Sunday dinner and other food matters

Jordan and Christian have subscribed on a temporary basis to one of those food delivery services that sends you meat, spices, recipes, etc.—everything you need. The one they chose is HelloFresh, and I’m wondering if it’s the one that is Fort Worth-based.

Tonight, we had meat loaf, oven-roasted sliced sweet potatoes, and fresh green beans. Delicious. Sunday night dinner is a tradition in my family, as much as I can make it continue, and the Burtons help me cling to it. Jordan, I think, appreciates the tradition, and Christian likes the opportunity to cook.

I had toyed with the idea of these delivery services—one daughter-in-law has tried one, and another has become a rep for a company that sends recipes and spices, while you provide the meat and other fresh ingredients. I was stopped by two things: I really like to cook, follow (or deviate from) recipes, and a food delivery service is a bit much for one person. So it was fun to experience the meal tonight. Jordan tells me pork chops are next up, after Christian cooks the roast he’s had in the freezer forever. Problem there: I wanted to cook it with my recipe—red wine, onion soup mix, and mushroom soup. Another time.

 After dinner, Jordan and I sat out on the deck, and when I mentioned that I wanted her to take a picture of the bougainvillea, she said she'd take it with me in front of it. I don't look so great, but that is the most gorgeous potted plant I've ever seen. It doesn't measure up to those that grow free on rooftops in California, but in a pot, in Texas, it's pretty spectacular. It would show up better in daylight. With the patio at my door I don't sit on the deck much and this too was a treat--with Sophie at my feet.

Grocery shopping has been a problem for me lately. Getting used to new medications has been an ongoing process, and I frequently had no appetite or interest in exploring new recipes. When I did find something I wanted to cook, I’d buy the ingredients and then something would come up—Jordan would fix a family meal, leftovers demanded to be eaten, dinner invitations came, etc. I’d buy ingredients for something I wanted to fix, and then life would interfere, and the ingredients would sit in my fridge. Right now, I have a really good ham slice meant for chicken and ham croquettes, which sounded good to me at one time but when I reread the recipe, it was too much trouble and required cooking capabilities I don’t have. I threw it out and decided to make ham salad tomorrow. But now I have leftover meatloaf—life’s dilemmas.

And sometimes I find something I want to cook right then—I don’t have the ingredients. Were I mobile, with a car, I’d just go get it—used to do that a lot. But I can hardly ask Jordan to take me to the store for one ingredient. As she says to me frequently, we need a better system.

Meantime, with cabin fever threatening, I am making a concerted effort to get out more and have people in more often. Grateful for the friends who have stuck by me during my bouts of less- than-ideal health and for new friends I’ve made in the last year.

Which reminds me. A post in Facebook this morning sent my mind to thinking again about how many good, kind, caring people there are in the world and in this country. Specifically, it was about a plane-load of truck drivers who heard the call that help was needed in Puerto Rico and, as one said, made an instant decision to join and fly down there to do whatever they could. I can’t help wondering how, in a country with so many wonderful people, we turned our government over to a bunch of selfish, ambitious, egocentric men.