Omega Mistake

That's a nice looking chicken, huh? It's a bit wrinkly from its evening in the fridge, but still it's a free-range bird rubbed with butter and rosemary and lemon. This classic roast was served just warm with its pan juices, a potato salad and a roasted red pepper and beet salad. After we had a rhubarb and berry crumble with custard. I brought all of this over to my friends' house as they've recently had a baby and a few of us are taking turns providing a weekly dinner to ensure that they get at least one square meal now and then.

I'm an amazingly lovely friend, right?

Well, I had to make them something nice this time based on my offering last time around. I brought them food about ten days after their little one was born. Originally I'd made a big vat of spaghetti bolognese, but when I pitched up at their place after work, Glasgow had decided to temporarily embrace summer weather. It was quite warm and steaming meat was not an appealing thought. Instead, all of the ingredients for a zucchini and mascarpone pasta were foraged from local shops along with some tomatoes and mozzarella for a salad. When I arrived, after a wee cuddle with the wee baby, I set to work making dinner. It was all so easy. Just a breezy chop of the tomatoes, shreds of the cheese, torn basil and a glug of their oil and the salad was done. My friend recounted details of her recent delivery and I told her stories of the outside world. I felt completely au fait with my surroundings like the talented and versatile cook that I am. My friend then went to feed the baby and I started on the pasta sauce. I cut half of the leeks and zucchini in long strands and began to sautee them in more oil.

Then I started to smell fish. Cooking fish. I had not purchased any fish.

I immediately suspected my friends of having a dirty frying pan, although it had looked perfectly clean when I got it out of the cupboard. But the fish smell was definitely coming from the pan. Was it something on the element? Were the leeks actually GM, impregnated with fish genes? What was that smell? And how could it be getting stronger?

Then I looked at the bottle of oil. Turned out what I thought was olive oil, the oil that was deep yellow and housed in a rectangular-but-rounded bottle like so many brands of olive oils on the market and that I was cooking our dinner in, was actually cod liver oil. Fish oil that my friend pours on the dog's food for her aching hips. Wonderful.

Fortunately I had only used half of the vegetables I had bought for the pasta, so I could just start again. The tomato salad was not so fortunate. The fish oil had really permeated and I didn't have any more ingredients and the shops were now closed. There was nothing to do but really give it all a good rinse under the taps and then an absolute drowning in (actual) olive oil and salt and pepper.

It sort of worked. We imagined that I had put anchovies in when we came across a really fishy bite. My hair has been pretty glossy lately, though.

Basically, in order to make sure that I didn't lose a couple of friends and baby cooing privileges I had to make it up to them this time. And now I've learned my lesson until the next time I do something stupid.

The other lesson I learned is that new parents are strangely functional with very little sleep. I thought we would have dinner and I would easily be home in time to post my daily submission. Turns out the baby's bed time is after mine. I got home too later and after too many glasses of wine. That kid drank me under the table! Oh, just kidding. Even in Glasgow they don't start that young.

Comments

[MBT Shoes]

It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.

[Su-Lin]

:D That is just hilarious! Love the thought of cod liver oil in a posh looking bottle!