master of the kitchen

dinner went fairly smoothly.

i had to stop at the grocery store after work to pick up the ingredients. i forgot to actually look at what i needed ahead of time so i didn't know about the 'dry, white wine.' oops. add an extra stop to the liquor store, and the bf made it to his house before i did. minor snag #1: i'm a girl who loves the presentation; if i had made it to his house first, i would have put flowers in a vase, lit some candles, turned on some sinatra and then started.

i made it to his house and started cooking. minor snag #2: cooking in someone else's kitchen can be daunting because it's not yours. i'm all, 'do you have a large skillet?', 'do you have a cover for this?' and trying to maintain an air of 'get out of the kitchen, baby, i know what i'm doing!'

so i had no idea that four 6oz. fillets of halibut would cost $28 (isn't dining at home supposed to be more cost-efficient?) and discovered that they were not minor snag #3: skinless. helpless, i looked up at the ceiling and wondered why i didn't tell the butcher that i needed skinless fillets. the bf said, 'do you need me to fillet the skin off?' i said, 'is it easy? does it take a long time?' and bf said, 'it isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it'll take me 2 minutes to do it.' i took that to mean that he didn't want to do it (fine! don't do it) and just threw the fish in the skillet anyway (HUFF). i know, i know, my sensitivity screws me every single time.

the problem with the real simple cookbook is that the instructions are in one big paragraph. meaning, for a complete novice like me, reading it becomes one big task versus steps (i like to check things off: number one DONE, number two DONE, number three ON IT) so i was confused as to whether i should do things simultaneously or not (cook the potatoes and then green beans and THEN start the halibut? cook the potatoes and start the halibut and THEN add the green beans?). the fish was done 15 minutes before the potatoes and green beans, natch.

ultimately, the alleged '30-minute meal' took me about 45. not bad, considering.

bf raved about the meal. i believed him.