Friday, December 21, 2012

Mama's Little Baby Loves Short'nin Bread

I'm an indifferent cook. I can pull together a few things, but ultimately the grinding reality of three meals a day, seven days a week, month after month after month after month, makes me want to lie down and call the Thai place. Intermittently, this bothers me and I rouse myself for up to a week at a time before sliding back into the entropy of veggie burritos. In between my sparks of conscience, this failing on my part periodically bothers the child. Recently, for several days in a row, she brandished recipes at me. I'm not completely without wit. Eyes squinted, I said "You want me to cook like Aunt Laura, don't you?"

(The kid's aunt is one of those graceful people whose family eats well all the time and she's such a wretch that she doesn't even brag about it.)

"Well..." she hedged, and then nimbly turned the subject back to the card in her hand.
"Look! Only four ingredients!"

"You're right," I said, glancing over the recipe, "In fact, you could make this yourself. You're old enough. I'd be there to assist, but you could start making a dinner a week."

Daughter looked at me, at the recipe, at the stove.

"See," she said, after a beat, "I like thinking about cooking more than I actually like cooking."

I grabbed her and hugged her close. I started to speak, and cleared my throat.

"I know, baby. I know. Let me show you where the Thai restaurant card is."

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, my, I am so, SO with you on this! I think I am easily the let´s-see-how-many-different-ways-we-can-stuff-a-tortilla-shell winner. The girls are 3 and 4. Too early to get them to cook for us one night a week?!
Jillian

2:35 AM  
Blogger njanehair said...

LOL. You are not alone.

6:57 AM  
Anonymous Robin Raven said...

I'm with you, too. Going from vegetarian to vegan and going back to my hometown for a while meant that I had to learn to cook a few things, but thinking about it is so much nicer than actually doing it.

12:04 AM  

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