Lesson I learnt in my kitchen

Today began like any other day.My husband left for his office as usual.I had decided to prepare lunch and tiffin together.I had decided to prepare pidi kozhakattai(made out of rice flour and jaggery) and kozhakattai(along with moong dal filling).I had finished preparing rice,vendya kuzambu,rasam,mint chutney.I had put the beetroot curry on the stove.The preparations for kozhakattais were all over.Thinking I was a great expert I decided to put the pidi kozhakatti in microwave!!!!So there it was inside the oven.Then my friend rang up.Allowing these two cook,I took the phone to the hall.Ooops something was burning.Luckily my friend put the phone down.When I went into the kitchen I found jet black beetroot gaping at me.Then when I opened the microwave it was an almost brown kozhakattais stuck to the plate.Scraping the kadai and plate,I soaked both in water.Then I cut beans and made curry.When I turned to the sink it was piles of vessels along with these two to be washed.My managed to finish it.One thing I learnt from my husband.He always used to say do one thing at a time ,do not have things to do at the same time.When you do one at a time You do it better that is what my husband used to say.There was always a big nod from me but it was always back to square now.Now I have resolved to do one at time,let us see..............

Hi Kanaka

Your experience was a nice read :) and its not uncommon with any of us for that matter. But i believe that women are extremely good at multi-tasking while men completely fail at it! Ofcourse, multi-tasking does not mean doing all 'to do' tasks at the same time but whatever is feasible. For instance, when i plan to cook a dal and vegatable curry, my strategy is to put the dal on boil - meanwhile, i can cut the vegetables and begin with the curry preperation. And once the curry is cooking, i get on to preparing the tadka for the dal. i am sure most of us do such time-planning. But if its my husband cooking - only one thing will be happenning at a time: and what i am able to achieve in 40 minutes, he takes more than an hour - not to mention the number of soiled vessels, cluttered slabs etc..

Basically, we women just need to exercise this capability of ours (multi-tasking) with a little caution and 'once in while' disasters are definitely plausible
Men cant handle it at all

Cheers
Charu..

Hi Kanaka,
One thing at a time--is OK.
Thing about and how long it takes to finish one job.
The above-said mess happens only if we attend a phone-call or chat with someone,
where we don't notice the time at all
count me in too for these disasters in my kitchen too, happening now and then

sriniketan

Hello All,
As far with me...Womens are multi tasking.

As soon as I get home, just remove shoes and jacket..
Dump all the bags .. warm milk for kids .. meanwhile keep ready for cooker...
while cooker is going on... check kids bag for home works/newsletters and their
lunch boxes.
Put off the cooker and change the dress..
Come downstairs.. while cutting vegetables... help kids with their home work..
the list goes on..

I have seen my mom doing multiple jobs at same time.

The logic behing multi - tasking, we need to prioritize the work and do them.
There would be some disaster once in a while, but its OK.

Given same kind of situations.. my husband would take ever to finish the work.


~Punitha

Dear Kanaka
You have written so nicely about our daily occurence. Looks to me you had everything under control when the phone rang which got you distracted. If you had been in the kitchen maybe....

hai ladies,
here is my experience, i always plan to finish the cutting of veg in weekend this gives you a vast idea of choice on what you want to make, from beans kari to cabbage or any other veg, and another thing is simmering all gas while cooking this not only helps the food also the flavour gets enhanced, no hurry burry, even if it is for a day, as we put the cooker on a little tamarind in water and some dhall whatever u use all into warm waters and then proceed with the veg, while we are at it, the one whistle cooking for any veg is great, the same procedure of making kari with mustard, urad dhall and chillie and kadipatha and then the veg and some salt and so on, but sprinkle a little water just enough for the salt to melt out and close the pressure pan, one whistle and switch it off, the kari is done, in a few seconds your next venture of sambhar or dhall whatever goes in with rice getting cooked along with any veg u want of that too can wait once the rice over, now make the sambhar it is better to do it in kadai as we want the sambhar veg to be soft but at the same time retain the shape, now once this done a little salad, all these are meticulously done, phone rings, no problem the gas is in sim so no burning anywhere..sunkan