I've started to doubt by cooking abilities.  I always thought I was ok at cooking but recently I've had some culinary catastrophes.  Unsieveable gravy being one of them.  Mystical Roo is totally overtaking me (yes I had to think about that sentence) in the kitchen stakes and is certainly the better chef.  I seem to struggle with anything that involves timing.  Getting the veg to be ready at the same time as the meat and the potatoes and whatever else might be going on.  I always misjudge the situation and have something ready way before everything else.  Like last night I was cooking a pie in the oven at the same time as my Yorkshire puddings.  I can see the top of the pie going black whilst my yorkies just sit there taunting me.  This leads to much crouching in front of the oven, peering at my dinner and wondering why I always get it wrong.  I wonder if I can will the yorkies to cook faster or the pie to slow down but alas I lack this power.  Then I think that I should take the pie out and put it back in again just at the end to make sure it's warm.  Then I start wondering about food poisoning.  Then I scowl at my dinner, possibly provoking it further.  In the end I had very nice Yorkshire puddings but a slightly burnt pie.  I proceeded to cover this in gravy and eat around the black bits.  Yum.  I seem to be better at the stuff where you just chuck everything into a pot and let it simmer.  I do an excellent bolognaise and chilli.  I even do a good coronation chicken.  I can't be rushed and need to take my own sweet time about things without the pressure of timing.  Mystical Roo is a maestro in the kitchen, multi tasking and experimenting, always creating amazing dishes.  I'm lucky that Mystical Roo creates such tasty food but I can't help but be a little competitive.  What's that all about!  I tried to do a vegetable curry the other day and that was just a disaster.  The sweet potato dissolved into nothingness,  the cauliflower and broccoli bits were too big and all the other veg was slightly undercooked.  We ended up with a kind of spicy soup that may or may not have been glowing.  On top of that I'd created enough of this stuff to feed an army.  We grudgingly ate some of this curry/soup but promptly threw the rest in the bin.  Not good.  So much for me being able to chuck everything in a pot and let it simmer!  Bah!