When cooking your evening meal; it helps if...

[lucysmam]

You actually turn the cooker on to heat up before putting the lovingly prepared chicken in

Any other tips?

If you forget to turn it on to warm up, fair enough, but leaving it turned off with the chicken In is one up

You don’t greedily hack off a bit of gammon whilst still in the boiling water. No idea what I was thinking, now nursing a big blistery scald on top of my foot

If the family members you are already cooking the meal for are actually going to be present for it, and not, as they told you earlier, going out so won't want dinner, and you've forgotten they told you this.

You don't go and leave the potatoes to boil dry and burn

@MIdgebabe I have taken the chicken out to patiently wait for the oven! I keep checking but it's only been 9 mins so definitely not hot enough yet :(

@MustardScreams (excellent nn ) ouch!

And when putting a meal in on automatic, after carefully setting the cooking time and the finish time, you actually remember to switch the oven on and set the thermostat...

Ask yourself very sternly, "Am I pouring this through a sieve because I want to discard the liquid down the sink, or am I trying to sieve out some unwanted bits and need to collect the liquid in a bowl?"

Someone tells you they scoffed the last 3 eggs and piece of cheese mid morning......

Ha ha, Lady Caroline. DH tipped some stock away that had been simmering for two hours recently and retained the bones.

@LadyCarolinePooterVonThigh are you the poster tat lovingly spent hours making stock.Only for to pour it down the sink

It helps if you put the jacket potato actually IN the microwave, not just in front of it whilst the microwave is happily cooking nothing for ten minutes ...

It helps if you put water in the saucepan with the cabbage, instead of lighting the hob and setting it on fire.

You check all the ingredients (which you bought and put away) are, in fact, still there. And not in someones’s stomach for a snack.

Trying to make macaroni cheese without cheese is tricky.

You turn steak half way through cooking.

Also not advisable to place a sandwich on a plate still in the cupboard, close the door and then promptly loose and then forget about said sandwich until a plate is next needed, at which point sandwich was triumphantly discovered. I was a bit stressed at the time.

You actually put it in the oven, rather than just next to the oven. It’s also helpful if you are absolutely insistent on fucking it up to have something emergency and easy in the freezer....not absolutely nothing and be living in the back of beyond where the nearest open shop is 25 miles away.

No need to take the chicken out it can go in a cold oven just takes a bit longer.

@MyDcAreMarvel I didn't know that!

finty and pot not confessed before, but yes it was stock!

The mashed potatoes that you take out of the freezer are actually mashed potatoes. Not stewed apples.

You make sure you actually have ALL the ingredients you need, not just some

Don't put your pastrami in the bread bin. It doesn't keep well in there and might go a bit stinky.

Hey I can make spinach and walnut lasagne with no spinach or walnuts you know!

At Christmas don't leave buying the green veg till last, for freshness. There is a possibility you will then have to improvise with half a cabbage cooked in cream and tell the in laws you're trying a new recipe.

When making cauliflower cheese, a cauliflower is pretty essential.