“What’s for dinner?”…three of the scariest and most dreaded words in the dictionary. They’re not so bad individually, but all strung together like that…it’s enough to create goose flesh! Seems like a simple enough question, rather innocuous in fact. However, the phrase creeps in quietly, insidiously…every day…7 days a week, 365 days a year! After a few years, what was once merely a simple question, has now become a mind-numbingly, challenging, daily test…every day (hence my use of the term “daily”). It’s not the cooking itself that causes me to start hyperventilating, it’s the planning – okay, it’s the planning and the shopping. Okay, it’s the planning, and the shopping, and the “trying-to-please-everyone”, the “making-it-healthy” and “tasty”, that makes my head spin!
Number one, you must let go of the “trying-to-please-everyone” rule (admittedly self-imposed). Never. Going. To. Happen. If you get better than 50%, you’re doing well! Number two, “healthy” and “tasty” don’t always go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, more often than not, “tasty” is attached to rather unhealthy foods! (i.e.. cake, brie, crusty bread…etc.) Don’t get me wrong, healthy can be tasty – it just takes a bit more time and planning. A paradigm shift, if you will, as to what is tasty – but I digress. Truly, the hardest part for me is, thinking up what to cook. If someone would just tell me what to cook, I would happily shop for it, cook it, and serve it up!
All of this information circles back to my “Go-To” meals that I keep in my arsenal of mom-superpowers. I can think, literally, of only three meals that I use (overuse, might be more accurate) almost weekly. I assume that my friends most likely do the same. I could be wrong, but I assume anyhow. So, my thinking was, if I canvased my immediate group of moms, and asked them to give me their three “Go-To” meals…then I would have, potentially 18 or more “Go-To” meals! A veritable hotbed of culinary ammunition! This could make the daily grind of mealtime a breeze! If we pool our mom-superpowers…we could end household drudgery as we know it! I figured, I could print these up and pass them out to said group of moms – my ulterior motive – another excuse for us all to get together around some food, and quite possibly, some alcohol! (Quite possibly!)
This idea has expanded to friends, family, and any random stranger who has the misfortune of mentioning they have a really simple recipe! I’ve tried to casually interview my subjects about their recipes – and their quotes and “Go-To” recipes will be sprinkled throughout the blog. Happy reading and eating!