I know I talk alot about food on this blog. Some of you may not think it really relates to anything but it does.
First let me explain a bit. Suppertime was really our only time together most days. I worked days and he worked nights for all except the last 2 years together. The last 2 years he worked very early mornings (3:30 AM) and as a result was going to bed at 7 pm at that point. To further point out how important supper was to us, I worked Monday - Friday. When he worked nights, he worked Sunday - Thursday. At that time, that meant we really only had Friday nights and Saturday together. Then for a while he was working a second job on Friday afternoon/evening (3pm-11pm), so then we only had Saturday together. For the job he worked early mornings, he worked Tuesday - Saturday. That meant we only really had Sunday together.
So meal time was important to us. We both liked to eat good food. We have a few favorite restaurants and when we lived in the village we spent more time going to our favorite restaurants. Here where we live now, everything is further away. Some people (you know who you are) say "oh it's not that far away" but it was when we had a limited time. So, we learned to cook good (yet easy) meals. In some cases, our meals were better than any restaurant. We came to not really miss going to restaurants because we could always have a good, (better!) meal at home.
Now, perhaps that spoiled me a bit. I have come to dislike processed food with a passion. I have come to the point where I will actually starve rather than eat something less tasty.
I still like to cook. I only have 2 criteria for recipes. It must be easy to make, and it must taste good.
The problem is, I hate to do the dishes. Our dishwasher still runs but it doesn't clean. So that means I'm doing everything by hand until the kitchen gets renovated (and that's another post right there)
So tonight, I was tempted to call for pizza because I really didn't feel like cleaning up. I had already done several days worth of dishes this afternoon. I really did not want to dirty more.
But I really did not want pizza.
Finally I decided that I would just go ahead and make dinner.
I made apple pork chops, baby potatoes and corn on the cob. It was delicious. Problem: the dishes I had to dirty to make this yummy and easy-to-make meal.
I made a point of keeping track of all the dishes I dirtied for this meal:
container to defrost the porkchops
cutting board for potato and apple
cutting board for meat (I thought it was 2 porkchops but it was one HUGE porkchop so I cut it in half)
knife for cutting potato
paring knife for apple
fork to hold raw pork chop while cutting
knife to cut raw porkchop in half
small frying pan for apple mixture
medium frying pan for porkchops
2 small pans & their lids for potatos and corn
spoon for brown sugar
knife for butter
ladle because I put too much water in the potatoes and it began to over flow.
a plate to put it all on
a fork to eat it with
a knife to cut cooked porkchop into bite size pieces
a spatula to mix apple and to flip porkchops
a strainer to strain the potatoes
a bowl to collect scraps (I like to pretend I'm Rachel Ray sometimes. lol)
and this doesn't even include the containers I'll need for the leftovers.
Simple meal. Easy to make. Just too many dishes.
Which is one of the reasons I was so looking forward to getting our kitchen done this year. I really need a new working dishwasher. But again I will leave that for another post.
On my other blog, I used to post menu plans. We weren't always good at sticking with them but most of the time we did. For a while I even posted pictures of some of our meals to use for future menu plan posts. I thought I had a photo of the apple porkchops but I don't, at least not on there.
But if you want to, you can see some of our menus here.
The sad thing is though, the last few months he was home, we were eating alot of crap food because he was often recovering from one surgery or another. So, between him being in pain, and sometimes I was tired after work or I was taking him to his doctors appointments or radiation appointments so there wasn't time to cook a good meal. I feel bad that he didn't get to enjoy some of his favorite foods. When he was in the hospital, I offered to bring him some good food from home but he began to lose his taste buds quickly and for a while he was unable to eat solids at all. He often said to me that if he can't even enjoy food what's the point. I think it was bad enough being in the hospital and becoming paralyzed, but he could "deal" with that. Losing his taste buds was not something he was able to deal with. Not only was he losing his ability to taste, but his arms and hands were too weak to cut up food and some days it was a real chore for him to feed himself, though stubborn as he was he wouldn't let me help (except to cut up some of it).
I doubt very many people are still reading this blog, and I know I'm boring those of you who still read to tears. I don't mean to come off as a big fat whiner but I need to get my thoughts out of my head, and this is the best way to do so.
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5 comments:
I think I would miss driving with Ryan - I hate to cook, so I don't relate in the same way as you to Bryan and food. My special times with Ryan have always been driving around. We started dating before we could actually drive, so when we started driving, that represented freedom and was the only time we could be alone, unsupervised :) so we would drive and talk (yes, that is drive and talk - no parking involved!!). When we were in Edmonton we didn't have a vehicle and we both missed being able to go for a drive to talk about what was going on with Kaity - a couple of times we rented a vehicle and let me tell you, we used every one of those free miles! Now with the kids being around interupting all the time, and being out here without trusted babysitters, the only time we generally have to talk is while we are driving somewhere (and then only if we can convince the older two to both sit in the very back where they can't hear us!!) So for me, mealtime would suck because I hate to cook, but that wouldn't be that big a change because I hate to cook now - the big change would be not being able to go for a drive and just talk. Now I realize you may be thinking to yourself "who cares what you would miss, you don't have to miss it because your dh is still around" and you are absolutely right. I know I'm lucky to have the family I have, but the only way I can think of to let you know that I care and am thinking of you is to tell you how I relate to your pain - I know I don't know what it's like, nobody does. I wish there were words that could make things even a tiny bit better. I really do feel for you. I wish that you were cleaning up the supper dishes for Bryan and Tyla.
You do whatever you have to in order for your heart to heal...no apologies necessary!
Hugs --
Do what ever you need to do to feel better.
I don't like doing dishes either, but I also feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I do cook meals and that ends up out weighing the torture I feel in doing dishes. ☺
You have to take the good with the bad.
See Ter, we have these conversations all the time, sometimes I think you make things WAY too complicated. Here's what you used:
container to defrost the porkchops
cutting board for potato and apple
cutting board for meat (I thought it was 2 porkchops but it was one HUGE porkchop so I cut it in half)
knife for cutting potato
paring knife for apple
fork to hold raw pork chop while cutting
knife to cut raw porkchop in half
small frying pan for apple mixture
medium frying pan for porkchops
2 small pans & their lids for potatos and corn
spoon for brown sugar
knife for butter
ladle because I put too much water in the potatoes and it began to over flow.
a plate to put it all on
a fork to eat it with
a knife to cut cooked porkchop into bite size pieces
a spatula to mix apple and to flip porkchops
a strainer to strain the potatoes
a bowl to collect scraps (I like to pretend I'm Rachel Ray sometimes. lol)
Here's what I would have done:
1) bowl to defrost the porkchops
2) cutting board for potato and apple, then cut meat on the same board once I was done, put in sink to soak
3) knife for cutting potato and apple. Once cut, use same knife for pork chop, no fork, that's what fingers are for.
4) small frying pan for apple mixture (I wuold have tried to do both in the same pan, but I don't know your recipe, and I don't know if I could get away with it)
5) medium frying pan for porkchops
6) 2 small pans & their lids for potatos and corn
7) spoon for brown sugar (might have used fingers though, or just wiped the spoon and put it back)
8) knife for butter
9) I would have dumped out potato water, not ladle it.
10) a plate to put it all on
11) a fork to eat it with
12) a knife to cut cooked porkchop into bite size pieces (would have used the same knife as I used for butter)
13) a spatula to mix apple and to flip porkchops (would use the same one for all)
14) a strainer to strain the potatoes (I maybe would have dug it out.)
15) Nope! Garbage can! a bowl to collect scraps (I like to pretend I'm Rachel Ray sometimes. lol)
Well, it looks like I only cut out two things... but still.
you need a one pot meal recipe book!
Now you've gone and made me think about dishes. thanks. :-P
HUGS, I know it's hard, throw out half your dishes so that you can't use them all and make huge piles. :-P
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