{"id":59,"date":"2016-04-14T14:13:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lifetransparent\/?p=59"},"modified":"2016-04-14T16:32:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:32:39","slug":"cooking-and-lack-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lifetransparent\/2016\/04\/cooking-and-lack-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking, and Lack of."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You know those people who know how to make everything taste a little better?<\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019m not one of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I can\u2019t cook or don\u2019t enjoy it. There are certainly parts of it that I enjoy, and food that, on occasion my entire family actually eats. \u00a0But the process of figuring out what to make, when to make it, and finding all of the ingredients is still daunting.<\/p>\n

Some time ago, one of my online mom groups conducted a survey. Given the choice, would we choose a full-time housekeeper, or a chef?\u00a0What I found surprising, was that the choice of cleaner or cook was fairly even. And more often than not, a mom who struggled with cleaning found cooking to be a breeze. Those who struggled with cooking didn\u2019t seem to have the issues with mountains of laundry and squalor conditions.<\/p>\n

Maybe we aren\u2019t so different after all?<\/p>\n

Whenever we have dinner guests over, I always ask my husband what I should make, trying to take extra effort for company. We always seem to go back to the same 3 or 4 recipes. Recipes, which are, incidentally, all recipes given to us by other people. So maybe therein lies the problem. Maybe the cooking thing is that I just don\u2019t know how to pick recipes? Maybe I just need to find the best cooks and glean their top dinners?<\/p>\n

\"dinner\"
Photo property of Mallory Severson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not quite so easy. The thing is, that Wonder Dinner might happen once a week. Maybe even twice; only if I\u2019ve planned really well. But, things falls apart pretty quickly after that. I get burned out, or need to go to the store again. Or, I\u2019ve planned a great main course, but have nothing for a side.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an episode of Mad Men where Don Draper travels to California with a group of people. They tell him they\u2019re going to eat Mexican food, and asks if he\u2019s ever had it. He says no. Apparently this is isn\u2019t too far-fetched, that a middle-aged man, in the 1950\u2019s-60\u2019s New York, would never have eaten Mexican food. I love Chimichangas and guacamole as much as the next girl, but it definitely made me think that years ago, cooking was a much simpler affair. Listening to those who cooked during that era, meal planning and dinner wasn\u2019t the stress it is today. I\u2019ve heard a few families who\u2019ve said that they grew up eating essentially the same dinner every night.<\/p>\n

The pressure is so different now. My weekly dinner arsenal often contains meals like sesame chicken, enchiladas, or a thai curry dish. I also make lasagnas, stroganoff, and simple baked chicken breasts. Gone are the days of beef and potatoes every night. Although, I usually fit that in twice a month, too. Whenever I think we should invest in premade meal planning menus, I always balk. Half of it doesn\u2019t sound good to me, and the other half I know the kids wouldn\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so we continue our meals of quasi-ethnic food, sprinkled in with the occasional Costco chicken alfredo, or what we affectionately refer to as \u201cDad\u2019s Cooking,\u201d which consists of whatever Take-Out we ask him to bring home.<\/p>\n

Having ingredients like Cardamom or fish sauce in my pantry doesn\u2019t make me a better cook, or even a good cook. It means someone shared a great recipe that I thought my family liked, and I learned how to make it. I hope I add more dinners to my meager list. So much of family life revolves around shared meals, and togetherness. There\u2019s nothing quite like amazing food to bring loved ones together, and I\u2019d rather be excited, not intimated, by the family gathered round.<\/p>\n

One can try!<\/p>\n

Here are two recipes that have complex flavors, but are loved by every member of the family.<\/p>\n

Beef Stroganoff\u00a0<\/a> (No one in the family likes to eat mushrooms that are visible. I chop up my mushrooms as small as I can. Problem solved!)<\/p>\n

Thai Peanut Chicken\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0We love a little spice, and the kids do, too. This is often a \u201cbirthday dinner\u201d at our house.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know those people who know how to make everything taste a little better? Yeah, I\u2019m not one of them. It\u2019s not that I can\u2019t cook or don\u2019t enjoy it. There are certainly parts of it that I enjoy, and food that, on occasion my entire family actually eats. \u00a0But the process of figuring out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":70,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22,23,5,17,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-tears","category-cooking","category-domestic-failure","category-motherhood","category-overwhelmed","category-recipes"],"yoast_head":"\nCooking, and Lack of.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You know those people who know how to make everything taste a little better? Yeah, I'm not one of them. 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