A Lost Love Rediscovered

For a few months I was working mostly opposite shifts from my husband. When I came home from work sometimes I was alone and sometimes my daughter was home too. I would offer to cook and give several suggestions. She would reply with "I already ate." or "I don't like that." I stopped cooking dinner for several months.

Since my son came home he noticed I am cooking a new dish every night and have tried several new recipes. I told him I guess I rediscovered my love of cooking now that I have someone to share it with. I love working in my kitchen.

The past few weeks we had fajitas, fried plantain with brown sugar and brandy, a new pork and cabbage recipe, spaghetti and meatballs, guacamole salad, the best batch of French toast I have ever made with whipped cream and blueberries, and my very first pineapple upside down cake. About the pineapple cake, I have always detested it. I have never tried this cake and liked it but I found a recipe and just sliced a fresh pineapple and wanted to try it. It actually turned out very well and I like it now. I guess I never liked it before because my mother made one at some point.

My mother was a horrible cook. She turned scrambled eggs to rubber. She thought all meat must be blackened so it wouldn't kill you. She would make one dish for a dinner. If she made salad, or a soup, or even baked beans that was it. She would put whatever one dish she cooked into a bowl and that was dinner. Even prepackaged food was a challenge for her. Following directions was a foreign concept. She never measured the water for rice but tossed it in a large pot of water until it was like a thin soup. She ripped into packages like a barbarian so your cereal went stale and your chips had to be picked up off the floor and any surrounding furniture. Looking back I guess we had to learn to cook at an early age for survival.

My point tonight is cooking is a skill that really helps when you are on a tight budget. Prepackaged foods are so expensive. Some people, like myself, love to read cookbooks and try new dishes. Others just want to stick to a basic menu plan and are okay with the same meals each week. And then there are some who have a hard time breaking free of their fast food habit. Lastly there are a few that should be banned from the kitchen for the sake of the children.