74. Sunday lunch with a twist (1/4)
Everyone agreed: it was a really good idea from Organiser Daughter. The 'official' aim was to evenly share the cooking workload amongst family members and to make the most of being stuck at home.
I think the unofficial aim was to avoid mum's weekly meal plan which very quickly began to read as follow:
Monday: pasta with tomato sauce
Tuesday: pasta with cream
Wednesday: pasta with cheese
Thursday: baked pasta
Friday: pasta salad
Weekends: make-your-own pasta (preferably using left-over pasta)
So every Sunday one person would be in charge of lunch. One rule to follow: choose a country and cook recipes from that country only. I drew the line at the dressing-up-according-to-local-traditions of said country (thank you lockdown). A calendar was promptly drawn-up by Miss Organiser.
Boy of the family has two passions in life: playing rugby and eating. He prefers eating to cooking just like he prefers winning to losing. So he grabbed this opportunity to cook whatever he wanted to eat in whatever quantity he judged sufficient and so was ready to tackle the kitchen.
'I'm first.' He announced to everyone's surprise. (Such immediate enthusiasm made me wonder if he'd been going hungry even though I'm told a pasta diet is good for sportsmen ...)
'You have not done any research!' moaned Miss Organiser.
'No need.' he replied. 'Am doing USA and we're having huge enormous gigantic burgers!' (OMG! He had been going hungry!)
For dessert he instructed his grandmother to make an American apple pie and granny happily googled 'tarte aux pommes américaine' and announced that she had found une 'pee Américaine'.
She said she could do that no problem: it was just a 'tarte aux pommes' with extra pastry on top which meant you did not have to bother with the beautiful arrangement of perfect apple slices that took so long.
'Americans' approach to most things!' said the English man of the family.
On the Saturday morning Mr CoolCook asked Miss Organiser to borrow my bank card and my car and drive him to the supermarket. He then spent the rest of the morning pen and pad in hand going to each family member taking specific orders. (So weird to see him with paper and pen and writing things down! I looked at my husband, who also looked impressed.)
Sunday morning came and as we could see him fooling around in the garden as if nothing in the world had changed in our Sunday routine, we all had secret elevenses.
Four and a half hours later, as we were starting to google 'repas livrés rapidement' he ordered us to the table. It was properly laid out and Mr CoolCook came round the table serving each burger announcing its specificity and putting it down in front of the diner.
'Maman: Cantal, oignons, ni ketchup, ni mayonnaise. Et un burger pour maman!'
This had quite an effect. We were left speechless - even his sisters. The most amazing was that everything was ready at the same time! And hot! And delicious!
There were no mistakes. No 'I said no onions!' No 'I don't like ketchup!' Or 'I like mine rare!'
Zero complaints. Just a big family munching away on gigantic multi-level burgers.
They did look the part too, complete with fresh salad sticking out, the green of the leaves clashing perfectly with the red of the tomatoes. We even got the torn bit of paper from the note pad that listed our preferences. So no arguments. Utter bliss for mum and dad!
Yet somehow I will not launch into a description of the kitchen post-creativity session. Hey! You can't have it all!
Next lunch: we're off to Italy ...
31/05/2020
I think the unofficial aim was to avoid mum's weekly meal plan which very quickly began to read as follow:
Monday: pasta with tomato sauce
Tuesday: pasta with cream
Wednesday: pasta with cheese
Thursday: baked pasta
Friday: pasta salad
Weekends: make-your-own pasta (preferably using left-over pasta)
So every Sunday one person would be in charge of lunch. One rule to follow: choose a country and cook recipes from that country only. I drew the line at the dressing-up-according-to-local-traditions of said country (thank you lockdown). A calendar was promptly drawn-up by Miss Organiser.
Boy of the family has two passions in life: playing rugby and eating. He prefers eating to cooking just like he prefers winning to losing. So he grabbed this opportunity to cook whatever he wanted to eat in whatever quantity he judged sufficient and so was ready to tackle the kitchen.
'I'm first.' He announced to everyone's surprise. (Such immediate enthusiasm made me wonder if he'd been going hungry even though I'm told a pasta diet is good for sportsmen ...)
'You have not done any research!' moaned Miss Organiser.
'No need.' he replied. 'Am doing USA and we're having huge enormous gigantic burgers!' (OMG! He had been going hungry!)
For dessert he instructed his grandmother to make an American apple pie and granny happily googled 'tarte aux pommes américaine' and announced that she had found une 'pee Américaine'.
She said she could do that no problem: it was just a 'tarte aux pommes' with extra pastry on top which meant you did not have to bother with the beautiful arrangement of perfect apple slices that took so long.
'Americans' approach to most things!' said the English man of the family.
On the Saturday morning Mr CoolCook asked Miss Organiser to borrow my bank card and my car and drive him to the supermarket. He then spent the rest of the morning pen and pad in hand going to each family member taking specific orders. (So weird to see him with paper and pen and writing things down! I looked at my husband, who also looked impressed.)
Sunday morning came and as we could see him fooling around in the garden as if nothing in the world had changed in our Sunday routine, we all had secret elevenses.
Four and a half hours later, as we were starting to google 'repas livrés rapidement' he ordered us to the table. It was properly laid out and Mr CoolCook came round the table serving each burger announcing its specificity and putting it down in front of the diner.
'Maman: Cantal, oignons, ni ketchup, ni mayonnaise. Et un burger pour maman!'
This had quite an effect. We were left speechless - even his sisters. The most amazing was that everything was ready at the same time! And hot! And delicious!
There were no mistakes. No 'I said no onions!' No 'I don't like ketchup!' Or 'I like mine rare!'
Zero complaints. Just a big family munching away on gigantic multi-level burgers.
They did look the part too, complete with fresh salad sticking out, the green of the leaves clashing perfectly with the red of the tomatoes. We even got the torn bit of paper from the note pad that listed our preferences. So no arguments. Utter bliss for mum and dad!
Yet somehow I will not launch into a description of the kitchen post-creativity session. Hey! You can't have it all!
Next lunch: we're off to Italy ...
31/05/2020
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