Husband has ruined dinner

[OnAJetPlane26]

I’m been upstairs packing for a holiday so asked husband to cook dinner, all of the ingredients for a shepards pie are in the fridge/cupboard.
Came down and thought.. That smells nothing like shepards pie. He has poured an entire jar of Passata and half a jar of parsley into the meat.
Im going to beans on toast. My AIBU is this..
YABU.. Sounds fine to me.
YANBU.. He has made bolognese with mash potatoes and gravy.

pesto?

Tbh OP you're coming across as a bit of a dick. Sure, it's not Shepherd's Pie but he's also not tried to poison you. I think I'd be quite hurt if I cooked for DH and he said it was grim and wouldn't even try it. That's the behaviour my kids tried to pull when they were toddlers.

Whatever happened to basic decency and appreciating someone's effort even if they got it a bit wrong rather than going "urgh" and slagging them off online?

Why would you behave like such a dick to your partner on the eve of your holiday?

You need to stop looking down at the food your DH cooks. You sound insufferable and if a man was behaving like you are about his wife’s food he would get crucified on here

Gosh you sound like my mother 🤣

It sounds more like he was trying to be creative to me not lazy.

I thunk you're being ridiculous. It's just beef and tomatoes with herbs. It will be fine.

Bright orange. He put other things in to, I can’t remember what now but even he wouldn’t eat it and coming from a man that ears wotzit and mayo sandwiches that says a lot.

Parsley is pretty inoffensive so I don't see the big deal. I also put tomato puree or passata in cottage pie. But if you don't like it, don't eat it, no biggie.

Well if this is true, he’s a better sport than you are.

What about spices?

Exactly this!
They know full bloody well you can get jars of dried herbs. But they think that pretending they’ve never heard of it makes them sound more sophisticated. Pathetic 😂

I mean I wouldn’t put parsley (fresh or dried) in shepherds pie but passata is passable surely?

I make a version of a shepherds pie with tinned tomatoes and a tin of beans in - it's delicious actually 😋

I haven't seen frozen spices for sale unless you count root ginger.

@OnAJetPlane26 Ohhhh I thought this was going to be the Friends episode where Rachel makes half a Shepherd's pie and half a trifle as the pages stuck together...

Sounds like he has made bolognaise instead of shepherd's pie. No big deal. Do you not like bolognaise?

They sell Bart dried herbs in Waitrose!

I'm guessing the "I didn't know you can get parsley in a jar" posters are so sophisticated they only use fresh herbs whereas there are many recipes where the more concentrated flavour of dried herbs is needed. Yotam Ottolenghi uses dried herbs in some of his recipes.

OP, I sometimes batch cook mince with passata and freeze it. I later defrost it and sometimes use it for Bolognese and sometimes use it for a shepherds pie type meal! No complaints from anyone.

It sounds like he made a Bolognese type sauce and then topped with mashed potatoes.

If it didn't have meat, I would definitely try it. Might be a bit crunchy with so much dried parsley, but it's not going to poison you. He and your son ate it, it wasn't ruined, it just wasn't what you expected and you're being a bit of a dick about it.

Is your husband a good cook who knows his way around the kitchen and how to cook various dishes, including shepherds pie? If not, your expectations of dinner were unreasonable.

I used dried everything eg oregano and rosemary but never parsley for some reason!

I prefer potatoes to pasta or rice so I’ll happily eat bolognaise or chilli with mashed, boiled or jacket potatoes. I use tinned chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and a jar of passata would certainly be tomatoey, but I’d eat it!

Agreed

I'd be pissed off if I cooked something, but because I hadn't followed partners instructions, they refused to even taste it, and then made beans on toast instead. Not saying you have to eat the whole thing but to not even taste it? I could understand if he had added something completely unpallatable, but yes, I think you are being unreasonable (plus childish and stroppy tbh).

@OnAJetPlane26 There's a particularly hot place in hell for people who ask other people to do things, and then fly into a fit of rage when that person did not perform the task in the same way that they would have.

If you wanted the pie to be made in a specific way, why did you not do it?