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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

…to think it doesn't take 45 minutes to cook fish finger sandwiches?

98 replies

WazFlimFlam · 19/03/2018 19:58

Bear with me, I am in early pregnancy, tired and grumpy and have a funny appetite.

I suggested fish finger sandwiches for dinner as I wanted something easy that wasn't going to make me feel sick. DH suggested he sort it out. Nice. Fine.

They have just been served up 45 minutes later. He was in the kitchen the whole time. AIBU to think this is a bit ridiculous?

OP posts:
wetpebbles · 19/03/2018 20:47

I did some this evening in the air fryer, they were ready in 6 mins.

happymummy12345 · 19/03/2018 20:47

I guess I'm very lucky my dh is a chef, so he is so good at cooking).

Peanutnutterbutter · 19/03/2018 20:49

My husband gets the cups, coffee, tea, mik etc ready and then fills the kettle up and waits for it to boil (always fills it even if only 2 drinks). Does anyone else do this? I always fill the kettle up and get the stuff out as it boils.

Skittlesandbeer · 19/03/2018 20:50

I could’ve caught, killed, steamed, mashed and crumbed my own fish fingers in the time my DH can manage to grill and serve them.

And he fancies himself in the kitchen.

buddahbelly · 19/03/2018 20:52

My dh would see your dh's time and raise it by another hour to allow for sharpening of the knives and also to Crete a specific song on youtube to allow for cooking of said fish fingers, something along the lines of eye of the tiger. Hmm

PlumsGalore · 19/03/2018 20:53

If I was in a hurry I would defrost them in the microwave, 30 seconds to a minute whilst the gas ring was under a dry pan getting it hot, then dry fry them a couple of minutes each side whilst ketchupping the bread. No butter here.
Another ten seconds to salt and vinegar them.

Tomorrow i am going to time myself, I reckon this method would take seven to eight minutes.

Hassled · 19/03/2018 20:54

DH could spend 45 minutes on a fish finger sandwich easily. I once watched an entire episode of EastEnders in the time it took DH to place some mushrooms on top of a pizza. The mushrooms were beautifully sliced and spaced equally apart around the pizza - but seriously, 30 minutes. Life is just too short.

frasier · 19/03/2018 20:58

I had to "stay in bed" on Mother's Day because breakfast was being prepared.

In the time I waited I had a bath, washed and dried my hair, plucked my eyebrows and faffed about on my phone.

My breakfast was coffee, toast, an apple and a biscuit. It was over an hour in the making! DH is to blame. DS is 3 and can't even reach the toaster. Not his fault.

twobambinos · 19/03/2018 21:02

This all sounds so familiar to me.
Yanbu op

kaitlinktm · 19/03/2018 21:03

Fish fingers - how common!!
Only piscatorial digits served in this house. Wink Grin

Flamingo84 · 19/03/2018 21:03

When I was 3 months pregnant I’d waited for DH to get home from football to eat (big mistake!).

He said he’d put on some chips when he got home. 25 mins later the timer went off, he went in the kitchen and sheepishly came out to tell me he’d forgotten to put them in the oven!

MorningsEleven · 19/03/2018 21:03

Buy him some tasty toasty toasta bags (It's a JML product) so he can do them in less time than it takes to run the London fucking Marathon.

ApocalypseNowt · 19/03/2018 21:06

It's taken DH 45 mins to make pasta and sauce from a jar before. I know why it takes so long....he does it like this

  1. fill kettle and put it on to boil
  2. lean on kitchen counter
  3. realise kettle has boiled, gets pan and puts pasta in it despite my many entreaties to put the water in first
  4. puts kettle on to boil again
  5. leans on counter
  6. kettle boils
  7. gets kettle, walks over to hob and pours water in
  8. walks back to put kettle back
  9. wanders over to hob
  10. gets distracted by something shiny
  11. manages to turn on hob
  12. waits for water to start to boil AGAIN
  13. leans
  14. remembers he forgot to put timer on
  15. inaccurately guesses how many minutes it needs
  16. hardcore leaning
  17. timer goes off startling him
  18. turns off hob
  19. faffs about getting a colinder, drains pasta and leaves it on the sink
  20. faffs about looking for sauce
  21. peers at jar of sauce
  22. finds another pan, puts sauce in and puts on hob
  23. turns on hob
  24. bit more leaning
  25. heats up sauce so it's hotter than the sun
  26. applies scalding sauce to now cold pasta
  27. gets cheese
  28. grates cheese on sauce
  29. faffs about getting cutlery
  30. brings cutlery and asks if i want some wine
  31. gets wine, disappears again
  32. I assume more leaning
  33. reappear with 'meal'

OP. I feel your pain.

MyKingdomForBrie · 19/03/2018 21:09

I’m pregnant and grumpy and I cooked our dinner. If my DH told me it had taken too long I’d stick it up his arse.. Grin

TheSnowFairy · 19/03/2018 21:13

Am I the only person who microwaves fishfingers?

2.5 mins one side, 30 seconds the other. Butter bread. Job done.

bluechameleon · 19/03/2018 21:15

My DH took about that time to make an omelette the other week. I don't understand how it's possible. They do it in 20 seconds on Saturday Kitchen...

Baubletrouble43 · 19/03/2018 21:22

haha apocalypsenowt, that sounds EXACTLY like my dp!

frasier · 19/03/2018 21:24

TheSnowFairy OMG. What do you mean one side and the other. Don't they microwave from the inside out?

JustDanceAddict · 19/03/2018 21:25

WOUod take me 10 mins under grill

Chewbecca · 19/03/2018 21:28

20 mins for a ff sandwich.
It must have tomato sauce on one slice of bread and mayo on the other.

ememem84 · 19/03/2018 21:31

Since having ds I am incapable of making a fish finger sandwich without setting them on fire.

Gained “mum” skills - lost cooking skills.

Hassled · 19/03/2018 21:31

bluechameleon - in fairness, the 20 second omelettes on Saturday Kitchen are basically just a couple of eggs which have been briefly introduced to a bit of heat and then lobbed on a plate. They're never actually an omelette.

roses2 · 19/03/2018 21:37

Isn't heating the whole oven for fish fingers wasteful?

Surely the hob is more energy efficient and quicker?? Plus they taste better fried in a teaspoon of oil.

paranoidpammywhammy2 · 19/03/2018 21:42

I'm single now. It's fantastic.

My ex would insist on cooking if I'd worked a long day and needed to rest when I finally got home. He worked less hours at the time.

He would faff about forever then eventually bring me a minuscule amount of lukewarm/cold under-cooked pasta (spinning me some crap about it being 'al dente') swimming in carbonised style, crusty chicken pieces in odd tasting sauce. He would complain the chicken wasn't good quality, the pans/oven were useless etc.

I have no idea what he did to the sauce but the state of the pans afterwards suggested he'd had the pan too hot. The splatter around the hob and wall and floor near the oven would suggest this too.

The sink and blocked drain would always contain the rest of the under-cooked pasta where he'd tried to strain the pasta and lost most of it.

We had two splatter guards and several strainers. The person that didn't cook would then do kitchen clear up.

TheBlindspot · 19/03/2018 21:53

Mine is a total faffer as well. So much so that I have now replaced the word 'faffing' with his surname. For example his name is Smith, I now refer to faffing as 'smithing' around.

Me: 'Have you cooked DD's dinner/fixed the sink/insert any normal household thing OH?'
Him: 'No. I've just been '
Me: 'Right, you've been smithing around again. I'll bloody start it then shall I?'

Honestly. It does not take 40 minutes to make a fish finger sandwich!