What happens when the cook becomes ill?

Paul can’t cook, so he orders-in.

I’d help you write your resignation letter, but are there any other candidates for the job? If you quit, and if nobody else can or will take over as Head Chef, you might eat canned soup for the rest of your life!

He has cheese on toast. But that has only happened once.

you take bread/bread rolls, butter them and put some sausage on it, or meat salad, or egg salad (which you can buy or easily make yourself, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, maybe some parsley).
boil some bockwurst and serve with bread and mustard. easy.
or the classic, but somewhat disgusting, spaghetti with ketchup.

Dear family,

Effective today, please accept my resignation as Head Chef, a position which I neither applied for, nor particularly enjoy. I admit that it occasionally has been fun, but today I am firing myself nonetheless.

Attached please find a menu for and directions to Carrabba’s Italian Grill. Please drive carefully. I’ll be taking a nap.

Lovingly yours,
Lorna

P.S. As long as you’re there, please pick up something for me. Bistecca Ardente would be nice. Bless your hearts…

They usually order in, gyros or some other fast food. Hm, gyros or souvlaki mostly I think. My family consists of two men, my father who would never ever, not one in a million years enter the kitchen to cook (because that is a woman’s obligation, will not even bother analyzing this further) and my brother is a modern young man who would gladly help out but he works a 12 – 14 hour shift a day. Actually we are working in the same field; different specialties. Which means my work scedule is equally hectic (but you know, I am a woman). Thank God my 80 year old granny secretely helps out.

As for the second part of your question, beats me. I have no idea! If someone has the answer to that I’d love to read it.

Lately I was offered a placement to a job position that offers a better salary; in light of this, I have high hopes of being able to move out again soon. I want to see what will happen with regards to cooking!

@OneBadApple

Please note that this is my last working day as chef. I did not apply for this position and realize I was chosen since I have two ‘breasticles’ on my chest which I know made me genetically predisposed to being an excellent chef.

Not only that, but the thing between my legs also makes me actually enjoy this task.

The best parts for me are: earning the bucks to get the ingredients, carting them home in packets, then rustling up magic out of potatoes and leeks for example.

I also enjoy the plate scraping, throwing away bits of goo into the bin and washing up immensely.

However, I am moving on to move exciting ventures and will be ‘watching paint dry’ for the next year. I do thank you for this opportunity as I have learned SO much.

Kind regards Lorna

When I don’t feel like cooking for whatever reason, I simply claim a “fend for yourself” night.

Generally I enjoy cooking, though.

This is why God invented pizza….

@Seek_Kolinahr Who cooks for you if you are not well?

Usually when I’m ill I don’t feel like eating. I prepare tea for myself, because I’m the only person that can do it right, goddammit (I’m also a little cranky when I’m ill) and then I go to bed.

@Seek_Kolinahr How in the hell does one screw up making tea?

Using hot water instead of boiling, not removing the bag after three minutes (if using a bag. I wouldn’t let my husband near my loose-leaf if I were dying and the only thing that could save me was Earl Grey)..

Please see Douglas Adams’ guide to Brewing Tea Properly

That is strange, I usually use cold water.

You’re German. Go back to making decent Hefeweissen.

It is ‘Hefeweizen’, with a Zed, my little ginger.

Sorry. I’m a porter and stout person myself.

I got close…

Let me see if I can remember how to spell the brand of Hefeweizen I get here…. Weinstephaner?

German is so hard…

My husband takes over when I don’t feel well, or we order from our favorite local pizza place.

@Seek_Kolinahr
Weihenstephaner

goddammit

@Seek_Kolinahr heh I was actually tempted to post the Douglas Adams link. I have one of these, makes loose leaf pretty easy to handle.

In my family we all pitch in and help, so one going down wouldn’t hurt. If we all go down we won’t feel like eating so problem solved.

My partner is the resident chef (professionally trained in St Andrews, Scotland), and when he’s too ill to cook we live on takeaways and microwave meals.

I keep some foods that my husband can easily eat without me cooking. Cereal, something frozen, even chips amd salsa.

If I were you I would ask to have a few nights off, I would not totally resign. Make Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday days off, where another family member cooks or orders in. Maybe they will get into it and be creative.

When someone is sick we do our best to not spread the germs. I sleep separately, use a guest bathroom, and even might not cook for a day or two if I am the sick one. If I cook I am sure to wash my hands well. If my husband is sick I don’t let him in the kitchen for a few days. If he does serve himself I wipe down what he has touched. Just the first few days of an illness when he would be most contagious. We almost never give each other our illnesses, so I figure it is pretty effective and worth doing.

You ask them what they ate because you certainly don’t want to eat it!!

@ragingloli:

Weihenstephan Korbinian…

I know where I’m gonna be in 2040.

It’s just sad that Germany has an actual law (Reinheitsgebot) making more interesting beer illegal.

^ That same law also makes shitty beer illegal.

@Seek_Kolinahr

So, for example, Dogfish Head’s Fort is shitty as it contains ingredients other than those allowed by the Reinheitsgebot.

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/fort.htm

That’s really sad for you.

Oh, and those Belgians? They have no idea what they’re doing…

Uh, that’s not what I said.

also doesn’t mean the same thing as only.

And I’ve never had the beer you’ve posted, so I can’t speak to it.

That was my position last year…I’d just gotten out of the hospital. My daughter made the turkey another kid made the mashed potatoes another the green beans, and they hauled it all to my house. That turkey was the best I ever ate, tender and juicy. It was all really, really good until I threw it all up. :(
I tried to make my signature bread, but had lost the touch so it sucked. Thank goodness that was only temporary.

@Seek_Kolinahr If you ever get to a point when you CAN speak to a beer, it’s probably time to quit drinking. Just sayin’.

My husband is the cook in our family. When he’s ill or away, I cook. Sometimes I cook even when he’s not ill or away just because I feel like doing it.

When I dont cook I dont eat unless its just some raw vegs or something that doesn’t require cooking.

@Lorna Cheese on toast? Is that grilled cheese?

@jonsblond Grilled cheese in between 2 slices of bread and grilled together. It’s the only thing my other half can do!

I’ve never heard anyone call a grilled cheese cheese on toast. Interesting!

I know, you learn so much from here. I have picked up so many different ways of life and I haven’t been here that long.

Well, it looks like grilled cheese is universal.

I remember my first grilled cheese. I must have been around 10 years old. My girlfriend’s dad made one for me. I thought I wasn’t going to like it, but it was so yummy.

My grandma used to make open faced under the broiler and the cheese would melt and brown a little. Delicious.

Looking at these images it certainly doesn’t look like the grilled cheese I eat. Looks like something completely different. now I’m hungry for grilled cheese

@jonsblond That’s how my grandma did it. I still do it like that sometimes in the toaster oven.

But did you call it a grilled cheese or something else @JLeslie? I only ask because I’ve never heard of having a grilled cheese any other way, with the exception of adding other ingredients to the sandwich along with the cheese. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods. If I was going to broil cheese on top of toast, I’d say I was broiling cheese on toast, I wouldn’t call it a grilled cheese.

For some reason I find this fascinating. :)

@jonsblond We didn’t call it grilled cheese, we especially did not call it a grilled cheese sandwich. In my post a few more up I described it as open faced, but my grandma would not even have said that, I just used the term because I thought people on the Q would understand what I meant. My grandma would have just described it as bread with browned cheese on top. I swear I think it tastes better under a gas broiler. Something about the fire rather than an electric heating element.

For me, grilled cheese is pan friend (ironically) with some butter or margarine in the pan, two slices of bread and cheese in the middle. When my husband says he wants a grilled cheese, I go through the choices with him to clarify if he wants the pan version, just toasted, or open faced. Just toasted would be a regular sandwich, but no added butter or margarine. I make it in the toaster oven. If it is going to benopen I would need to know just melted? Or, browned also?

We actually have one of the sandwich makers where it cuts the sandwich into triangles and heats up the bread and cheese, but I almost never use it.

My grandparents like everything browned, their toast dark, cheese browned, etc. it might be their European background? I don’t know. I see in my husband’s family their idea of great bread is not the same as mine. Not that one is really better than the other. The European breads have a heaver crust compared to Mexican ones. I still like Wonderbread and Sunbeam though LOL. Depends ön what I am making.

My grandfather’s family actually owned a bakery. I feel like their tastes for cheeses and bread were more sophisticated. It wasn’t even a money thing, just where they were from and living in NY the products were easily available in their day without a huge markup.

Even when I make frozen pizzas I make sure the cheese gets browned a little.

So….grilled cheese is racist?

LMAO. :)