I glanced at the bottom right of my laptop screen.
7pm.
Today that means time for me to go and prepare dinner. Other days that time may be 5pm, 6:30 pm, any pm, depending on what’s on the menu.
I started making a mental run through of the ingredients I need to prepare this sauce. I almost always have all the ingredients I need but this involuntary ritual always happens as I procrastinate getting up to go and cook.
“Carrots.”
“I’m sure I have carrots. I always have carrots.”
“Soft chicken.”
“Yes I can vividly remember picking a bag of chicken quarters at the supermarket.”
“Onions. Specifically red onions.”
“Yea, yea.”
“Mushrooms.”
“Mushrooms?!”
I drew a blank. I cannot for the life of me remember if I have any.
Panic!
If I do not have mushrooms, this sauce is not going to happen.
More panic.
I pushed back my seat and got up. As the lastminute dot com woman that I am, I would have stayed wherever I was for 30 minutes more at least, if I was sure I had everything I needed.
I started the solemn walk to the kitchen, praying fervently that I have mushrooms. As I passed the visitor’s room I paused for a moment.
I glanced at the windows. I could not get a good view of what the weather is like outside.
I know what the weather is like all right, this is just me preparing myself to go out in the blowy weather if I do not have mushrooms. Kind of facing my fears if you will.
A trip to the Frutas y Verduras shop two blocks away is the last thing I want to do now.
I moved closer to the windows and parted the curtain. Cleaned the slight mist on the glass and peeped outside.
The trees were doing a half-hearted dobale to the chilly wind.
Eyes drooping, I continued my walk to the kitchen.
Got to the kitchen and scanned the counter top, table top and every top of something in my kitchen; as if searching for clues that I have mushrooms.
No show!
Opened the fridge, no sign of the white styrofoam tray this ingredient of the moment normally comes in.
I yanked open the veggies compartment of the fridge. Not a sign of my darling ingredient.
“Baby, I thought we had mushrooms here.”
Is that a question? Is that a statement?
Is that a coded plea for him to offer to go and buy them for me?
I have no idea.
Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed my wallet, my keys and my parka and headed for the front door.
🙂
Oya your turn. Comment below to do one of the following. If you do all, you’ll be the person of the moment. 😉
1. Please tell me a time when one ingredient made a huge difference for you. What did you do about it? I need to read your story as proof that I am not talking to myself on this blog.
2. Can you guess which sauce I prepared for dinner? Clue: the recipe is on All Nigerian Recipes website.
3. Even if you don’t have or can’t remember a story; you can’t guess which sauce either, comment below to tell me if you are human or a monitoring spirit.
Thank you. 😉
♥ ♥ ♥
Can’t do without efinrin(scent leaves) and onions in my pepper soup
Ahhh Abiola, without Efinrin that pepper soup is not going to happen for sure! 🙂
I cannot do without lemons in my fruit basket for washing my chicken as I do not like chicken in a packet.
Ehhh? Now that’s a squeaky clean. Well done!
Can’t do without Calabash nutmeg and onions in my peppper soup. Aunty Flo please I need food time table for my newly married home. Thanks a bunch
I ran out of hanbero peppers , only found sweet peppers where I stored them. I can’t do without that in my stew. I called hubby to get me some on his way home.
Hmm, I have no idea which sauce because I don’t eat mush rooms, but could it be stir-fry? Is that a sauce sef? Ahaha.
*habanero*
As always, hubbies to the rescue! lol @ is that sauce sef? If you add enough stock, the stir-fry don become sauce be that o. 😀
You don’t eat mushrooms? You are missing out big time sis. I used to not eat them but when I met hubby, he wanted it in every meal and one day I tried it and it is quite tasty. When you add it to sauces, it adds this special taste I cannot describe to the meal. Now I can even sauté mushrooms, onions and black pepper and it is tasty to me.
Linda without calabash nutmeg that would be meat/fish water, isn’t it. For sure no pepper soup without it. 🙂
That food time table … I keep saying that I can’t make one. I am seriously not qualified to draw up a balanced food time table. In my home we pretty much stick to the same staples, I just prepare them differently for each day and throw in vegetables and salads here and there. And these change from week to week.
If you guys want me to publish the meals we ate for a particular week, then I can do that for sure. But if it is a balanced food time table, the type drawn up by a nutritionist, I no dey o. LOL
Fresh pepper(atarodo)is a must have in my kitchen.I just love the flavour it gives to a dish
Amen! Even me that does not like too much pepper, I love the zing it adds to meals. 🙂
Can’t do without smoked fish in my beans porridge.
Pls a sample food timetable will be welcome. Thanks
Really? When I was younger, in my Mum’s efforts to get me to eat beans, she would add fish or meat to it and that even put me off beans more. You must love beans Doc!
Chai! This food time table challenge that you guys are giving me. I will try and publish a sample containing meals we had for a week but please note that I am not qualified to make a balanced food time table o. Make nutritionists not come and arrest me. LOL
Lol! I am Human! Love your blog. Cant do without crayfish for my moi moi. Can we please have a Squash and kunun Zaki recipe
A round of applause for the human Suzie! Welcome to the other side Lady. You can see that it is fun over here. 😉 That’s the way it should be. Not every time you all will come and hover here and leave me to be talking to myself. 😀
I have to confess that Kunun Zaki is one of the recipes whose video I shot and it is sitting jejely in my laptop. So because of this your “coming out” 😀 , I will go and dig it up and prepare it for upload soon. But the recipe I know does not contain squash o.
Do that all the time…. I can’t do without carrots,green beans mayonnaise and some hebanero peppers, they always save me at the last minutes, you prepared curry sauce after all that last minute thing
As a salad lover I am not surprised you must have all those in your kitchen at all times Maryam. 😉
And you got it right, yet again! I think I have to exempt you and Hauwa from all my guessing games. You two now know me too well. lol
I think I am only 40% monitoring spirit. lwkmdh.
You got me there, laziness is a b*tch.
Joy baby you need to denounce that spirit world o. 40% of hovering is too much, you need to fully come over to the human side. 😉
Yes, I see you quite often dear. But that laziness shall not be your portion IJN! hehe
Mixed vegetables curry sauce?
Loooool! ‘Monitoring spirit’
Gbam! Got it right. I can guess that you’ve been enjoying that sauce Ezinne!
Now you are human! Let’s denounce that MS world foreverrr 😀 😀
I cannot do without cooking oil & spices in my kitchen.
Thank you Flo for all these posts, it’s of great help to me o.
I am glad Adachukwu! You are welcome. 🙂
ok..,am 80% a monitoring spirit, a student with no real means of preserving some of the ingredients, vegetables, meats and can foods am nt really gonna make use of for sometime., so i do write down the recipes and try them at home when i go home for our short breaks. Besides its a waste of hardwork preparing them for only ME cause i don’t even eat that much, more reason i leave them till i get home which is rarely and i love the look on their faces when they taste it..,its really rewarding, i might be a ghost reader buh i most confess that most of the recipes i see here are mind-blowing and it keeps me counting down to the day i will go home. i love the great work and am really one of your humble ghost fans..lol
X.o.X.o
I am with you Vivian. When I was in school, I did not have a single cooking utensil. I saw it as a stressful and time consuming activity. I felt I did not have enough time for my studies not to talk of cooking. And tell me about living alone and trying to eat. I was so used to eating with my siblings that when I left home, I found it difficult to eat. I ate out of necessity.
I am glad you love the recipes. Well done for using them to wow your family. Biko now that you are out of the ghost mode, let’s keep it that way because I love to hear from all of you too. 😉
How i love dis blog. I can’t do wifout fresh tomatoes,carrot,cucumber,green peas,habanero pepper*I even grind some and refrigerate*,chicken,fresh fish,ice fish etc. bcos even if I don’t prepare salad,veg.puree for my gal atleast once in a week den pepper soup is a routine in my home and dat spaghetti surprise makes me an american wonder. Thanks Mrs Flo for bn der. And pls,am interested in d time table too o…Agba! Lol.
LOL @ Agba! Don’t worry, “food time table” coming soon, I promise. 😉
Without my curry powder, jellof rice is a no no
Na so Joan. 🙂
Thanks to your blog, i am enjoying everybit of your recipes, without habanero pepper and onions pounded together no food goes well for me.
I am glad that the recipes are working for you Vera. You sure love onions like my husband. He wants them in every meal but with some of them, I have to say a big no to him because those are too traditional for onions. 😀
I am a 99% silent and invincible reader. Before I believe what is written on other food blogs, I check out this blog first. This blog is like my blue print for food issues.
Sometimes I can’t prepare some of the food here because my husband is choosy but howbeit I enjoy reading and learning because no knowledge is lost.
You are doing a fantastic job Aunty Flo, God bless you!
Thank you Debbie, with this comment that big percentage has been decreased! LOL
Awww … such vote of confidence! It’s like you have a no-shifting authentic Naija taste buds like me.
Thanks for reading and loving the posts and for your nice words. God bless you too dear. 🙂
*Don’t worry, sometime in the future, we will address that issue of picky eaters. *wink!
I like you Flo. Simple. You are great! For me, ingredient??? Pepper, any sort, any kind, in any form. Just let it be dere! My hubby doesn’t like it as much as I do so I am stuck, always torn between how much to use and how little.
The sauce you were preparing? Please tell us, because before we go through all the recipes you have on that your website, we will be grandparents.
I am a monitoring spirit … with hands who can type. HEHEHEHEHEH!
Much love to you too Kiki! ♥
Yes, it’s always a challenge trying to find a middle ground for when you love something so much and your other half does not. The first time I ate mushrooms was when I met hubby and it took me a while to give in and taste it. And to my surprise, I actually loved it and now I try to eat it at any chance I get, he is even telling me now that my love for mushroom is too much! 😀
A friend of mine loves fresh pepper so much that she blends and keeps in the fridge so she can scoop as much as she likes. Her own eh? No one can taste the food she eats. 😀
Oh, I was preparing Mixed Vegetables Curry Sauce. Someone already guessed it right in the comments. 🙂
hehehe @ monitoring spirit that can type, you are slowly coming over to the human side. 😉 I love that!
Hahahahaha hahahaha haha…..just laughing at myself. You caught me this time. As if you are looking at me.OK ooooo its just I and my little girl of just one year.you can imagine one man’s food, its only when hubby is around that I try some recipe. Like last time l tried chapman, kunun giyada and he liked them. He doesn’t select food, but he can’t eat much either. Though I do try the kids recipe for my little babe. Like potato recipe and she likes them. So thank you so so so much for your wonderful work here. I think na me enjoy am pass everyone. Kisseeeeeeesssssss.
Yes oo, guilty as charged, silent observer.ginger and garlic are my ingredients.
What seasoning do you prefer using for your jollof ricr
It happened to me when I wanted to cook basmatti rice, discovered there was no more carrot left in the house cos I had was used the one I bought for vegetable salad. I had to do something very funny by picking some from the salad to do the cooking cos i usually prefer chopping my carrot for salad, and it worked
Wow! That’s sharp thinking at play. Well done Tessy.
I’m just a monitoring spirit with an interest in cooking 😛
Thanks for all the information, you are helping this Canadian man step up his international cuisine skills, thanks for sharing something new (to me).
All the best. A