Thread by @MollyMcKew

My dad is cooking dinner for a lady friend tonight (I know — ooooooooooooo)

My mother was a self-taught chef. So this whole “cooking” thing is new to him. But I introduced him to the simple-yet-fancy, easy-to-follow recipes of @inagarten, and he’s giving it a go.

So far...

...He’s learned to make a beet & orange salad, like a champ! He asks hilarious questions. Thank god for FaceTime. Explaining zesting is hard.

Btw he has ordered like all 12 Ina Garten cookbooks, because dad

Today he’s trying to do her famous filet Mignon with mushrooms/mustard

Today’s FaceTime questions so far:

- Which skillet to use? Skillet runway show, hilarious
- is this the right mushroom?
- which pan goes in the oven?
- how do I turn the oven on?
- are you sure it’s on?
- how do I turn it off?
- do the shallots have to go in the fridge?

Somewhere, my mom is really laughing about all this, like she would mocking amateur cooking competitions.

“For god sakes! It’s just an onion!”

“Cremini is just a fancy button mushroom!”

“Cast iron goes in the oven! That’s the whole point!”

“Never use the broiler pan!”

I hope she’s swirling a fancy cocktail and sitting with her friend Sue and laughing with tears rolling down her face

“Look! He’s zesting again! But that’s parsley!” 😂😂

UPDATE: apparently the mushrooms were too crispy and there was a little too much salt in the sauce — and it will probably take dad a week to do the dishes — but overall, he managed to deliver edible food to his lady-friend!

So proud 😭