Last week, I made this... Chicken Tetrazzini stuff. It actually didn't turn out too badly. But there was SO MUCH STUFF involved. I don't cook very often. So when I do, it's kind of a shock that there's so much chopping, boiling, stirring, combining, mixing, heating, mincing, crushing and squashing involved. In the past, I never worked off a recipe. Shelby and I usually didn't cook unless we didn't have any other food to eat. And then the meal was always the same: Conceptual Casserole.
I'm sure you're familiar with the Conceptual Casserole. You take whatever pasta/rice you have and combine it with cream of mushroom soup (you've seen the cans sitting dusty in the pantry) and stir in whatever else happens to be available. If you have corn flakes (you probably don't, or you'd eat them for dinner) you throw those on top. If you've got cheese (right) you might throw some of that in, too. What comes out of the oven might look dubious. You might stare at it for a moment and wonder if it's food or just... Some grotesque tribute to contemporary art. But you eat it. Because you are too poor and hungry to think about eating anything else. If they had ovens or electricity in Ethiopia and you were staying for dinner, they'd be having Conceptual Casserole.
Anyhow, I was in the middle of Chicken Tetrazzini and I got a phone call. It was a girl I knew in high school that I hadn't talked to in three years and she just wanted to chat, chat, chat. I felt the clock ticking away. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on soon. I'd timed my meal preparation to COINCIDE WITH THIS EVENT. And this girl was destroying everything. With the phone wedged on my shoulder, I kept defrosting, cubing and mutilating.
I missed Buffy, but I found a new-found respect for my mother. For just an hour or so, I occupied the space she filled during my childhood. I stood at the stove while too many things ran through my mind. I couldn't concentrate on any one thing. I just knew that I had to make sustenance for the starving masses. And I did it.
This week I'm making macaroni and cheese. But with real cheese and other ingredients. It's not out of a box. Shelby said she's bringing a vegetarian lasagne. I'm a huge carnivore, so I'm not sure how that's going to go. But I guess I'll check it out. We'll have a Pot Luck a la mode. And we'll boogie on down.