Wednesday Night Dinner

Some of you may not know this, but Jim cooks most of our meals. I know, I know, you thought I was a lucky girl BEFORE. Yep, he is amazingly also a fabulous cook who actually enjoys cooking and chooses to be responsible for most of our meals. Its not that I can't cook or don't want to, its just that Jim consistently wants to more than me. (Okay, and yes, after a day at home with our tiny tots I rarely ever "want to".) He slices and sautes and sings and will even swing Tom up on his hip while doing all of the above. He's a very cheerful chef. So, while I do assist at times, I am decidedly out of practice at carrying off a meal all by myself. That, paired with the fact that the only recipes I'm ever interested in seem to be 3 pages long and require a culinary degree, result in a less than stellar cooking "batting average" for me. Plus Jim swears that if left to my own devices I will find a way to use every single dish and pot in the kitchen.

But, feeling a wee bit guilty that I've become a stay-at-home mom who doesn't cook, I seized this evening as a chance to test my abilities. I've actually been building up to this, Monday night I planned a menu and took care of both side dishes while Jim handled the main course (German red cabbage, Spaetzle with mushrooms, and Chicken Schnitzel) and yesterday I prepared a Crock Pot Stew (Hungarian Beef Goulash to go with the leftover red cabbage) entirely on my own (if crock potting is really cooking...). So today, Jim left at 2 pm for a ski trip with his high school guys and in the face of 5 hours before bedtime, I decided cooking a healthy meal would help fill the time.

I found a recipe for Sweet and Sour Turkey Balls and Chinese Fried Rice with Veggies in one of our favorite cooking for kids cookbooks. We had all the ingredients on hand and it was only 3:30. Plenty of time to prepare dinner for the 4:45 target time when Thomas starts to really whine.

So I get started, making turkey meat balls. Those go in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. Had to stop and address pummeling incidents in the front room three times with raw turkey covered hands. Also need to cook the sweet and sour sauce, found the ingredients while carrying Tom on my hip. Check out the fried rice recipe, start a pot of rice, that's another 20 minutes. Dice veggies for rice, steam them for 5 minutes. Fry eggs in saute pan (pan #3). Heat up wok for rice (pan #4). Get turkey balls out of fridge and start frying them in saute pan that previously cooked the egg (ha, take that husband of mine, reusing a pan!!) Somehow the time is now 5:00. Tom has deteriorated into the final stages of hunger (weeping and gnashing of teeth), but I'm feeling encouraged and proud as I survey the stovetop with all four burners working hard at the fantastic meal I'm preparing for my children that includes turkey meatballs with apples and parsley in them, fried rice with egg, edamame, red bell peppers and carrots, and a sauce made from scratch. I proudly take a picture with my phone and text it to my husband. Nevermind that Jack has pulled the entire contents of our two pots and pans cabinets out onto the floor or that Thomas is beside himself and only mildly distracted by holding my cell phone while I hold him on my hip...I'm a regular Julia Child! There is hope for me and my aspirations of true stay-at-home mom excellence!

It is at this point that Thomas tosses my cell phone into the pot of boiling sweet and sour sauce.



Sigh. Domestic Perfection will have to wait for some other day. As will all of my phone calls.

All is not lost, it was a VERY tasty dinner, and both of my children ate it with gusto. And Jim, if you're reading this from the lift line at Brighton, I did wash all eighteen pots and pans that I used.