when i was a little girl - i remember my mom cooking dinner after i got home from school and we all ate dinner together when my dad got home around 5:30. . .this may or may not be accurate - i'll have to follow-up with my mom.
i also don't remember her yelling or freaking out or seeming to not enjoy this nightly ritual. . .i wonder what my children will remember?
i can cook - well, i can follow a recipe if i have the right ingredients and equipment. john, on the other hand is a wonderful cook. as fate would have it though - i am the one that's home at a reasonable time to cook dinner - so the job falls to me. and john, bless his heart - NEVER complains about what i make (remind me to tell you the salty shells story sometime).
in order to make this less of a stressful nightmare for me. . .i like to menu plan on Sunday nights. i take out some cookbooks, the grocery store circular and paper. from those, i plan at least 4 dinners and make a grocery list. friday night is our standard take out night and our weekend schedules are too varied to plan, the food usually gets wasted.
now i'm religious about it - if i have the ingredients on hand for the week, i'm okay with switching up the days and stuff like that. but i have a sense of control when i get home after work and the kids are off the wall and its time ot make dinner. some nights turn out better than others. it's a learning process.
what are some of your tricks to make this process run more smoothly?
catch you soon -
Like you - - I remember having dinner together as a family at about 5:30 and I remember it running pretty smoothly. But our household has 4 boys - boys who need to learn to cook. I just started a new chore - which is "Sous Chef". Each of our boys has to sign up for a night, he comes to the kitchen while I am preparing dinner and he learns how to cook. It has been a great thing and no matter what the meal is - there is always something to do.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had such happy memories of dinner. We always seemed to be running from somewhere or dad was missing or something.
ReplyDeleteNow I definitely remember good dinners at my grandmother's house. I can still smell the roast beef and taste the mashed potatoes. I had an honored seat at my grand father's right hand. That was pretty cool.
Nowadays we eat pretty well and I am very happy for that. The kids are pretty good at helping get the table set and moving along. I hate the grocery flyer and coupon thing, but it's a fact of life.