If at first you don't succeed...

...order Thai.

Unfortunately, that was how my first Sunday cooking experiment went. I had meant to post this story a bit earlier, but the past week has been crazy thanks to work and school. The semester is winding down and finals are right around the corner...joy.

I had wanted to cook something that felt like Autumn, so I spent a lot of time looking through various recipe websites and cookbooks before settling on a recipe by Jamie Oliver. I like Jamie, and that accent of his is adorable (which is obviously a reason to pick his recipe), so I figured, "Hey, why not?" and made my shopping list.

That list should have been the first warning sign that things wouldn't go as planned. First item on the list: leeks. Now I vaguely remembered having eaten leeks before, but hell if I knew what they were. So, first order of business was looking up pictures via Google, and instructions on how to prepare them. Easy enough to find, I thought. Look for the long green things with the white thingy on the bottom.

Right.

Anyway, I made the rest of the list without looking up anything else, which would later come back to bite me in the gluteus maximus, grabbed my my little red grocery cart and was out the door.

Oh, did I mention that it was already about 5PM by the time I left the apartment? Yeah, not very smart of me. Apparently my time management for anything to do with my personal life just stinks.

I went to Key Foods on 31st Street, where I figured I could find most of the ingredients on my list. First up was the fruit and veggie section. What I want to know is why leeks have to look so much like dandelion greens? I mean, come on, really? Finally, I asked an associate to help me verify that I had selected the right leafy green thing before moving on. The poultry section has been picked over pretty well, but I managed to find a nice pack of skinless, boneless breasts...which, Boyfriend later told me, were the wrong ones. I also needed shelled and roasted chestnuts to fold into the puff pastry for the topping, but could not find them and instead thought that I could just sub in crushed walnuts.

Finally, it was time to look for creme fraiche. I would like to point out that this is a VERY misleading name, for what it actually is. Now, every time I've had it, it has been with a dessert. So...naturally, I used my method of reasoning and decided that it had to be in the whipped cream family...only, I couldn't find it. The clock was winding down, and I wanted to get back home and start cooking before Boyfriend arrived home from work, so I became desperate. Seeing no other options that seemed rational (to me, anyway) I grabbed the first thing I could think of...Cool Whip.

No, I'm not joking. It's okay, I'll pause while you laugh. I heard that little snort of yours. Go on.

Is it out of your system yet? Good.

Yes, I grabbed a container of Cool Whip, paid, and headed home to get started. Just as I was prepping the kitchen to cook, Boyfriend called to see how things were going. I told him about my "hunting" expedition and what my plans were, sounding slightly shrill and quite stressed, since at this point it was almost 7PM. I casually mentioned how I couldn't find proper creme fraiche and a decided to use Cool Whip instead. There was silence on the phone. "You're joking, right?" was the response. I told him that I wasn't joking, and why did he ask?

There was a clatter on the other end of the line, and then a loud, whooping laughter.

He came back on the line and, in a very choked voice, proceeded to tell me that creme fraiche was actually related to sour cream.

Oh.My.God.

Well, I bucked up, thanked him very stiffly for the information (what can I say, I'm not a good sport when I'm embarrassed) and decided to see if I could just make the dish without the creme fraiche.

I put everything together, began combining ingredients...only to discover that I had completely forgotten the turkey meat at the grocery store.

All I can say is....thank goodness for Wave Thai.