The Struggle is Real

While I do love most everything about being in the kitchen, there are a few things that just drive me nuts! Today, I'm running through the list of things that I really struggle with while I'm cooking and baking!

1. Dealing with raw meat - I've mentioned this recently, but here is an expansion on my aversion... First, I can't do meat when it still looks like the animal (think turkey on Thanksgiving or Christmas). I can't stand working with raw chicken - I'm terrified of food poisoning and contaminating everything in the area! Finally, the gamey smell that raw meat emits before spices have been added makes my stomach turn!

2. Using Crisco Vegetable Shortening - this is not so much of a yuck factor but more so just an inconvenience! My family buys Crisco like this:

...in a box. Inside the box, the Crisco is wrapped in Wax Paper. Every time I use it, I get Crisco everywhere!!! It is not easy to get it wrapped up nicely and fit it back in the box! If I never had to deal with Crisco again, I'd be a happy girl! If I see that a recipe has Crisco in it, I will most likely go looking for another one (except for pie crust, then Crisco is a must)!

3. The skin that comes off onions or garlic - ughh!! That flaky, light paper-y stuff just clings to everything! And then, when I pick up my cutting board to carry all the skins to the compost is blows right off the cutting board and all over the floor. This is right about when I want to sit down on the floor and have a tantrum but usually my dog starts eating some of the skin, so my tantrum is interrupted and I have to clean up my mess!

4. Cutting pineapple - I love, love, love pineapple so it's totally worth all of the frustration but there is just so much to cut off before you can get to the good stuff!! And everything gets sticky! Maybe the bottom line of this post should just be that I don't like dealing with messes - ha! I think that's what all of this comes down to!

5. Cooking rice - mainly because nothing happens for an extended period of time and I can never tell what's going on in there! I'm always so scared that the bottom of the rice at the bottom of the pot is burning! I love when whatever I'm cooking doesn't require too much of my attention, but rice is a little too independent! ;)

6. Cracking eggs - I should start by mentioning that I used to love this! I used to purposely stop whatever I was doing just to crack and egg or two for my mom while she was baking! Somehow, I've grown to really dislike cracking eggs! I do it so often so I can deal with it but if it could be avoided, I would love that! I am also a little scared of getting salmonella poisoning, so I am really careful about washing my hands!

7. Icing sugar -also because of the major mess factor! This stuff just explodes everywhere! When I make frosting to ice a cake or cupcakes with, everything goes smoothly until, all of a sudden, there's icing sugar everywhere!! I'm pretty good at avoiding most messes in the kitchen but I have yet to develop an effective means of controlling icing sugar!

I think that's it! As much as there are a few things I really dislike about cooking & baking, I still have so much love for being in the kitchen! And none of these struggles are enough to deter me!

See you tomorrow!