Danger Danger – Husband in the Kitchen!

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim

Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah

Okay, so today I worked. I usually go to the office on Sundays and do eBay, leaving the children in the care of Daddy. So far it has worked out okay. I come home to the same number of children that were there when I left and they all call me “Mommy”. Usually I’m home around four or so, in time to make dinner. When they are with Daddy, they eat a lot of cereal, apples, more cereal…

Today, I went in late (hubby’s fault), and consequently came home later than usual. In my absence, hubby tried to make dinner. Now, I give him an “E” for effort, but evidently the execution was lacking. He was upset because he spent “two hours” (husband time meaning approximately fifteen minutes with two potty breaks) making food and no one, not even his father, wanted to eat it. What gourmet meal did he slave over?

He boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, and chopped some parsely. Then he cut up the veggies and put them in a bowl. He looked for vinegar but did not find any. He failed to call me to ask where the vinegar was (in the cabinet next to the pickles). He mashed up the potatoes and carrots, added the chopped parsley, and then added some lemon juice. He made some rice. He had some leftover fried chicken that he chopped up fine for his father, who can only eat soft food. That’s it. That’s the two-hour kitchen marathon. He offered this fare to his father, who decided he was not hungry. He offered this to his children, who decided they’d rather go play out in the yard and eat dirt. He tried some himself and eventually just gave it up as a bad effort. My oldest son escaped to his friend’s house. The friend had chicken nuggets. The other boys had toast and jelly. The baby ate a few saltines.

When I came home, wan hungry faces gazed up at me. Rather than doing what I had planned to do (potty break, sit down and rest my probably broken toe and read and watch a Nascar race), I headed straight to the kitchen. I was able to “repair” the potato “salad” by adding some olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I made a gravy for the rice with some leftover chicken stock, opened a can of vegetarian baked beans, tossed some frozen fried chicken in the oven, and voila! after 45 minutes dinner was on the table. Everyone ate, and had room left for watermelon.

The blessing is that hubby did not make too big a mess in the kitchen. Usually it looks like a disaster area when he’s been in there. Hard to believe this man used to run two restaurants and room service for a major hotel. Well, there he had STAFF. Ah, well, no one starved and I did eventually get a potty break. No Nascar race, though; it got delayed due to rain. It will be run at noon tomorrow, inshAllah, so I’ll be there watching while I scrub the Oreo cookie residue off the floor. I was going to do that tonight but one feverish toddler and a restless baby have kept me running back and forth. I’m surprised I was able to write this all at one go. Perhaps everyone is down for the count. I’ll try to sneak off to bed now.

Have a lovely evening, or day, or morning, or whatever it is in your time zone. Hug your hubby if you have one and if he’s like mine, if you have to go run errands and leave him with the kids, give him strict instructions to let the kids have all the cereal they want and DON’T go into the kitchen.