Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 09, 2022

Death by chatter

Do you have some ear buds? They don’t have to be turned on it just gives you an excuse for not answering.

Rehash, that leftovers?

I’m sure we were no different newlyweds than most – we knew next to nothing about making a meal. Good story about the first time my bride invited her parents to Sunday dinner but better left unsaid. Suffice it to say my mother-in-law gifted us a Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Go hug her, Arlo, and say, “You’re right. Sorry, sweetie.” then flirt with her using double entendres of cooking terms. Maybe open her favorite type of wine.

My wife knows the secret of getting me to cook. Complements, no matter how bad it is. ;-)

Mmm…hash.

My wife told me women are better at multitasking than men. So I told her to sit down and shut up. Guess what…

She couldn’t do either!

This is where being hard of hearing is a good thing; it works for me;)

Now you know why she enjoys it so much now.

Don’t start " nothing and there won’t be " nothing " : )

Yesterday we went to a cooking class at La Margarita. The chef founded the place 38 years ago and was quite entertaining. He demonstrated making a soup, two kinds of fresh salsa and chicken enchiladas with crema. The latter used lettuce leaves as a thickener. Who’d have guessed?

Yes, it was so terrible that all that cooking and cleaning interfered with watching soap operas. Snort.

During my first marriage, one cooked and the other cleaned. Unless I cooked.

In marriage, there is always a rehash?

Ironically, he’s cooking Hash…

Women. Forget. Nothing.

My bride always wanted to my meals. She said, “You work outside the home, I work inside.” Since retiring, we cook less, her in particular. I like making breakfast and supper, and she does the dishes. Nice.

Live in the moment. Can’t do anything about the past…..

When we were first married, and I didn’t work, (except for cleaning the house, having and taking care of the kids, and pets!, shopping for food and cooking it and cleaning up afterwards, sewing chair pads, and drapes and other curtains, re-papering multiple rooms, building a wall long closet in our bedroom, and deck around the pool…). I did ALL the cooking… including “fixing” my husbands tea (with milk and sugar)… now that he is retired, he has started making his own breakfast (I’m not usually up as early as him), except when he want’s pancakes or waffles, that he waits for me to do…. and since I usually eat breakfast late, I don’t eat lunch before our 5 or 5:30 dinner. he also does that himself…. but occasionally he DOES do dinner… which is taking me out to eat!

Cooking is the most relentless of chores, especially when you have kids. You can always put off cleaning the bathroom, but the family has to eat.

My mother learned cooking in high school home ec, and she did all the cooking when I was growing up. She didn’t particularly enjoy it, but that’s how gender roles were back then. My Dad started cooking after retirement, and Mom really loved that.

Let her talk. Consider it the price of the meal and companionship.

Whenever my wife cooks, at some point in the meal, she always asks “do you want to know how I did it?“ And of course I respond yes. She then describes step-by-step exactly how she cooked the meal. This goes for all baked goods and desserts as well. And this is on top of all of the other questions such as “do you like it?” “What do you like about it? “

How about a little guilt with your food?

My wife and I are competent cooks but she is better than I am. I can make food; she can make good meals. Same with colors; I can see the colors but she can choose them much better than I can. I’m painting the interior of the house with colors she chose. The way they work together is something I could never achieve.

Since retirement our schedules are our own. She cooks, I clean, every night unless we go out to dinner or get take-out. I still clean but it is what I bargained for.

Supper with a side of guilt. Still, my cooking has been decent but I work with a minimum of ingredients combined. It seems the former GF (not getting into the interesting why) worked with an average of twelve.

My hubby was the cook of the family. I was assigned one meal a week to prepare. Usually some sort of casserole that he put hot sauce on because he thought it was too bland.

Right now it’s 92 degrees with humidity to match. My apt has no A/C. The last thing on my mind is cooking!!

My mom got cancer when I was 10. I think that’s when she began to teach my dad to cook a few basic meals. We had spaghetti with home-made sauce on Fridays, hamburgers on Saturdays. I learned and made fried chicken after church on Sunday, and I made (Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee) pizza Sunday nights. I guess the rest of the week varied, but I still use that spachetti sauce recipe.

[a la Homer Simpson] Mmmmmm… hash….