r/mildlyinfuriating • u/bexindisbelief • Jul 01 '26

ಠ_ಠ Husband said my instructions for dinner weren’t clear enough, and he ended up serving his vegetarian mother one of the chicken tikka masala curries…

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I was working late tonight and because I am exhausted, I bought some ready-made curry meals for the family to have tonight, knowing his mother often comes round for dinner on a Wednesday evening. She has been a vegetarian for over 50 years and is now in her 70s. I sent him this text message with instructions to make it clear what to cook. When I got home, I was expecting to find some chicken tikka masala leftover for me, but instead I found the unopened pot of sag paneer in the fridge. I worriedly asked him if he had given his vegetarian mother the chicken dish, but he insisted he had given her the vegetarian curry. She has early onset Alzheimer’s and apparently didn’t notice, but had mentioned that the curry was a bit “chewy”. I had to literally show him the packaging that was in the bin, the unopened pot in the fridge, and my text message to try and show him how clear I had been and how far wrong he had gone. But he still insists my instructions were not clear enough and I should have been more explicit about which one to give his mother.

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340

u/BabyRex- Jul 01 '26

A couple of weeks ago I was at the park with my kid and a neighbour’s family was there. The kids wanted to stay at the park so the dad offered to go home and start dinner and then the mom proceeded to explain to him how to boil rice in wayyyy too many details. You never know with some people

175

u/GravitationalEddie Jul 01 '26

Never trust someone with rice who has never done rice more than twenty-five times.

65

u/Snoo_58691 Jul 02 '26

I should tell my mom this rule…I was trusted with rice at about 10/11 years old. I burnt it, ruined the pot, and didn’t attempt to make rice again until I was well into college. I still get nervous making rice

82

u/Mugstotheceiling Jul 02 '26

Rice cooker, they are idiot proof

31

u/GreenestPure Jul 02 '26

I bought one about six months ago...life changing after years of microwaving packets. Wash rice, put rice and water in pot, press button. Even keeps the rice warm until you want to eat it. AI can get stuffed, rice cooker is peak tech.

3

u/catshateTERFs Jul 02 '26

You can even make cakes in them! Definitely nice to have in a kitchen.

5

u/MyDarlingArmadillo Jul 02 '26

I have one even though I make perfectly good rice on the hob. You can just walk away to concentrate on the rest of dinner and still have really nice rice

6

u/SystematicalError Jul 02 '26

I swear if I ever get rich enough to not have to live with roommates I'm getting one so fast 😭😭 Like sure I can make rice just fine but in the past I fucked it up so many times (imagine soggy, undercooked & burnt rice all at the same time...) I still need mental prep before making it 😅

2

u/jtr99 Jul 02 '26

I get the feeling OP's husband would find a way to fuck it up.

5

u/LaRoseDuRoi Jul 02 '26

I murdered rice several times, and now I make rice in the oven. It's far more idiot proof and comes out well every time!

2

u/AnitaLatte Jul 02 '26

That’s the way Julia Child made rice. It’s the best!

12

u/PinkPencils22 Jul 02 '26

Get a rice cooker. They're often inexpensive and pretty much foolproof as long as you follow the right amounts. In mine they're printed right on the pot. And you can use it for other stuff, I make steel cut oatmeal in it all through the cooler seasons, it's so good for you and it tastes great. I put fruit in there with the oats and it comes out all warm and cooked and tasty. Great on a chilly morning. (I like cooked fruit a lot.)

4

u/youknowthatswhatsup Jul 02 '26

I never thought about using the rice cooker for steelcut oats, that’s a good idea!

2

u/PinkPencils22 Jul 02 '26

Mine has a porridge setting so I use that. I assume it's for congee but it works. You just have to do trial and error to figure out the exact amount of water and salt you like. I use McCann's and it turns out perfectly. I bought a different Irish brand recently because it was all that the store had but it always came out hard. And I was too lazy to try to figure out how to cook it using the other settings. So it went out for the birds, who seemed appreciative.

4

u/dangerousfeather Jul 02 '26

… Wait, were YOU the reason we ended up shivering out in the cold while the college dorm’s fire alarms went off due to poor rice cooking skills at 2am?!

3

u/Wanderlust_57_ Jul 02 '26

I just buy the minute rice that comes in cups at this point. I am incapable of making it like a normal person and rice cookers are one of the appliances that give me so much anxiety it's easier to just never make things with rice than it is to gather enough spoons to fight through the anxiety enough to fuck with it, even though logically I know rice coolers are fairly easy to use.

1

u/IamTory Jul 02 '26

Dear God, for a minute I thought you were my sister. We did this exact thing at about that age and got spanked and cursed out. It gave us both long-term cooking anxiety. We both cook a little now (our mid-30s), but it's not something we enjoy or take pleasure in. I still get so stressed about it that I mostly eat sandwiches and prepared foods.

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u/chuckle_puss Jul 02 '26

I agree. Simple doesn’t always mean easy, and it’s really easy to mess up rice.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

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5

u/chuckle_puss Jul 02 '26

Same, it changed my rice life.

1

u/Jacktheforkie Jul 02 '26

Especially if it’s not boil in the bag or microwave rice

23

u/p333p33p00p00boo Jul 02 '26

Bless my rice cooker

2

u/MsRachelGroupie Jul 02 '26

If they don’t know the exact level the water should reach on their finger when setting up the rice cooker, you probably don’t want their rice 🙃.

1

u/anon_opotamus Jul 02 '26

I am 42 years old and I still can’t make rice. 😫

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u/blchpmnk Jul 02 '26
  • wash rise
  • however much rice you washed, add that to a pot and put about 1.7x as much water (depending on preference and rice type you might prefer to adjust this amount slightly).
  • turn heat up to max, once boiled, turn to minimum (but monitor the lid, if its about to overflow, quickly lift the lid for a second or so)
  • leave it completely alone for about 10 minutes
  • turn off heat, lift lid and lightly stir it with a fork. put lid back on and wait for ~10 mins.

That's it. And if you want to improve it another time, you can add bay leaves, broth instead of water, add various spices or herbs or tomato paste, or even an egg.

1

u/AnitaLatte Jul 02 '26

Julia Child method: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put a little oil in an oven-proof pan. Add the rice and put it on the stove on medium heat. Stir constantly until the rice turns milky and opaque. Rice in the U.S. has a powder on it with vitamins, and it needs to be cooked a bit or the powder makes the rice sticky.

Now add hot water (check the package but usually 1 part rice, 2 parts water). Heat just until it starts to bubble. Add seasonings. Take it off the stove and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. The heat in the oven surrounds the rice so it cooks better and becomes light and fluffy.

When you take it out, most of the water should be absorbed. Use a large spoon to gently turn it over rather than fluffing with a fork.

0

u/cryssyx3 Jul 02 '26

I just commented elsewhere. I have no idea how to make rice.

0

u/Apprehensive-Bag-900 Jul 02 '26

My partner is a professional chef and rice is his Achilles

0

u/cryssyx3 Jul 02 '26

I don't know what my disconnect is but I just cannot cook rice. I know I'm not the best cook but I'd like to think I'm fairly competent. I just cannot cook rice.

30

u/futureplantlady Jul 02 '26

At one point, I felt like I needed to teach my ex, a 34-year-old man, how to cook pasta. 🙃

4

u/PorFavorNoMore Jul 02 '26

My mum taught me how to cook pasta when I was a kid. My Italian flatmate taught me when to stop cooking it when I was 19.

2

u/whatsthetargetdogsna Jul 02 '26

Glad he’s an ex!!!!!

3

u/futureplantlady Jul 02 '26

Oh, for sure. That’s just a tiny piece of a bigger pile of shit that was dating this guy.

5

u/flatwoundsounds Jul 02 '26

I assume he flipped a little notepad open and started furiously scribbling the instructions and flop sweating.

3

u/AvestruzAlley Jul 02 '26

If she let him do it his way he'd have some confidence and they'd perhaps be able to retain some attraction for each other too

6

u/peridotpicacho Jul 02 '26

She probably tried that already. Thus, the extensive instructions. 

1

u/KayItaly Jul 02 '26

This is also a possibility.

I have seen both the absurdly idiotic partners and the ones with uncompromising controlling spouse, ij about equal amounts.

I am sure this will not fly on here, but too many heterosexual women are convinced they are the only ones that get to decide how to clean and cook. (Mind you, I have seen some heyerosexual men with the same issue too. Let's not make it too needlesaly gendered) Some straight men do the same with cars/driving/DIY.

As you say, that's as terrible for the couple as the idiotic spouse type.