The Joy of Cooking

 Although the Joy of Cooking was the title of one of my first wedding gifts many moons ago, I will admit willingly that I am not a cook. I’ve never claimed to be a cook. In fact, everyone who knows me would agree with that undeniably. I might have enjoyed it earlier in my adult life had that part not been so crazy and more than a little distressing.

Nonetheless, even though I was convinced that I wasn’t a good cook, I managed to get by for myself and two sons, whom I raised on my own in the late 70s and early 80s.

And then I got lucky. I met a man. I fell head-over-heals at age 36! I seriously had no idea what a great cook he was. After our marriage, he slowly (and gently) just began to take over those duties, much to my delight. I always cleaned up afterwards, happily!

The funny "family story" (actually not so funny to me) is about what occurred when I took my two sons to his family’s huge Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. As we were sitting around the table, my youngest son just blurted out, “We were so glad that Mom married Dean. Now we get to eat real food.”

WHAT? “Mac and cheese” is not real food? Frozen pizza? Popcorn? I was mortified. I wanted to crawl under the table. The only good thing that came out of his declaration was that none of the women in the family ever asked me to help out in the kitchen.

My husband cooked for the rest of our lives together until he became ill, and then I panicked. Luckily, I had a group of wonderful friends who came by a few times a week bringing casseroles, meals, etc. (Did I say that everyone knew I didn’t cook?)

Eventually, I began to take over myself and realized that I actually could cook. I cooked for the two of us and almost enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed using my old slow cooker. Even I could make the best pot roasts in that!

After he passed away, that enjoyment of cooking left. Who wants to cook for one? Not me. I am now the queen of heating up things that have either been frozen or brought in from someplace else, prepared by someone else.

Today, however, I was watching “Good Morning America” on TV. There was a segment on the show featuring all of these neat new cooking gadgets and kitchen implements. I found myself intrigued and almost thought about getting some of them. I could see myself using them, imagining all of the wonderful meals I could prepare. And then I stopped. Reality set in.

Let’s don’t get crazy. Where’s the phone? I need to call Panera.

@2022 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland