Last night as we were sitting down for dinner...my sweet husband made a comment...
"Dinner made...two nights in a row! Yes!"...
"uh...yeah...."...I was speechless (somewhat)
The kids were happy chowing down on my delicious meal...
Stroganoff with noodles....yummy...
For our FHE dessert I made Crispy Oatmeal cookies...They're oh soo good...(I'm eating one as I type away...) I had a very happy family...
That evening I was thinking of how my cooking abilities have improved over the past 14 years. Prior to getting married at age 21, the only thing I could make was Chef Boyardee from a can..(gag) My parents divorced when I was a teen and I chose to live with dad, so all the cooking was done by my him. We had a variety of 4 dishes he knew tasted good and were somewhat nutritious...Thanks dad! My mom wasn't much of a cook...she was always asked to bring a salad to family functions...if you ever talk to Brent...ask him to tell you the scrambled eggs story...All I have to say about that is...I dodged that bullet...
I have to brag for a moment...I have the most fabulous mother-in-law in the world! After Brent and I were engaged, she was kind enough to ask if I wanted to learn how to cut a whole chicken. As I stared at the little germ beast I almost started to gag...was I actually going to have to touch the slimy thing...yes...eww....
"Linda, it's slimy...I don't know if I can do this..." I said (Brent gave me strange look)
"Anna, you can use a paper towel if you want...that might help...now you need to remember to get the guts out of it...you don't want to cook the bag that's in there...okay?" Linda said.
"ewww....this is soo gross..."...I think I had a tear trickling ...I tried to be the brave soon to be wife...more gagging sounds....
"Can't we just buy chicken that's already cut up and skinned? I know they sell them...I've seen them at the store..."
"You could, but they're a lot more expensive...triple the price" Linda said.
"We'll be buying the whole chickens Anna...we'll be really poor while I go to school"...brent said..
"oh" was all I could muster up. Will I really be poor and have to cut up whole chickens? ...I wanted to cry...
Once we were married and moved into our apartment in Provo, Linda paid us a visit from California. I'm not sure what the occasion was...but I was excited to see her again...
For breakfast I broke out my handy dandy cookbook I got as a wedding gift...
Scrambled eggs...hmm...how hard could it be to make...the instructions were simple...yeah...I could totally make this...I'm such a great wife and daughter-in-law...(were my thoughts...)...
Oh no! I don't think scrambled eggs are supposed to be swimming in butter! I put too much butter! sniffle..sniffle...I swear the recipe said 4 Tablespoons of butter! Ahhh!!!! More sniffles...Don't cry Anna ...I say to myself...
In comes my super hero mother-in-law Linda...Yes!.....
"I can make breakfast Anna...don't worry...things like this happen"...my super hero said...she's so nice....I'm so glad I married into such a fabulous family...
I remember thinking ...what must she think of me...does she think I will starve her poor son by him not wanting to eat my cooking? Poor Brent...I almost killed his mouth with my chili just a few months prior...and it came from a CAN!!! I tasted the can version, then I thought I'd give it a little more punch by adding chili powder to it...hmm..like 2 TABLESPOONS (maybe more)...
After we got married, we lived with Natalie (Brent's sister) and Paul..and cute little Davis. We lived with them for about a month since our apartment was still being occupied. Long story. While we lived at Nat and Paul's....Nat always made great dinners. I remember her asking me to help out with her chicken taquitos. All I had to do was spray the pan with Pam. That sounded totally easy. I started spraying...I wanted to get every bit of that pan covered. (I never came in contact with Pam before)...It was like I was spray painting the pan. It was dripping.
"Oh...Anna...it just needs light spraying" Natalie said...she was so sweet about it....she became my favorite sister-in-law that moment. She's so patient with me. I don't think I was asked to spray a pan again...I wonder why? ...Nat was my second super hero in the kitchen..
Staying at Nat and Paul's helped me get a glimpse of how a family should be... something that was somewhat foreign to my newlywed self...I don't think they know how big of an impression they left...I feel it a blessing that we were able to stay in their home...that I was able to get a hint of what was to come once we started our family...they will forever hold a special place in my heart.....here I go again...gettting sidetracked....
Well my cooking abilities have greatly improved since my newlywed days...I can't say that I love cooking (especially dinners)...but I can say that I adore baking. Pies are my specialty actually...Cookies are my second best...but where's the presentation to that?
I now have an eleven year old that loves to cook. She loves to help out and I should be better at including her in preparing meals. I don't want her starting out as cooking being a foreign ability as I did. Perhaps...
We'll work on that this summer...
