"About 20 minutes"

Last week I had another cooking fiasco that supports my theory that although, for many, a woman's place is in the kitchen, I fit into the better-in-the-barn category.


I'm back on the Weight Watcher's wagon (it is a new year, you know), and I was perusing the recipes on their website.  I stumbled upon a roasted sirloin beef that had great reviews and looked fairly simple.  My family loves meat, it's a healthy meal...it's a win-win situation.  Yes.


I found the perfect sirloin and made sure I had everything to prepare the meat before I left for my weekly Weight Watcher's meeting.  I read over the recipe at least three times and knew I could attend the meeting, come home, prepare the beef and not starve to death in the process.  It was a quick fix, the recipe said 20 minutes in the oven. Sweet.  My family would love me - they love beef!


So I do just that.  I attend the meeting, come home and get right to work rubbing down the sirloin.  I put it in the oven and start some vegetables in the microwave because it will be quick. (Yes, I happen to love the frozen veggies that you can just throw in the microwave.)


Meanwhile, my family is quizzing me on supper, wanting to snack on anything and everything, and I'm trying to  maintain my composure because I, too, am ready to gnaw a finger off.  Weigh-in/Meeting night is particularly rough because you try to be so good until you weigh in. 


Hang on, I said, it will just be about 20 minutes.


Here is the key sentence in this recipe:  "Roast until a thermometer inserted in center of beef reads a minimum of 145ºF, about 20 minutes."  This is the sentence I was fixated on and had complete and total faith in.  I read and reread this sentence several times over the course of the next 90 minutes wondering what happened to the "about 20 minutes" aspect. 


I was even more puzzled by the comments in the review section that suggested not cooking it quite as long as called for because the meat was tough.  Again, I kept thinking, less than 20 minutes cooking time for a 2.5 lb beef roast?  Hmm, but I checked and double-checked and that is what it said.  So we waited.


This is where a very average cook like myself has trouble.  I know just enough to be dangerous and not enough to realize there is no way, this side of heaven, I can cook a 2.5 lb beef roast for 20 minutes in the oven and it be fit to eat.


I had to wrangle Jay in and get his opinion.  He couldn't see how it could possibly be done in 20 minutes either.  We got the roast out, stuck the meat thermometer in, returned it to the oven and waited.  Again, more analyzing of the recipe took place, and finally it dawned on me that "about 20 minutes" pertained to how long the stupid meat thermometer was supposed to read 145 degrees! Because there were no other references to time, I just assumed that "about 20 minutes" was it.


There are those moments you look back on and realize, duh, I'm such an idiot.  How could I possibly believe I could cook a 2.5 lb sirloin in 20 minutes?  (I think Grandma Great would find this humorous.)


After at least 90 minutes, we sliced up the medium-rare sirloin roast, warmed up the almost-back-to-frozen vegetables and ate our supper.  Fortunately, my family likes rare meat.  If it were not so, it might have been midnight before we were ready to dine.


Someone, anyone, open a local restaurant where you can order complete take-home meals at a decent price...and I will be there in about 20 minutes.