Cooking

I don't know whether I've said before that I love to cook.  I do, very much.  I'm a darn good cook when I set my mind to it.  Considering that I went into cooking like I do most things: ditsy, naive and unprepared; with a few years under my belt, I do okay.  I enjoy cooking for my family most of all.  Having said that, I enjoy a break now and then too.  I made a comment recently to my family, something along the lines of, "Wow, Sarah's moved out, and now Mikey.....  soon, I may not be cooking as much." It was more an observation than a declaration.  Yet again, my cooking habits were about to change.

Freaky that it's my cooking habits that are constantly evolving.  I went from being cooked for by mother up to, and sometimes after I moved away from home; to being too lazy to cook for myself when I lived alone so I ate tuna and crackers every night for dinner.  I did not stop before work in the mornings (after I moved out) at Mom and Daddy's just for their sparkling conversation.  Mom had breakfast and coffee ready.  : )

Brain dead that I am,  I don't have a strong memory of how cooking went when Don and I first lived together except that he taught me a lot, as did Mom.  Clearly we did okay because neither of us starved.

Following that, came Sarah and then Mikey, two different creatures.  Getting started on cooking and food with any child can be a challenge. Mostly, I figured stuff out.  Sarah would eat about anything that was put in front of her, although looking back, she never enjoyed meat.  Becoming a vegetarian was so natural for her.  Mikey was a bit more challenging to cook for, if for no other reason than that for a while he only ate meat ("mo' meek, please!) and preferred that it be pepperoni. Only a tired, frustrated mother gives her small child artery-clogging processed meat because she knows that this, he will outgrow. (DO NOT JUDGE ME!) Grow he did, into a healthy young man.

Eventually, Sarah became vegetarian, Mikey outgrew "pepa-loni" and learned to eat more meat and vegetables.  By this time, I was basically feeding four adults with somewhat varied tastes but I managed to deliver a meal to everyone.  If anyone suffered, it was probably Sarah.  Cooking for a vegetarian is not as obvious as cooking vegetables; it's so much more.  I made mistakes but I usually learned from them and I think that Sarah would agree, I'm doing better.

With Sarah working, I cooked less for her, but tried to cook her favorites when she was around. Coincidently, Mikey's tastes evolved again.  He was interested in trying more foods which gave me an opportunity to fool around with these "cooking skills".

Now I've come full circle because it's back to cooking for only me and Don.  If this past week is any indication, it will be as it was in the beginning: the two of us putting a meal together.

Certainly there was a point to this?  Absolutely, but I prefer the scenic route to my stories.

After my "observation" that I might not be cooking as much, my children expressed concern that because they had moved, I might mistreat their father by "starving" him....

I have so many reactions to that, too many to list here.  However, I know that I have to convince Sarah and Mikey that their Papa will not go hungry.

Cherub Children, observe......

Move on look-y lous, Nothing to see but good food. No domestic violence here.  Your Papa is doing fine.