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In life, we all have some things we do well and some things we struggle with.
For example, there are some people who are naturally good at cooking or drawing or singing while others rely on a microwave, create versions of stick figures in games like Pictionary, and save their singing for the shower.
Personally, I was always good in any athletic venture but could never quite master how to dive.
I can light a fire using a minimal amount of paper and strategically placed wood but cannot figure out how to put furniture pieces together so that they are straight.
I am a natural cook, knowing what flavors work and when things are ‘done’ simply by touch, but I can’t ever seem to flip an omelet or a pancake or even a single fried egg without the whole thing breaking apart or leaving behind a thin streak of batter.
I have tried using obscenely wide spatulas, but then I have trouble getting fully underneath the omelet.
I’ve tried super slick frying pans with the lift and flick method, but that usually results in me throwing the pancake, batter side down, into the grates of the nearby burner, making even a bigger mess.
I have even tried using the metal circular cooking guides, but they don’t work for omelets and don’t quite fit in an easily accessible kitchen drawer.
For the most part, I have come to accept that I am a poor food flipper, but this doesn’t stop me from trying to make improvements to my food flipping skills.
Whenever we stay in a hotel that has a chef making custom omelets for breakfast, I stand and watch, hoping to soak in his amazing omelet flipping skills.
Whenever we pass by a kitchen utensil store, I pop in hoping to find some unique spatula that is going to make me such an expert in omelet flipping that I get hired as the omelet flipper at the hotel that has the omelet station.
But alas, since I am no longer willing to trade out my beloved seasoned cast iron pan for an omelet pan that makes me burn the edges of my fried eggs; nor am I willing to differentiate what spatula I use based on what item I am attempting to flip.
I accept that this may just be a skill that I keep in my ‘not so good at it’ column.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter and maybe the things I am not so good at are the things that continue to make me work harder at improving?
Since I have been such a bad food flipper for as long as I can remember, my family seems to accept it without judgment or critique, happily enjoying the good-tasting, although oddly shaped, food I may serve them.
Although, come to think of it, no one ever asks me to make them an omelet anymore, saying instead “I’ll have my eggs scrambled!”
Sizzle. Sizzle.
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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