Home Again

It's always awkward transitioning from college to home. Something about your parents being present really changes personality dynamics. Classical juries went really well by the way, best yet in fact. Now I just have to find a job.

With that said, my mom is amazing. She and dad came to help me move out of the dorm and let me tell you, I have never seen someone more enthusiastic about cleaning. I could not take the vacuum away... My mom's used to being responsible for pretty much everything, so I don't think she fully realizes that her youngest is almost 20 and capable of helping out with a bit more than just emptying the dishwasher. It's a control thing.

The problem is convincing her of this. The other day, however, after she had been out working all day and I had been home sitting around, I was determined to contribute in some fashion. I told my mom I would be making dinner. My parents looked at me like I might have a high fever.

"What brought this on?" my dad asked skeptically.

"I want to learn how to cook! That's all!" Well, that and as I've basically been raised on guilt, I was feeling guilty for the fact that mom had been out working all day. It took some doing to shoo her out of the kitchen, but I finally convinced her to hand me a recipe and leave me alone.

It was some sort of fish. After covering the filets with bread crumbs the recipe wanted me to "brown" them in a skillet. I wasn't quite sure what that meant. I mean, obviously I was supposed to put the fish in a skillet, but how long did it take for said fish to be "browned?" I wasn't sure. So I had to ask mom. A couple of minutes apparently. Well that was easy enough.

Except that I turned on the wrong burner and didn't realize that I wasn't heating up the frying pan at all until I smelled smoke. Luckily, I was in time to save things. I just wouldn't mention that. So after the fish had been in the skillet for a couple of minutes I went to flip them over. Easier said than done. They fell apart. So instead of three fish filets, I had several bits and pieces of fish rolling around in a skillet. I was still not asking for help.

I managed to reconstruct the filets. The recipe called for cheese, and I only hoped, as I stuck everything in the oven, that the melted cheese would hold everything together.

I didn't burn anything and dinner actually turned out to be completely edible, if a bit late. So, all in all, it could have been worse.