Saturday, July 16, 2011

Marmaduke

Though these aren't housewife mishaps I have to include the odd language mix-up from my adorable husband.
His first language is Arabic and while his English is marvellous he does make the odd (and usually adorable) mistake...


We are invited to a friend’s house for a movie night and we are a little late as we are coming straight from another event. Everyone is watching the movie when we arrive and settle in. One of our friends passes us a large bowel of party mix lollies (the type with the bananas, pineapples, teeth and other soft lollies – very Australian) I don’t recognise the movie and ask my friend, ‘What it is?”
“Marmaduke”, she replies. It’s a movie about a great dane and his owner.
We pass the lollies on and about 15 minutes later hubby looks around for the lollies.
Spying them on the far coffee table he asks a friend sitting nearby, “Can you pass the marmaduke?”
Moment of confusion all round before the light bulb clicks on in my head, “No darling, the MOVIE is called marmaduke, that’s just lollies.”
“Oh, he says, I was just about to say how nice the marmaduke is.”

Moral of the Story:
1. Marmaduke is a faintly ridiculous word and far to good to be wasted on an animated dog.
2. Lollies taste better when you call them Marmaduke. Try it.

Opening Post!

Seven months ago I became the doting wife to the most perfect man in the world (I may be a tad biased). With all the best intentions I tried to get our married life off to a great start and turn myself into a domestic goddess.. or something of that sort. Seems it’s not quite as easy as it sounds.
This will be a blog of my failed attempts at perfection, my frustrations with baking, and the hilarity of married life... For all the women who seem unable to grasp that stepford wife perfection and whose best efforts seem to end in disaster.



Flying high on the drug of love a day or two after we got married, hubby and I unwrapped our wedding gifts and unpacked our things. After we married I moved from my family house into the house hubby was renting at the time. Honeymoon was postponed as I had a job interview a few days afterward and money was tight. Hubby loves the tender meat my mother cooks in her slowcooker and particularly loves lamb shanks. One of the wedding gifts was a slowcooker and I decided to surprise hubby with a succulent, tender lamb shanks.
I unwrapped my beautiful new cooker, gave it a quick wash and carefully spiced and prepared the lamb. I let them cook slowly for hours until hubby discovered them and almost drooling over the pot, waited for me to finish up. the sauce had thickened well and the meat was falling off the bone.
I had whipped mash potato to perfection and steamed fresh seasonal greens with a light olive oil and lemon dressing.
I proudly set my hubby's favourite dish before him, glowing with wifely pride.
We lifted our forks to our lips, with the delicious scent wafting upward and tasted.. plastic.
The meat was tender, the smell tantalising and there was a hint of something delicious. But the main taste was of plastic. Of brand-new finest teflon.
It seems a new slowcooker dish requires more than a cursory splash.
And to his credit hubby struggled on for a few mouthfuls before admitting defeat and all the while saying the meat was perfect and the spice delicious... save for the plastic taste.

Moral of the story:
1. Wash EVERYTHING new.
2. The measure of a good man is managing to find something praiseworthy with a mouthful of plastic flavoured food.