Baking With a Teenager - A Recipe For Disaster!

I have been lacking in my contribution to our TMK ‘Eat It’ section. Not because I don’t like eating (from my about me photo, you will see that it is obvious that I love to eat!), and not because I can’t cook because I can (and I’m not bad either) but because I hate it. Absolutely love food. Hate cooking.

I cooked, baked, grilled, steamed, fried, boiled, stir-fried and sautéed at least once a day for about 17 years or so. Day in, day out I would get the same comments …. “it looks funny”, “it tastes weird’ “i don’t like it” ….. Even though I tried to think of new and interesting dishes to delight my family with, I was greeted with the same response and quite frankly it got to me. Add these comments to the relentless monotony of doing it every single day, my cooking mojo was most definitely trampled on, sat on, put through the blender and then chucked down the sink!

Which is why I am delighted (albeit astounded) that my daughter enjoys cooking. And I don’t just mean boiling an egg or making beans on toast – I mean she absolutely LOVES it and frequently cooks up a gastronomic storm in the kitchen and she has set her sights on becoming a chef. We have tasty starters, delicious mains and fancy desserts. Oh yes, and fabulous cakes.

It hasn’t been an easy culinary journey though– we have had to endure our fair share of cold dishes, over-cooked meals, strange ingredients and eating late at night because E had a kitchen d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r daaarling ….. but I absolutely love the fact that E loves cooking. I love to see her passion, her excitement and her enthusiasm. However, what is rather less appealing though are her drama queen temper tantrums and the diva-esque strops. She would give even the most temperamental of chefs a run for his/her money that’s for sure. Move over Gordon Ramsay – you may have met your match!

After some persuasion, E agreed to let me photograph her as she cooked one of her (and my) favourite naughty but nice recipes – Cookie and Cream Fudge Brownies (from Lorraine Pascale’s book “Baking Made Easy”). Now, I’m not sure what planet I was one but I really thought that this would be a lovely mother/daughter experience. Me spending time watching E work her magic and taking photographs and E enjoying showing me how it’s done ….. But it wasn’t the bonding moment I had been counting on. 14 year old daughter + photographer mother + baking = recipe for disaster!

We had sighs, muttering, looks that could kill, ‘tuts’, rolling of the eyes and constant moaning (and dare I say it, the occasional swear word – although I am not going to divulge who the expletives were uttered by!). However, despite this rather traumatic experience, I did actually manage to capture a lovely set of images of the ingredients, the equipment and E’s hands/back/arm – she refused point blank to let me take any of her face. Throughout the whole process E also ensured that I didn’t forget for one moment that she was my (lovely) hormonal, stroppy, rancid, narky teenage daughter.

Anyway, here are the fruits of my labour and E’s …. And mighty tasty they were too …..