Text 9803, 108 rader
Skriven 2008-06-29 23:09:59 av Nancy Backus (1:3634/12.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly
Ärende: I Lived Through It ...
==============================
-=> Quoting Ruth Haffly to Nancy Backus on 06-27-08 14:12 <=-

 RH>> You really did it up good!  Did your husband turn into a pretty decent
 RH>> cook over the time you were off your feet?  Even more important--did
 RH>> he learn to clean up after his cooking? (G)
 NB>> He's a decent cook anyway... but he really doesn't like to cook... so

 RH> Most guys learn a bit for bachelor survival; some go deeper into real
 RH> cooking. Others are content to stay with the bare minimum, making
 RH> friends with take out,fast food and the microwave.
 
He's learned more than enough for bachelor survival... but I doubt he'd
overcome his dislike of cooking.  Many's the time I've asked (and
received good) advice from him on something I was trying to tweak, but
he doesn't normally offer it unasked.  He's made friends with the
microwave, and discovered low-heat oven cooking, but isn't keen on most
fast food... and "take out" is generally only Asian leftovers...  ;)

 NB>> we had a lot of Marie Callendars (which at least are quite decent),

 RH> Those are rather high in the sodium department. Their ads feature
 RH> "just like grandma used to make"  but I guess in grandma's day, a
 RH> higher amount of salt in the diet was the norm.

They are* fairly high in sodium... sometimes we've had one that is just
WAY too salty for us... but in comparison to other "TV dinner" types
(not counting all the Diet Types), they aren't too bad...  Neither of us
is on a restricted sodium diet, we just cut back on our own for the
usual cooking...  so we figure that the rest of the day tends to balance
things out...  :)

 NB>> The best food that anyone brought in was the dim sum that my friend
 NB>> got from Cantonese House.  She brought us enough to last for 3 days.

 RH> That does sound like it was a treat.

It was indeed.  :)

 RH> When Rachel had an ectopic pregnancy 3 years ago, we flew in from HI
 RH> to help her for a few weeks. The other officer wives in David's unit
 RH> (he was in the Air Force at the time) sent or brought a week's worth of
 RH> food the first week we were there.  Quite often, it was more than one
 RH> meal's worth. One of the best dishes was a chicken curry; I asked
 RH> Rachel, but she never was able to get the recipe.

A "week's worth" of meals seems to usually be enough for close to 2
weeks, maybe more... especially if the person making it has a larger
family than you... (G)  When people brought in meals for my sister when
she had babies, though, they had a large enough family themselves that
it more often was just enough for the one meal... she now has 10 kids.

 RH> As in it could have been used for a door stop. I usually cooked my
 RH> macaroni, put it in a casserole dish, made the cheese sauce (not
 RH> following a recipe) and mixed it with the macaroni.  Then I'd nuke it
 RH> for a couple of minutes to even out the temperature.  Rachel and
 RH> Deborah followed a recipe for the cheese sauce; it ended up thinner
 RH> than mine. They'd seen me microwave the dish and figured that was what
 RH> thickened the sauce so............they kept giving it more time in
 RH> hopes the sauce would thicken.  About 20 minute into it, Steve came
 RH> home and rescued them.

Can't really fault their reasoning too much, though...  :)  I'm lazy
enough that I don't make a sauce, I just stir shredded cheese into the
hot drained macaroni, and serve it when it's nicely melted through... :)

 RH> If you saw one of my notes to Carol about my mom going to summer
 RH> school--she went to SUC Geneseo while we lived in the Catskills. Too
 RH> far to commute. (G) I'm the 2nd oldest, first girl of 5 kids. My older

Yeah I can see where it would be a wee bit far...  :)

 RH> brother got a job where he was home on week ends so most of the time I
 RH> didn't have to deal with his criticism.  He did lay it on, as did the
 RH> other siblings, when he could. During the school year, I had to cook

I don't recall a lot of criticizing of each other's cooking when we were
growing up... probably because we were just taking turns making the
"tried and true" stuff, just like we'd been shown/taught by Daddy or
Mommy... You generally couldn't tell who'd done the cooking just by the
food, or the menu, for that matter...

 RH> once a week as my mom took night classes at SUC Oneonta.  We did share
 RH> some of the chores but even if I cooked (as I did most meals), if my
 RH> name came up on the clean up rotation, I had to do my part. But, it
 RH> ended up being a good learning experience in the long run.

Every family has their own ways of divviing up the chores.  And it's
probably best (or at least more useful) when the kids DO have to learn
how to do things... saves having to learn from scratch once one is out
on one's own... :)
 
 NB>> ... Chopped cabbage....it's not just a good idea... it's the SLAW!

 RH> We always compare cole slaw we get when we eat out to the one my MIL
 RH> taught me how to make; it's our gold standard (it uses pineapple,
 RH> cabbage and carrot).  Sadly few measure up to it.  I tried a new
 RH> recipe earlier this week; my MIL had told me that she uses it now vs
 RH> the other one.  To make it short--we like her original one far better &
 RH> will continue to hold it as our favorite/standard slaw.

Did she change recipes for dietary reasons?  Or was it just for
variety...?  The original one sounds good... :)

ttyl        neb

... It is a difficult matter to argue with the belly since it has no ears.

 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)