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10/23/2006
I checked the weather forecast for this upcoming week and I am under the impression that it will be awfully cold here for several days. Monday calls 10- to 15-mph winds, temps in the 50s with lows in the 30s at night, and a chance of frost. I'm thinking that a pleasing meal for my family Monday night after enduring such cold winds and temps will be a nice homemade stew by yours truly. I am the main chef of the house. I plan and cook all of our greatest meals 7 days a week, 365 days a year. My husband and our children just beam with joy when they find out I am cooking steak and gravy with a side of mashed potatoes and mac n' cheese. Their mouths water with anticipation when they find out I am cooking homemade fried chicken, potatoes, and asparagus casserole. Their tongue hangs out of their mouth when they walk in and smell my homemade beef and vegetable soup simmering.
My mother never taught me how to cook, nor did she teach me anything about the kitchen other than how to read the instructions on the back of a Hungry Man frozen dinner. I ate a lot of those in my teenage years after mom's divorce, as she had no use for cooking anymore. As far as my mother was concerned, if there wasn't a man in the house, there was no need to break out the pots and pans to cook anything on the stove. The stove was just "decoration" in our house. My sister and I would eat frozen dinners or cereal for supper, rather than sit down to a hot homemade meal made by our mother like most families were sitting down to in those days. We learned to fend for ourselves at suppertime, and never to ask our mother for her time in the kitchen cooking us a healthy, hot meal. If we ever did a meal on a plate instead of a cardboard tray, it was when our mother was entertaining a male companion that she desperately wanted to impress with her cooking talent. Oh yes, our mother could cook, she just didn't do it for us. LOL!! I can't tell you how wonderful my mother used to be in the kitchen... That woman could follow a recipe and have it turn out perfect! She could create anything from an idea and have it taste magnificent! Our mother just wouldn't cook if she didn't have to, and my sister and I were old enough to know how to press the buttons on the microwave, so she didn't bother with "real food" when we could eat "frozen food."
I am a mother now and I know the importance of a hot homemade meal. My children only eat items cooked in the microwave if it's lunchtime, if I'm sick, or if they prefer to eat something other than what I've prepared. They might even use the microwave to heat-up leftovers from supper the night before, but they rarely ever cook anything in the microwave due to the fact that I prefer not to cook. Of all things "motherly" I suppose cooking is the one thing I'm good at. I believe everyone in my home should sit down to a real meal and go to bed with a full stomach; no one goes hungry here. LOL!!
Well off I go to bed as it is early in the AM and I've got a busy day ahead. It's 12:58AM and I must be up at 6 to get the children off to school. Halloween is not too far away now and I've got an entire costume for my daughter to put together. She is very excited about Halloween this year, but she doesn't know that we won't be taking her door-to-door for candy. We are planning our own little celebration here with candy, treats, and scarey movies. I'm sure she, as well as the other children, will love what we have planned for them. Who could possibly turn down a nice quiet evening at home with lots of treats and candy without having to move so much as an inch in the cold weather? Definitely not me! LOL!!
