All I wanted to do was make coleslaw. I already had a bag I’d purchased at Publix and I knew I wanted to chop it up finer so would have to use the food processor. So I figured the preparation would take a little more than the 5 minutes the recipe promised. Actually, that 5 minutes included the dressing I wanted to try. Easy, right? Wrong!
I am here to tell you never to believe the preparation time recipes promise. There are many more steps involved and it isn’t nearly so simple as it sounds. For instance...
Before I could start, I wanted a small Mason jar to mix the dressing in and store in the refrigerator. That way I wouldn’t have to mix the coleslaw all at once, but only enough for the portions I wanted. So... my first step (which was not mentioned in the recipe) was to get the Mason jar which I thought was in the bottom cupboard. It wasn’t in plain sight, of course, so I proceeded to remove the stuff I was sure it was hiding behind.
This particular cupboard held different size storage bags, aluminum foil, parchment paper, clear wrap, packages of napkins (I won’t have to buy napkins for the rest of the year) plastic bottles, containers etc. Because I am past the point of being able to sit on the floor, emptying the bottom shelf took a little more time and ingenuity. After removing everything I could reach, I took my handy grabber and proceeded to pull everything out to the middle of the kitchen floor. Lo and behold I even found my George Foreman Grill (which I forgot I had).
Once everything was in a pile in the middle of the floor, I had to decide what was to go back in the cupboard as well as find places for unopened duplicates and for things I didn’t use...like my George Foreman Grill. That meant making room in other places...cleaning the shelf in the hall closet (for my George Foreman Grill), storing things in totes, etc. I’m hoping I remember to check my stock before buying anymore storage bags!
When that was done I went back to making my coleslaw. (I did find the jar but it was in a different cupboard.) To be perfectly honest, the actual chopping of the cabbage and making the dressing did take a little more than 5 min. but the total preparation was about one and a half hours.
God Bless!
Connie
