Why can't I be a domestic goddess?

Does one homemade loaf of bread elevate you to the status of a domestic goddess?


I certainly feel like one for the first time in my life….but this is non-sensical when you consider that I have been creating meals for myself and my marital and child dependants for over ten years now. I must have cooked thousands of meals over the years!

Perhaps it is a fact of life that piercing the film cover and setting the microwave to high isn’t going to generate the same feeling of satisfaction as kneading dough for ten minutes.

I guess it stands to reason that opening a tin and heating the contents on the hob isn’t going to make me feel so proud as when my dough starts to rise.

And I know for a fact that no oven pizza has ever smelt as wonderful as the scent of freshly baked bread coming from my oven!


But I have been known to create the odd stew or cake in the past and neither has left me feeling as smug and self-satisfied as my first ever loaf. Particularly when husband announced in a surprised tone that it actually looks and smells like a proper loaf of bread!


I pretended to be put out by his surprise and inherent lack of faith, but to be brutally honest, no-one was more surprised than I that it was even edible, much less presentable!


My success has inspired me to try other things with varying degrees of success. For example, I have made two batches of extremely tasty blackberry and apple jam – but also sadly almost killed my entire family with what can best be described as a disastrously awful attempt at meatballs!


I strive to be Masterchef but suspect I am more Big Cook, Little Cook. I long to be as glamorous and effortless as Nigella, but alas her relaxed and joyful attitude to cooking does not really match my genuine panic at the site of a recipe book.


In a world where women are expected to have it all – great job, fabulously intelligent and attractive children, reared on the nutritionally sound home cooked meals that only a mother can provide, a gorgeous husband and the time to pamper herself to perfection, I definitely fall short on the home cooked meals front (and the pampering if I’m honest, but that’s a whole other post!).


But I can claim that despite my limitations in the culinary department, slow progress is being made, and although my family will almost certainly never dine on anything more complicated than a homemade casserole, I guess at least I can send the child to school with a world-beating homemade jam sandwich!