Papa was the designated cook on the caboose. He did all of his cooking on a Coleman Stove. One day, the men requested he cook some rice for dinner.
Now Papa had had never cooked any rice before, but he did not let that stop him. He went out and bought a sack of rice, in preparation for the next meal. I feel the need to point out again that he'd never cooked rice before. I think those of you who have, can almost guess what happened next.
He emptied the entire sack of rice in a pan of water, and soon noticed it was cooking over. Papa took a smaller pan and scooped some rice out, throwing it out the caboose's back door. After numerous times of discarding rice, he finally was able to finish cooking it. He learned the hard way that it only takes two cups of rice to feed four men.
Comments
I learned that by trial too. Another embarrassing thing I learned after inviting friends to dinner when I was younger...Corned beef shrinks up to about 25% of its' original size so a piece of corned beef that looked like it would feed 4 PRE-COOK, will make a nice sandwich for ONE after cooking...Burger King anyone?
Posted by: debby at August 13, 2005 06:30 PM
When we finally put my mother-in-law in a nursing home because of Alzheimer's, my father-in-law at age 78 decided he could cook for himself. This is his recipe for spaghetti to be served promptly at 6pm.
Upon waking from nap at 2pm put 1 pkg of thin spaghetti to soak in a large pot of cold water . Soak until 4pm and heat to boiling. Lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Proudly serve slimey goo covered with jarred Ragu to son, daughter-in-law and 3 year old granddaughter ("Mommy, I don't like Papa's spaghetti."), whom you have invited to dinner.
Midway into the meal, announce, "Now, that's some good spaghetti!"
Posted by: julie at August 15, 2005 04:41 AM
At least he put water in there. Otherwise, he could have invented Rice Krispies and created a cereal legacy for your family.
Posted by: Texas T-bone at August 15, 2005 09:47 AM