My Mom's Cooking

my mom would choose flip cup over cooking dinner, and who can blame her? 

This past weekend, I met up w/ a friend I haven’t seen in a while, so we were catching up on work, apartments, family, etc. While I was telling her about the restaurant, she asked me if I grew up cooking w/ my mom. The short answer: no.

My mom doesn’t enjoy cooking. For her, making dinner was just another item on her to-do list, and I can’t blame her. She was making dinner for a family of six, enough of a challenge as is, and in the middle of that she had to pack us all up in the car and jet across town to pick my dad up from work. Once we were older and able to help I’m sure it was easier for her, but I don’t think she ever found being in the kitchen relaxing, even to this day.

This makes me sad. Let me be clear: I don’t feel sorry for her, she doesn’t need my sympathy. I’m still in awe of her making us dinner every night, when it’s all I can do to preheat the oven so it’s ready for a pizza after I pick Brent up from the train station. It just makes me sad to think that she didn’t enjoy being in the kitchen when it’s my most favorite place to be (except Qdoba) (and the bar) (and Friendly’s ice cream window) (okay, maybe it’s not always my favorite place to be, but you catch my drift).

In an effort to get back into the routine of meal prepping and cooking more at home, I figured it would be easiest to start w/ a set menu every week that may or may not change weekly. I could eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so keeping the menu the same from week to week would make it simple to stock the fridge and pantry so I don’t have an excuse when Tuesday rolls around and I really want to throw in the towel and go to Taco Bell. 

How does my mom relate to this? Yeah, I was just wondering that too; this post is kind of all over the place. That’s what happens when you blog hungry. I came here w/ a point, I’m sure of it.

Oh right! Set weekly meals. I was thinking of what I’d want to do, like meatless Mondays, taco Tuesdays, etc. Obviously I’m into the alliteration and in need of a “w” dish for Wednesday, so help a girl out if you have a good “w” in your recipe box.

Back at 904 Willy (not my parents real address for safety reasons, since you’ll all obviously want to swing by for dinner after reading this post) the dinner schedule was usually something like:

Monday: meatloaf (my Grammie’s recipe, which is the BEST), w/ a side of rice and canned vegetable 

Tuesday: usually a casserole like macaroni and cheese (w/ tunafish and peas for my dad, which I never thought of as weird, but now that I’m typing it out, it seems a little weird?) or tuna noodle casserole. Tuesdays could also be pierogi and kielbasa, my favorite!

Wednesday: stir fry. I don’t know how this made her menu, which is typically American fare, but we all loved it. My mom made a chicken one and a beef one and there was always white rice.

Thursday: Thursday was the night my dad volunteered at bingo, a fundraiser for our church. He always got home “late,” and by late I mean like 9:30pm. I was always in bed by then, sleeping off our dinner of either frozen pizza w/ maybe –gasp!- soda or quiche. I don’t know how those two very different meals became the Thursday night go-to, but that was that.

Friday: I remember fishsticks from when I was really young, but we all hated them so we finally switched over to grilled cheese and tomato soup. My parents are hardcore Catholics and grew up not eating meat on Fridays year round, so that’s what we did. Friday was also the day we might eat out! Pizza hut dinners using our book-it points for personal pan pizzas (if you don't remember book-it, we can't be friends), or maybe we’d head to Ponderosa.

Saturday: Saturdays still conjure up an image of my mom’s very ‘70’s looking crock pot on the counter and the smells of beef stew wafting out. She’d make a roll of Pillsbury biscuits on the side, which were usually overbaked and hard (sorry mom!)

Sunday: Spaghetti and meatballs! Man, I loved Sunday spaghetti day. Or it might be steak and baked potatoes if my dad wanted to grill.

This menu wasn’t set in stone and my mom certainty had more than these 9-10 meals in rotation at home. It’s just funny how these are the ones sprang to mind when I was thinking of the menu lineup I want to implement for me and Brent. I know she doesn’t read my blog, but I want to give props to my mom for always cooking a hearty meal for her family. It wasn’t fancy or completely homemade, and to be honest, the secret ingredient was probably stress, not love, but it was always there; the literal definition of comfort food.