When the wife cooks

When the wife cooks, it is a much different experience than when the hubby cooks. There is no knowledge, planning, or experience involved. Each step is a guess and sometimes those guesses lead to disaster.
For Father's Day I decided it might be nice of me to not make hubby cook his own meal. Though I wasn't so nice as to ask him what he might like for dinner; I simply followed my own selfish cravings. But hey, you can't have it all, can you?
I wanted fried plantains, or tostones. I paired them with mint, jalapeño, and garlic roasted shrimp and black beans. This combo proved very yummy.

I peeled two ripe plantains and sliced them into 1-inch thick pieces. I put oil in one of our cast-iron skillets and turn the temp on high. That's where I went wrong. After only about 5 minutes the air in the house was thick with smoke. Hubby was busy bathing the baby when I mentioned the smoke and the question, "What temperature should the stove be set on?"
Hubby calmly asked me to watch the bathing baby as he made his way into the kitchen to correct my potentially disastrous mistake. I easily could've burned the house down. Who knew that hot oil can get too hot very quickly? Chefs know. Hubby knows. Thank you hubby for saving us all.

Anyway, crisis averted. Fresh oil in a cooled down skillet and dinner was on its way. This time the hot oil was set at the proper 375 degrees. I fried the plantain slices for 5 minutes, took them out and flattened them, adding a little salt, and placed them back in the skillet for another 2-3 minutes. As soon as I pulled them off the skillet and blotted some oil off I brushed them with an orange juice/pressed garlic/salt mixture. They were lovely.

Here's our final Father's Day dinner. A success because of my will to experiment and hubby's will to not burn our house to the ground. I love my hubby for still allowing me to set foot in our kitchen.