Living in a crisis as we are today creates a new way of living. Or, actually, it sometimes brings back old ways of living. With the grocery store shelves sometime bare, it’s either do without or come up with an alternate plan.
Now I have mentioned in past articles that my wife, Mary, is a great cook. Of course, like all cooks today, she takes advantage of the pre-mixed boxes which has been created by companies to make our lives easier. Even with these she finds ways to make great meals. But now many of these items are no longer on the shelves. What now!!!?
The other day, Mary wanted to bake a cake for me. She’s so nice. Anyway, she couldn’t get any cake mix like she usually does. So, she says, “I’ll bake it from scratch!” So naturally I asked, “which cabinet do you keep the “scratch”? At which time she boots me out of the kitchen.
Now you see, we have, since day one, agreed that she does the cooking and I do the dishes. Honest, it was in the marriage license. She showed me after the wedding. The routine is I do the dishes while she soaks in the jacuzzi with a glass of wine.
Now I mean I do the dishes. I don’t mean load up a dishwasher.
No way! I do it like our creator meant us to do it. I wash the dishes by hand. I see no reason for a machine to wash a water glass for 30 minutes. Anyway, back to booting me out of the kitchen. Luckily, I have a place to go; my hideaway, the Conner Museum of Antique Printing.
Now when I come home, there on the table is this beautiful, white icing cake. And there is Mary, looking a bit haggard. I notice the kitchen is all cleaned up. “Why didn’t you leave all the pots and pans for me?”
“I had to do them as I went; I didn’t have room in the kitchen for them, besides, I needed them over and over.” she said as she dusted the flour from her and the cabinets. “It had better be good, I mean it, it had better be good,” she moaned as she held a knife to her wrists.
Well, I tell you truthfully, it was the best cake I have ever eaten. I wouldn’t lie about something like that. It was delicious! I ate cake for three days. So, you see, sometimes we need to go back to the old days to make things better.
Next, she says she will bake biscuits from scratch. She wonders where her rolling pin was. I say, “I think we sold it in the garage sale when we moved 15 years ago.”
Don Hill is a resident of Seymour. The author of two books “Ramblin’s and Recollections” and “I Remember my Firsts…”, he also has served as a volunteer at the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts for more than a quarter of a century. Send comments to [email protected].