I told this story to a few friends on the web and they said it belongs here on the blog so here we go.

My hubby is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, seriously! He has always been there for me since our first date many years ago and as he says he would give up his life for me……….I and others who know him don’t doubt that. How I ever got so lucky to find someone like him I will never know, what I do know is that he doesn’t belong in my kitchen!

He is a neat nut and I am a slob to put it mildly……seriously I will never be accused of being tidy or organized, but the chaos in my home is all straight in my mind. I can find anything I am looking for in a second if no one else has moved or “put it away” for me. Really, DON’T try to organize me or my house, if you do you will send me over the edge! Come to see me NOT my house and we will get along well, don’t try to convert me to your ways and I won’t try to make you a nut like me.

Now onto hubby and me in the same kitchen.

We had been married about 2 years at the time and we had invited people over to eat. Hubby decided he would help seeing as we also had our first son by then and I was a very busy young working mom. I planned on making a beautiful roast (that we really couldn’t afford at the time) and had everything going along really well. We had a tiny little attic apartment back then and not 2 feet of spare space in it. Hubby, having just come out of the Army was all about organization, he used to scrub the woodwork with an old toothbrush every week back then, he carried it so far that everytime he would change a diaper the baby got a bath, poor Chris he had the driest skin of any baby you ever saw until I made the pediatrician have a talk with hubby.

On the day of the dinner I took the roast out of the oven and set it aside to rest. I poured the drippings from the pan into a fat separator and set it aside while I set about getting the side dishes ready. Then I assembled the rest of what I needed to make the sauce for the meat. Everything was going along great and then I went to reach for the juices, they were gone! Hubby with his Army ways and proficiency had decided to throw that “stuff” in the funny cup away and wash the container and put it away. He was always doing that, he would follow me around and clean up everything that I touched. I would get out a cutting board and put a knife on it then go to the fridge to get whatever it was I was going to cut up and by the time I got everything ready, the cutting board and the knife were washed and put away.

But back to the dinner, it came off great although the guests thought the meat really would have been better with some kind of sauce on it. After they left I almost brained him, really I was chasing him thru the apartment. He thought I was being a little mean to him because after all his family never had any kind of sauce with anything they ate so he couldn’t see the big deal in any of it.

The next time he saw that fat separator on the counter you can bet he didn’t touch it, and over the years he now looks for some kind of sauce or gravy with everything, he doesn’t even remember a time he thought it was something unnessesary. It has taken me years however to break him of the habit of following me around and washing everything in sight before I am done using it………..I think it might be because our kitchen is really too small (with all my clutter) for more than one person to fit in it.

Next time I’ll tell you about his famous turkey dinner!

This little monkey is Liam. Soon I'll have a picture section of my kids and grand kids.

Lots of people ask me about food and what I am making for dinner, I figured this would be the place to let them know. All of my dishes are not resounding successes but most are good, some are really great…..just ask my kids. I am the mom of three grown sons that make me proud of them every day, they have grown into amazing men and great fathers. I think that has more to do with the great father they have  than with with any credit I could take for the way they turned out. I can take credit however, for the fact that they are very comfortable in a kitchen and can turn out great meals. We have 6 grandchildren and two great daughter in laws who we love and it is really true what they say about “grandchildren being the reward for not killing our own children”, they are all rambunctious, bright and fun, the energy level they have astounds me and makes me wonder how we ever kept up with their parents when they were that age………it makes me tired to just think about it. I started this blog so my children and their children will be able to look at it and remember the meals I served, and so my friends can look to see if there is a dish they want to try. I will try to list the equiptment I use for each dish so you know if you happen to have it laying around the house you will now have a use for it. I can honestly say I have never cooked from a recipe although I do have a collection of cookbooks, I find them great for inspiration but not to actually cook from, my families tastes were always quite picky so lots of changes had to be made, I soon learned just to customize my own recipes to fit the family. I hope you enjoy reading here and maybe you’ll find a use for that great kitchen gadget you just had to have, you know, the one that’s still in the box sitting on a shelf somewhere. I do have other hobbies besides cooking and they include sewing, my three ShihTzus and all kinds of crafts too, although life sometimes gets in the way of pursuing the things I enjoy. I also enjoy making people smile, especially senior citizens, I think we as a nation owe them so much for their contributions to our country, they are often overlooked in the grand scheme of things and I think that is sad…………….so, go call a senior today and brighten up their world, better still bring them a home cooked meal! 

Mattie

And these guys are Mikes little monkeys…………….