Back to the WND Top Ten - Dad's Cooking

What Now?

OK, it's been way too long since my last post, so I am back at it, with #3 on my own personal What Now Dad top ten. This post was one of my first as my new role of part-time-stay-at-home Dad was starting to take shape. I think over the past 3-4 months I have gotten much better at my new role, but things were rough at the start, as you will read.

What's For Dinner Dad?

Tonight was one of those nights that make me think being a part-time stay-at-home Dad is going to be more difficult than I thought. My better half was on a day trip for work and was headed home a little later than she thought. The girls and I were knee deep in some home cleaning (the family has recently decided to get our house picked up and put in order, which I love!!!). Yesterday we tackled the girls room, and today it was the toy room getting the home make-over. Well, dinner was now on me and when we finished our room cleaning it was already 5:15pm, and I didn't have a clue what we were going to eat. If I would have just remembered what my wife had told me and cooked up a little pasta thing would have been fine, but I decided to improvise a little. I went straight to the freezer, the one place I used to call home for the night's dinner plans before I was married. There was nothing, nothing at least that I could handle. Then, in the back I saw something, it was frozen solid and looked a little like taco soup, one of my favorites. Mind you, it was frozen solid and by now it's 5:30pm. So, I dump the frozen block of something into a pot and turn the stove burner up to the max. Needless to say this was going too slow, so I then transferred the frozen block into a bigger pan and threw a top on it. The girls were getting anxious and hungry so I called audible #2 and threw together some cheese quesadillas and apple sauce (that's healthy right?). While they chowed down I was still holding out hope for my frozen something or other. After it started to smell like something was burning I decided to take a look. Not only was it not close to being ready to eat, but I discovered what I thought was taco soup was actually spaghetti sauce. How someone can make this mistake is beyond me, but as I have been telling my wife I must have been in another state of mind or something. So, with my options for myself running low I turn off the stove and abandon the burnt frozen mess and look at my other options. It turns out my plan B for the girls was not enough and they are still hungry. I then go to an old standby and try to throw together several items to make something that, after eating, does not remember anything that anyone would eat. In this case it was tortillas. cheese, ketchup and pepperoni, or as I was calling it, pizza. This idea was more horrible than it sounds. Did I mention I pounded down two glasses of wine during this whole process. Thankfully, as I was finishing off my so called pizza (oh yes, I ate it...and my stomach is feeling the effects as I write this!) my angel, my goddess, my wife walks through the door. Before I can even fully explain the events that have taken place up to that point she has pasta boiling. Before you know it all my girls are eating a wonderful dinner while I sit at the computer and write down what happened. I have a long way to go, but I think my heart was in the right place. Now I just hope I don't get sick later tonight.

PEACE OUT DADS!!!

Back to reality part 2

So it's almost been a week since our return to Idaho from our wonderful two week vacation in Hawaii and I think I am finally back to reality. Nothing like a big late March snowstorm to wake you up from your vacation dream. Also, it was back to the normal schedule, kids off to school, wife off to work, me back to wondering where to go from here. It was great to be back in our home, with our stuff, and sleeping in our bed. You just can't beat the comforts of home. Plus, the thoughts of having nice weather here and all that goes with it (gardening, playing in the park, laying in the hammock) is enough to get me through this reality check. In my ongoing effort to be more helpful around the house with my "part-time" status still going strong I have asked my wife to create a little Dad's Cookbook for me. Just a few simple dishes that I can manage and take some of the pressure off of her. Once I get a few recipes I'll post them here. Also, I plan to handle more laundry duty, something I helped out with a little before but feel I can take on entirely. I have been feeling very, very good about our situation even with the looming economic problems everyone seems to be facing. We have cut back on a lot, and have a plan in place, and when things get better (and I know they will) we will come out of this thing better than when we went into it. Vacation has a great way of renewing ones spirit, even if you come home to snowstorms.

PEACE OUT!!!

Be careful what you say

There was a time in our lives that my wife and I could talk about anything in our house with no worries. When our daughters starting getting to the age that they could understand what we were saying we went to talking more softly or speaking in code. I feel that those are no longer good options for us since our girls started repeating our conversations or asking questions about them. Case in point, shortly after we attended one of our teenage nieces cheer leading competitions (yes, I know...what can I say. I am outvoted on most of these things) my wife made the comment that I am sure she never thought would be overheard, and never repeated. That is until a family function a few weeks back when the mother of our cheer leading niece mentioned another competition was coming up, but since our oldest daughter explained to her that night that her mother (my wife) would "rather stick forks in her eyes then attend another cheer leading competition" we probably were not interested.

Silence........................

UNTIL NEXT TIME...D.I.T. OUT!

"Dad, what's for dinner?"

Tonight was one of those nights that make me think being a part-time stay-at-home Dad is going to be more difficult than I thought. My better half was on a day trip for work and was headed home a little later than she thought. The girls and I were knee deep in some home cleaning (the family has recently decided to get our house picked up and put in order, which I love!!!). Yesterday we tackled the girls room, and today it was the toy room getting the home make-over. Well, dinner was now on me and when we finished our room cleaning it was already 5:15pm, and I didn't have a clue what we were going to eat. If I would have just remembered what my wife had told me and cooked up a little pasta thing would have been fine, but I decided to improvise a little. I went straight to the freezer, the one place I used to call home for the night's dinner plans before I was married. There was nothing, nothing at least that I could handle. Then, in the back I saw something, it was frozen solid and looked a little like taco soup, one of my favorites. Mind you, it was frozen solid and by now it's 5:30pm. So, I dump the frozen block of something into a pot and turn the stove burner up to the max. Needless to say this was going too slow, so I then transferred the frozen block into a bigger pan and threw a top on it. The girls were getting anxious and hungry so I called audible #2 and threw together some cheese quesadillas and apple sauce (that's healthy right?). While they chowed down I was still holding out hope for my frozen something or other. After it started to smell like something was burning I decided to take a look. Not only was it not close to being ready to eat, but I discovered what I thought was taco soup was actually spaghetti sauce. How someone can make this mistake is beyond me, but as I have been telling my wife I must have been in another state of mind or something. So, with my options for myself running low I turn off the stove and abandon the burnt frozen mess and look at my other options. It turns out my plan B for the girls was not enough and they are still hungry. I then go to an old standby and try to throw together several items to make something that, after eating, does not remember anything that anyone would eat. In this case it was tortillas. cheese, ketchup and pepperoni, or as I was calling it, pizza. This idea was more horrible than it sounds. Did I mention I pounded down two glasses of wine during this whole process. Thankfully, as I was finishing off my so called pizza (oh yes, I ate it...and my stomach it feeling the effects as I write this!) my angle, my goddess, my wife walks through the door. Before I can even fully explain the events that have taken place up to that point she has pasta boiling. Before you know it all my girls are eating a wonderful dinner while I sit at the computer and write down what happened. I have a long way to go, but I think my heart was in the right place. Now I just hope I don't get sick later tonight.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...D.I.T. OUT!

Laugh 'til you cry

There are a few certainties I have in my life and one of them is that I married the perfect woman for me. We are so compatible it is scary. One of the ways I know this is that we have the same sense of humor, which is probably only funny to us. Last night we were catching up on some of our shows on DVR and my wife was enjoying a chocolate peppermint patty. She then looked at me to say something very important and I turn to her and see her mouth surrounded by a thin, chocolate ring. This is funny to me on so many levels, but mostly because our 5 year old daughter has this look constantly. In fact, I swear she sometimes gets this look without even eating chocolate...I don't know how but it seems I am always cleaning off her face. So to see my wife, a 38 year old woman, with the same look made me laugh instantly. And when I pointed it out to her she too started laughing. We both laughed so hard we were crying. It was the second time last night we did that, but I probably shouldn't talk about what made us laugh the first time. She is my soul mate, my best friend and the other half of my comic duo. I am more than certain she was the one I was supposed to meet and I love her more than she will ever know.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...D.I.T. OUT!