Two Sides of the Soup Story

I am a fairly good cook. Not trying to brag but it is something I enjoy and I think (and have been told that) I do it well. I take pride in making delicious meals for a low cost for my family to enjoy. I strive to make food so delicious at home that we have no desire (other than that terrible feeling at 5:00 when I forgot to plan and am exhausted and want something easy....but we all have days like that) to eat fast food, or to go out to eat unless it is an intentional choice.

However I have come to realize that I have to be careful to not allow my boys' comments at Dinner time to sway my opinion of myself or my cooking abilities. Sometimes at the end of a long day the mommy feels unappreciated and defeated when dinner is met with criticism and/or groans. It is a rare night that my Engineer does not have something disparaging and (unintentionally) unkind. He just doesn't really see things in shades of gray and is not intending to be unkind he is just stating what to him in his world is the obvious. It is either what he is always used to (and even then I seldom meet his standards) or it is weird and therefore undesirable.

Most days (I hope) I am fairly good at redirecting him and helping him to see how he can say what he needs to say in a kind way or simply not saying it at all (I am also learning why Thumper's mother was less than successful at passing on her sage advice to her offspring). And I admit that often I just nod and try to block out his judging of the meal.

Today is a day that I was not at my best. It was a busy day and I had not planned dinner we had a deadline as my husband and I wanted to attend the Adult Meeting of Stake Conference and had to have the children fed before dropping them off. So I reached back into my days as a Cadette in Girl Scouts and made dump a can soup. I remember some camp counselor telling me that if you think about the flavors of the food you can almost always make a decent soup out of canned vegetables. So I did. And if I do say so myself it was quite tasty, filled our tummies and did not take long to cook. I however was not up to listening to the Engineer enumerate one by one the things wrong with the soup that he had yet to taste. He started off with his criticism that I "did not follow a recipe so obviously it was not going be edible." He added a few other faults but I really was not listening as I was letting his father know that he needed to intervene because I was not up to hearing about everything that I had done wrong in making dinner.

So as I was taking a time-out and breathing deep breaths the Comedian came up to me and he said with sincerity (almost made me cry) "Mom, when I'm a grown-up I'm going to make that same soup for my children at dinner time because it is so yummy. Maybe we can have it again tomorrow at lunch time!"

At which point I threw my arms around him, gave him a squeeze and told him how wonderful it was to hear that he had enjoyed the meal and was thinking of cooking for his own children one day. (Then I have to admit that I asked him to tell me again, because it made me feel good to hear of his enjoyment....which (he is the Comedian after all) he cheerfully did with a goofy grin and a very loud voice)

My complaining Engineer was feeling left out of the joy party (plus I think his papa had a talk with him about not being mean and trying to say nice things when someone has done something nice for you) so he came and said (with his sweet face that means he's trying to convey love even when he isn't really sure he feels it--if you know him I'm sure you've seen it) "Mom, when I grow up I'm going to make the same soup for my children except I won't put the spices in because they kind of hit my taste tester and it was REJECTED! It is so yummy except for the spices."

So for my Comedian and future grandchildren here is the recipe for tonight's dump-it soup.

In a large stock-pot add some olive oil and a chopped onion and saute. When onion begins to wilt add in

1 can cream of corn
1 can of whole corn
1 can green beans
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans of sliced potatoes
2 pkgs Ramen Noodles broken up
1 tsp basil
1 TBSP minced garlic
2 cups water (or chicken broth)

bring to a boil and serve

If your leanings are more like that of the Engineer's omit the basil......

Enjoy!

A Foolin' Dinner

April Fools started off with shouts of joy and lots of bad jokes. As soon as my husband and I explained what day it was and that it was a day for jokes and nice tricks, my comedian was in seventh heaven. The boys even helped me pull a pretty good trick on their dad.

I haven't been feeling very good and both of the older boys had school this morning so when I got home from dropping them off I called my husband and told him that the baby was taking a nap and I was going to lay down and sleep too, so could he please call me at 11:00 to wake me up so I could pick up the boys on time. I promptly fell asleep and was zoned out to the world. I opened my eyes to see 11:20 blaring at me in bright red lights from the alarm clock (Mr. Engineer is supposed to be picked up at 11:20 and Comedian at 11:30 and his school is about 15 minutes away from the first one--confusing I know). So I jumped out of bed, woke the baby who was also still enjoying his quiet snooze and raced to pick up the boys. I was a little late but not too bad. We got back home around noon and I asked the boys if they wanted to help me play a joke on their dad. So I called dh on the cell phone with the speakers on and told him that I had just woke up and could he help me pick up the boys. (I made sure I sounded nice and groggy) He apologized half a dozen times and first told me he'd pick up one boy and then changed his mind that he would pick up the other one. I help up my fingers for the boys and when I got to 3 they yelled, "APRIL FOOLS!" I think my husband was relieved and a tiny bit miffed that I'd gotten him so good. It was pretty good fun though.

Well it was my night to cook for the dinner coop I belong to and it just happened to be April Fools day too. So I was looking around for something to do for this auspicious occasion and came across this yummy recipe for Fauxberry Pie from Family Fun. It received some mixed reviews. *smile* My Engineer gave the frosting a "thumbs down" until we told him that they were just pink potatoes. My comedian asked enthusiastically to "have pie every night". DJ Thunder was quite impressed and went quite wild taking pictures and exclaiming "how real" it looks and how surprisingly "good it tastes".






Both of the families I swapped with enjoyed the meal although a 10 year old was not even going to try the "chocolate" part because he "hates chocolate". Even being told that it tasted like BBQ beef would entice him to take even one bite because he was sure that his family was just trying to pull one over on him.

I hope you also had an awesome April Fools day. Sometimes it is nice to relax and just have fun pulling pranks and teasing each other.