The one where Mr Frugal cooks me tea….

I’m happy to cook tea most nights seeing as I work part time and get home just after collecting the kids from school but every Wednesday I work a full day from 8am – 5pm. 

I have a fantastic neighbour (you know who you are) who picks the kids up from school on a Wednesday and gives them tea (which is nicer than mine according to the kids) but every now and again, Mr Frugal finishes work early on Wednesday so it seems only fair that he cooks tea on those nights.

That’s fair enough I hear you say but this is the man who once rung me at work to ask how you tell if Super Noodles are cooked and who once (according to family folklore) actually tried to heat custard up in a kettle.

Give him his due though, he is trying to improve and can now (thanks to the Airfryer) cook an edible meal of chicken dippers and curly fries and he can just about manage something in the slow cooker if I tell him EXACTLY what he needs to use.

Anyway, last week was one of these nights where it was his job to cook the tea and I had planned for us to have super simple slow cooker chicken curry.  It’s so simple that all you do is add chicken, a handful of chopped onion (from the freezer s he didn’t even have to chop), some tinned tomatoes, a tin of coconut milk and some curry powder.  Cook it on low for the day and voila, delicious no fail chicken curry.

I got home from work feeling a little frazzled and he sat me down with a drink and proudly served up tea for us (the kids having already had his chicken dipper speciality) along with a nice chilled bottle of Kopparberg that he’d found at the back of the fridge.

When he put the bowl in front of me, I thought it looked more tomato-ey than usual but didn’t think much of it as I was starving.  

I took a big bite and my first thought was that it tasted of nothing.

I tried again and realised it was completely bland and tasteless but not wanting to hurt his feelings I tactfully went and got the salt and pepper to try and add some flavour.  He noticed and mentioned that salt was a good idea as it tasted a bit plain so I took the opportunity to gently suggest that next time he used more curry powder.

His response?

What do you mean?  I’m pretty sure you never told me to use curry powder – I didn’t use any at all!

That explained the distinct lack of curry taste in the curry then.

What we were actually eating was chicken cooked in a tin of tomatoes and a tin of coconut milk with some onion thrown in.

He can stick to chicken dippers in future!!!!