Honestly, if I had known how much time I would spend preparing and making dinner, I might have given the whole domestic thing a little more thoughtful consideration before I signed on. Or at least I could have put a clause in the marriage vows, perhaps something along the lines of this:
I, Stephanie, take you, Anthony, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, completely exempt from making dinner 300+ nights a year, until death do us part.
I’m feeling funny this morning.
Truthfully, I’m lucky because my hubby helps by shopping for the groceries and helping to clean up said 300+ dinners per year.
But, it goes without saying to those of us who do the cooking, the pressure is STILL on US.
We have to do the most challenging part of all: use our creative energies to determine what exactly will be served EACH NIGHT.
Please understand—I’m not talking about a special occasion dinner; I typically love to design and prepare those types of meals when I entertain. I’m talking about the five or six nights a week that we eat supper together as a family. You know, the monotony of it.
You get to a point where you’re just sick of the whole dinner thing. Being inventive and researching recipes takes so much time. I know. I see my friends pinning their life away on Pinterest, one recipe right after the other. One healthy guacamole recipe at time, one healthy taco and low-carb meal and lemon cheesecake pinned to the boards of “getting healthy” and “yummy desserts” over and over again.
Pin. Pin. Pin. I honestly wonder how many of those pins are ever made.
When people ask the universal question, “If you could have any wish granted, what would it be?”
Gosh, you guys, it’s such an easy one for me. A layup.
I would wish for a freaking chef to make the 300+ meals a year, that’s what I’d wish for. Nothing else even comes close. And I’d want the most innovative, fun-loving, inventive, patient, and energetic chef who took into consideration all of our likes, such as, “I hate when the Brussels sprouts aren’t done enough,” “I get tired of red sauce,” “I don’t like chicken prepared this way,”—all quotes from my darling family members that I’ve heard at one time or another. This magic chef would, of course, get it just right every time. If she could pull that off, it would be one of the most amazing miracles ever witnessed, on par with Moses’ parting of the Red Sea.
Like right now, I’m already thinking about dinner for the weekend and week ahead.
What’s up with that?
Hope I run into you at a local restaurant sometime soon.
Stephanie
Stephanie Verni is Professor of Business Communication at Stevenson University and is the author of Inn Significant, Baseball Girl, and Beneath the Mimosa Tree. Along with her colleagues Leeanne Bell McManus and Chip Rouse, she is a co-author of Event Planning: Communicating Theory and Practice, published by Kendall-Hunt.
Share this:
