Burnt Hamburger Helper

Hey Guys! I’m Molly! I felt I needed a hobby so I thought I would try blogging! I recently got engaged on 01/01/2015 to the love of my life! I am so ready to be married to him, but I have a long way to go before I am ready to be a wife! That is why my blog is called “Wife In Training.”  My fiancé is currently working on his PhD in organic chemistry at West Virginia University and I just started a Histotechnology program in Charlotte, NC so we are spending at least a year apart! Which is not ideal, but as they say, “distance makes the heart grow fonder!”  In Charlotte I live with one of my best friends.  We both attended Wingate University together and graduated in May of 2014!  Besides living on campus, this is the first time either one of us have lived away from our parents! This will be an awesome, fun adventure we will share together and I am so excited for it!

The first major lesson I have learned is there are no meal swipes in the real world!...nor will your parents let you know when dinner is ready.  In college, if I was hungry, I texted all of my friends until I found one to go to the cafeteria and eat with me.  There was no meal prep, there were no trips to the grocery store, nor were there dishes to clean.  We simply pulled out our I.D. card and swiped it for our meal credit on our dining plan.  Now that I am out on my own, if I am hungry, I need to cook something to eat.  There are only so many microwaveable meals that are appetizing! Also I am pretty sure the Bible says, “man cannot live by frozen meals alone” or maybe it was “man cannot live by bread alone.” Whichever it was, both are true!  I figured I needed to start actually cooking, which is something I do not have a lot of experience at (the main reason for the title “Wife In Training”).  I have plenty of recipes pinned on Pinterest and now it is time to start making them.  I have had a few successes and most of them I owe to my crock pot! Those things are sent from Heaven! Some of the things I have attempted to make have not turned out the greatest though.  For example, for the Super Bowl on Sunday, I decided to try to make something snack-like for the game.  I search Pinterest for an idea and found these mini corndog bites.  They sounded so easy and simple.  We even had a mini muffin pan so it was perfect!  I decided to skip a step and just buy a box of Jiffy ® cornbread mix instead of mixing my own corn meal. (This may have been where I went wrong…woops!)  So I bought the box and mixed it up and I cut up the wieners into small pieces… like the instructions said.  I had sprayed the pan…like the instructions said.  I poured the batter into the cups and placed the wiener pieces in the middle and put them in the oven…like the instructions said.  They looked so good when they came out and I was excited about them! Of course they all crumbled and fell apart when I tried to take them out of the pan…#pinterestfail!

This now brings me to the title of my entry…”Burnt Hamburger Helper.” What is the one thing people tell you is so good and so easy to make when starting out cooking?...Hamburger Helper!  There is no way to mess it up!  Brown the hamburger and add the stuff in the box and follow the instructions.  Last night I decided to make the Cheesy Enchilada box.  I browned the meat and got it to the point of letting it simmer for 20 minutes.  At this time, I decided to read a friends’ blog post about getting engaged and I got so lost in her post that it was not until I started smelling a burning smell that I remembered I had food on the burner.  I burnt Hamburger Helper! Who the heck cannot make Hamburger Helper? I now realize it was because I did not stir it periodically and it burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pan…but still, I thought this dinner was fool proof.  The first lesson I have learned in the adventures of cooking for myself: DO NOT GET DISTRACTED AND FORGET ABOUT THE FOOD! 

(The bottom of that pot was a shiny silver)

I try to think of myself as a positive person so I have found a bright side to this situation.  I will now get experience trying to get stubborn burnt food off the bottom of a pot. I can add that to my list of completed training towards become a wife!  I have tried letting water and baking soda sit in the pot overnight…did not work!  I have tried bringing water and baking soda to a boil in the pot three different times…did not work! I think my next attempt will be soaking it in vinegar! Fingers crossed that works!  If not, I may need to say a few kind words in remembrance of the pot and just throw it away! This would not be ideal because our cookware is somewhat limited.

This blog is mainly for myself to document my adventures of living somewhat on my own and preparing for the world of marriage!  If any of you read it, I hope you get some enjoyment out of it!  I am excited to see how much I improve over the year of learning how to cook…surely I have got to improve, right?  Until next time!