LEARNING TO BE A HOUSEWIFE

When I was in Florida during the month of November, I had plenty of opportunities to work in the kitchen. Sometimes it was cleaning up after one of the sisters had cooked, sometimes I did the cooking myself. But the most interesting times for me were when all three of us sisters were cooking at the same time.

We all have different styles and ideas about cooking and we are all pretty strong minded women. So, while we all tolerated each other extremely well, it was obvious at least to me that this was just another area in which we are different.

BJ and MA are more alike in their "kitchen views" but they cook most of their meals at home whereas the genius and I are likely to eat out several times a week. Both sisters are excellent cooks, but at the same time, they are very smart shoppers, buying sale items, etc. Also, they don't waste a thing, saving leftovers, recycling ziplock backs, and washing and reusing disposable cups. Everything they do in the kitchen is designed to be tasty and healthy and doing so with the least expenditure.

And then I step into the picture. My cooking philosophy is to make the food taste as delicious as I can and I do it lavishly. My grocery basket is always filled with real butter, real cream, meats straight from the butcher, extra thick paper towels, and nothing low fat. (The other day we ran out of butter at home and the genius asked me if I had any other "spreads" in the refrigerator. I said, "Absolutely not!") So my grocery bill is always higher than theirs.

After 48 years of cooking for the genius, I have also learned to make plenty of whatever I'm making. That's another way I am different from my sisters. BJ and MA tend to cut back on the servings for their husbands because they don't "need" it, while my feeling is to give them as much as they want. Chun laughingly says that MA is "always telling me what I need!" If I don't give the genius as much as he wants he just goes to the pantry and eats something else in addition to the meal.

Well, I am happy to report that I learned something from them while watching them cook in Florida. For one thing, I save the leftovers and have them for lunch the next day. Also, I have begun to buy my groceries from Walmart and am saving a bundle. And I'm cooking more and eating out less. And best of all, I finally learned from BJ how to whip up good cornbread. I've probably cooked it 4 or 5 times since I've been back. The genius loves all these changes!

I may yet become a good house frau!!