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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is he doing this deliberately?

226 replies

Wuldric · 23/10/2013 00:54

I asked DH to cook Sunday lunch this weekend. He blanched, but when I pointed out that the DCs were doing breakfasts, I had done Friday evening, Saturday lunch and evening, and Sunday evening, he manned up.

It was a roast. What could be easier? It's all peeling and chopping. So this is what happened.

Roast lamb - I would have cooked this with slivers of garlic, plenty of rosemary, salt, black pepper and red wine, and served it pink and juicy and delicious. We got dry and overcooked lamb. No extras. You try overcooking lamb until it is dry. It is not good. In fact it is pretty hard to overcook lamb until it is inedible. DH, however, succeeded.

Roast potatoes - Roasties are simples. You boil some potatoes, drain and slather them in goose fat (we have jars of the stuff) and salt and black pepper. Never leave them in for longer than an hour. DH presented us with roasties that had been carbonised. I have never tasted such things. Imagine something black on the outside, and the inside had shrivelled and detached from the outside. Little buttons of burned stuff.

Gravy - he presented us with bisto granules. I have binned this stuff since I saw it creeping into the cupboard. They are nonsense. Nasty and artificial and somewhat sinister. And lumpy.

Vegetables - I don't even want to tell you about the vegetable abuse. You would call vegetable social services. In any event, they were so soggy that they were almost liquified. You try presenting liquified carrots and parsnips. It takes a real man to liquify a parsnip without electrical assistance.

Yorkshire puddings - purists amongst you will have noticed that the roast in question was lamb. Yorkshire puddings are served with beef. DH is from Yorkshire therefore feels that no meal is complete without a Yorkshire Pudding. Despite his undoubted Yorkshire heritage, DH managed to serve black nuggets. Black nuggets are never ever going to catch on. I understand now why the smoke alarm kept going off repeatedly.

He is doing this deliberately, isn't he?

OP posts:
TantrumsAndBalloons · 23/10/2013 15:12

Sorry, are people actually suggesting that the ops DH needs a pat on the back? How patronizing is that?

I can't believe some of these posts. I am astounded that "men's brains work differently" and the OP should be grateful that her DH fucked up every single element of the dinner.

You know people think I am terrible because I make my 14 year old ds1 do his washing and ironing and cook dinner once a week.
I thought I was doing him a favour, preparing him for life.

Seeing as we haven't moved out of the 1950s,I should have just told him to find a woman to do it for him.

TheHeadlessLadyofCannock · 23/10/2013 15:12

I know, Hardfaced. And how sad that in 2013 these attitudes persist.

'the poor menz' is really making me Grin

TantrumsAndBalloons · 23/10/2013 15:14

And just for the record I have also taught my dd to change a fuse and a plug, how to change a tyre and how to use a drill

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 15:18

What kind of idiot even bothers to serve up this non meal of it's not to "show her what he thinks"

Seriously?

Yes, every single one of us has had a disaster. What do we do? We reach for the pasta, bung it in a pan for 12 minims and stir in some pesto oar a can of tuna and some mayonnaise. We get the fish fingers and chips out the freezer that we keep for emergencies or "too exhausted days"

How many of us would actually stand there and dish up what's a clearly inedible meal? No one. It takes the piss and he knows it or he would have thrown something else together and apologised. It wouldn't have been a big deal. He chose to make it one.

Bogeyface · 23/10/2013 16:00

Why is it assumed that by saying the OP was just as bad as he was that it is excusing him? It isnt!

He cocked up, either on purpose or through thoughtlessness. But she, instead of asking him what the problem was, went through it with fine toothcomb for the entertainment of MN and to big herself up.

Had she asked why the meal was so crap (in a nice way!) and he said that he didnt want to cook it anyway, so dont fucking moan then she would have been perfectly justified in giving him a roasting (ha!) about pulling his weight. If he said that he had cocked up the timings, or just plain forgot to turn the oven off, then suggest buying a kitchen timer so they dont waste expensive food in future.

Whichever, there was no need to be so bitchy and if she reacts like this to anything he does below par then that might explain why he didnt give a shit about the dinner. My mother is like this to the point where we gave up with her. Whatever you did wasnt good enough so why bother?

Norudeshitrequired · 23/10/2013 16:03

I still think that the meal might have been very edible- just below the OPs own cooking standard and offensive to her, hence the very dramatic cremated like descriptions.
What if it was just a little crispy and bland but the husband thought that he had done a good job and served it up quite happily? Perhaps the OP can come back and clarify whether her husband and children ate it and whether they have survived the torturous event.
If it really is a case that the meal resembled a pile of blackened ashes then the husband is an idiot and the OP has my sympathies, but I for some reason have my doubts about it really being that bad.
Maybe the OP hasn't been back because she has been poisoned by lumpy Bisto.......

ercoldesk · 23/10/2013 16:07

My very old Delia book has a "what you need to do, and when" to make a roast dinner.

I'd say that's his Christmas sorted. Grin

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 16:13

The op has given examples of what she does. This illustrates that he has seen exactly how it looks and presumably given the husband a rough idea of what it is he could do.

The gravy thing is a bit OTT but she's entitled to her opinion of what she likes.

This isn't proving what a "bitch" she is, it's proving that her husband cannot complain of complete ignorance when he has seen it and eaten it that way many times

HardFacedCareeristBitchNigel · 23/10/2013 16:13

I understand now why the smoke alarm kept going off repeatedly

This doesn't paint the picture of a meal that was slightly overcooked to me. This paints the picture of a meal that was totally cremated and inedible.

OP COME BACK !!!

Norudeshitrequired · 23/10/2013 16:18

Was the OP at work or was she at home listening to the smoke alarm repeatedly going off? I'm not sure which one is right judging by her two early posts.
Maybe she was a bit late back and the dinner burnt whilst waiting for her to come home? Darn husband trying to have the meal ready for when she got home and getting it all wrong.
I really wish she could come back and confirm that the "sinister" Bisto hasn't had any poisonous effects.
Or maybe she is down the police station pleading grounds of diminished responsibility due to her alarm at the vegetable abuse. Has anybody noticed any man sized holes being dug in a neighbours garden after a repeated smoke alarm noise yesterday?

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 16:22

Yes because "he tried" didn't he. Bless him the poor abandoned husband having to fend for himself. She should be taken to wife boot camp and shot for dating to put any strain on him at all.

She probably heard the alarm on the phone or from a neighbour or he told her or the kids told her.

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 16:22

Yes because "he tried" didn't he. Bless him the poor abandoned husband having to fend for himself. She should be taken to wife boot camp and shot for daring to put any strain on him at all.

She probably heard the alarm on the phone or from a neighbour or he told her or the kids told her.

KeatsiePie · 23/10/2013 16:28

[OT but youretoast I completely get this "I have been acutely aware of shit like this for far too long. It is the inevitability, and the familiarity, that are getting to me, as much as anything." Just, yes.]

The roast -- he shouldn't have burned it, but if it was his first roast, okay, well, shit happens. It's the vegetables that cast suspicion on him, since he knows how to cook. It's just too unusual for a decent cook to accidentally ruin every single part of a meal.

But would the OP's DH really serve his kids burned inedible food to make a point to the OP though? I mean, repeatedly burning and wrecking things all the way through to the dessert? It's so passive-aggressive and mean-spirited. And kind of weird.

Straitjacket · 23/10/2013 16:51

Has he done a roast before?

I recall my first roasts that I did. Absolute failures they were (and I was cheating by using instant gravy etc). I do now have them down to perfection, but dp hasn't tried to apart from the cheating way. I know if I demanded it done my way he would try, and fail so I just do that.

On the other hand though, he does an amazing curry from scratch which he has perfected, so that is his job on a Saturday whilst mine is the roast on a Sunday.

Can't you work something out like that in your household? He must be good at cooking something.

HardFacedCareeristBitchNigel · 23/10/2013 17:01

Men's brains don't think like ours so if you needed the meal to be cooked with love and care instead of just cooked

I would imagine that the mainly-male brigades of the 162 michelin starred restaurants might argue with you over that.

youretoastmildred · 23/10/2013 17:04

I think the "doing it on purpose" isn't the right question. No one consciously ruins £20's worth of lamb. It's more not giving a shit, assuming a shit needn't be given, assuming that the costs of not giving a shit will become SEP (somebody else's problem)

Bogeyface · 23/10/2013 17:52

Norude I also wonder if it really was that bad, but "slighty overdone" wouldnt prove her point and been quite so "hilarious" would it?

Bogeyface · 23/10/2013 17:56

and YY about the smoke alarm.

Either she wasnt there and couldnt help or see things were going wrong and offer to step in, or she was in which case why did she just sit there and let it burn when the smoke alarm was going off so much? the smoke alarm going off is a signal to me that he was struggling, not that he was doing it on purpose

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 18:31

Or a sign that he forgot about it or fell asleep

Norudeshitrequired · 23/10/2013 18:33

Bogeyface At least I'm not the only one who has a skeptical mind. It was the sinister Bisto that did it for me - I now have visions of Bisto tubs wearing red horns and comedy fangs.

Norudeshitrequired · 23/10/2013 18:35

Or a sign that he forgot about it or fell asleep

Maybe he did fall asleep because he had been working 12 hour shifts all week [hmmm]. Or maybe he was fretting about the sinister gravy granules attacking him with their shiny fangs.
I'm sure there are lots of things that could have happened, but we won't know unless the OP comes back to tell us.

Bogeyface · 23/10/2013 18:37

Norude the problem is that if a man fucks up and his wife is pissed off it is because he is lazy or manipulative. If she fucks up and he is pissed off he is lazy (should have done it himself), abusive or manipulative.

God forbid that she is a diva and he is an idiot and they deserve each other! :o

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/10/2013 18:39

My money is on computer games. They sucker people in for hours

BoneyBackJefferson · 23/10/2013 18:40

TheHeadlessLadyofCannock

"the poor menz"

Just lost any credibility for me.

lolarose2591 · 23/10/2013 19:49

whats wrong with Yorkshire puddings with lamb lol ?
i cook homemade Yorkshires for any meal haha and i am not from Yorkshire

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