Cooking for those we love
Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 02:46PM
This Labor Day weekend, as is the custom, I will be joining my daughter and her family at a small resort. (My son and his wife are busy moving into a new home and sadly cannot attend.) For me, one of the highlights of getting together is the chance to cook a meal or two.
I am not really much of a cook. When I am eating alone, I microwave the healthiest thing I can find, but my motto is “If it takes longer to cook than it does to eat, it’s not worth it.” I have toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and a quickly zapped bag o’ veggies and noodles usually for supper. I’m still searching for a healthy frozen pizza or pot pie. I eat to live rather than live to eat.
But if I have a guest or family coming over, I really enjoy getting out the pots and pans and baking sheets. While I still prepare simple dishes, they do take some time, planning, and even skill. Going to the effort of making a meal sends a message - I love you enough to go to actually do some work. And that is what I think when someone cooks for me as well.
Many, many years ago, I learned when I was single and poor, that women I dated appreciated having a meal prepared for them - even more than being taken out for supper. It was certainly less expensive, and in a way, more intimate. It never hurt to make some small error in preparing the meal like having the folded omelet not quite come together that gave one an aura of vulnerability, awakening perhaps, one’s date’s maternal instincts.
For many years, my home on the lake was the venue for family gatherings of 20-24 people on the holidays. I was usually responsible for cooking two large turkeys in electric roasting pans. I used the slow-cook method of starting them the evening before the noon meal the next day and letting them cook all night. I also worried that this method might poison my entire family, but if anyone got sick, they didn’t tell me. And the turkey was so moist and tender, it fell off the bone.
A favorite family meal has for many years been something we call “stupid soup.” It got its name when a friend who was eating it asked for the recipe. When I told him, he said, “Sounds easy enough that even a stupid person could do it.” And the name stuck. The soup’s actually a hamburger-corn chowder. Brown hamburger (or crumbles if vegetarian), along with onion and green pepper. Add a can of diced tomatoes, a can of cream of celery soup, and a can of whole kernel corn. Toss in a little pepper and garlic if you are so inclined. I serve it with a tossed salad, freshly baked corn bread, and a relish tray of pickles, beets, and olives.
A family tradition is also to have “It tastes like I died and went to heaven” for dessert. This is another tough one to make - a freshly baked brownie with a generous scoop or two of pink peppermint ice cream on top. For me, breakfasts are also fun, whether French toast, pancakes, or more recently, a blueberry bread pudding. Of course with microwaved bacon or fake-un (plant based bacon). Spaghetti, chili, casseroles, BLT sandwiches, and slow cooked brats and sauerkraut are also found at times on the Che Johnson menu. Along with the experimental dish now and then - few of which become keepers.
I sometimes wonder if things can become too traditional. My siblings and I always laughed because my dad’s second wife always served exactly the same meal each time we visited. For years. “Wonder what Marge will be serving today?” we’d chuckle. Do my children make the same remark?
While we are at the resort this weekend, I am sure we will throw some burgers and brats on the grill and spruce up some store-bought potato salad with fresh veggies. Standard fare. But it is not the food itself. Whether caviar or peanut butter, making it, sharing it, eating it demonstrates our love for each other. I don’t even mind doing the dishes.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for this post, Doug. Cooking is all about love. I can never cook and feed my son enough when he visits from another state. He goes home with food, too. It makes us both happy!
100% agree - I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving!