This last Thursday I had a busy day with work in the morning, my middle girls team practice, and then River Valley Toastmaters meeting in the evening. All of this meant no naps and somewhere between gymnastics, the meeting and bed I got macaroni and cheese, and then later meatloaf my husband loves so much. You see we have a rule in our house: My husband usually does all the cooking. I learned early he did not my cooking and will rarely eat anything that does not not come in the package of ground beef, steak, or anything from cow. Personally, I am a chicken, pasta with creamy sauce kind of gal. I also like the taste of meat that has a sweet taste, like pork.
The fact that I do not cook dinner all started soon after my then fiancé now husband of 17 years, moved in together 18 years ago this August. I had really never cooked much before because my family mostly went out to eat after my parent's had a long day at work and really did not want to cook so out to dinner, somewhere like Coco's, Polly's Pies, Chinese Food, or something similar but nothing fancy. I thus only knew how to cook macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, pork chops (Shake 'N Bake), and tacos. I also learned how to do Polska Kilbasa with fettuccine Alfredo (from a box). I did not even know really how to make spaghetti sauce (and the fact is I never liked the stuff in the first place didn't help). Therefore every night my fiancé would come home after I would go to bed so he could eat whatever little he could tolerate of my inability to cook and throw away the rest (I'm convinced) without me feeling to bad. Yes, I knew his tricks and even now I also know when he is subjected to my cooking or something new (or sweet) for dinner the faces he makes sometimes make me cringe. Therefore, my husband pretty quickly in our relationship together got the chore of cooking dinner his way with the caveat that I will tolerate most anything (but his tomato based ground beef spaghetti sauce). Heck, eating to me is something I see as a necessity to stay alive and healthy not something to enjoy so he got the task. You will never see me binge eating or eating when I am depressed that is for sure
If and when I get to cook it usually means it involves my kids and I eating something like macaroni and cheese (the easy way out -- from the Kraft box) with broccoli (for my son and myself). The result of this is that we call it T.V. dinner night because that is exactly what my husband gets to eat because, yes, you guessed it, he won't touch the pasta with cheesy cream sauce with a ten foot poll. I love to cook with my kids but know that we must usually make sure that my husband(their dad) is busy with work or has something else available to eat so we can enjoy our food without the unusual smacking of lips at the dinner table by their dad. This means yes bacon and any other pork product is right out if we want to have a dinner where at least he does not complain, in his own special way.
Don't get me wrong I love my husband but I will kindly give up cooking just to have peace between the two of us and make him enjoy eating. The fact now is that the kids often times complain that we never have anything new although that usually comes from the fact that my husband does not have time to learn new recipes because he has a full-time job as a professor who will actually put in more than 60 hours a week to bring in the money so that we can have the lifestyle we enjoy. The thing we try and remind our kids often is that they will get a chance once they are out of our house and have a place of their own that they will be able to have whatever they want and switch up their menus as often as they like and have the time to do just that.
To tie this to the blog itself I shall end by saying that our household is like any other no difference just because I have cerebral palsy. Dinners are still a big deal and sometimes become contentious just because of what we decide to cook in the evening.
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