Wednesday, January 16, 2008

On a 'role

My friend Kathy retired last year, and her youngest child left home maybe the year before that, and right before Christmas, she came over here with all her Corning ware and said "Here. I got these as wedding presents. I figured you maybe could use them."

Then she threw back her head, let out a booming mad scientist laugh and said "Because my casserole days are over! Over! And yours are just beginning! If you need me I'll be at Club Med."

OK, well, no. That last part I just made up, but I have a feeling she was kind of saying it on the inside.

But I never realized what a difference a few casserole dishes could make in your life! I spent about four hours cooking on Sunday, and I put everything in my casserole dishes, soup, stew, mac' and cheese, chicken, lasagna. And all this week all I've had to do is throw a casserole in the oven when I get home and presto! Dinner's ready.

Which, of course, frees me up to spend quality time with the kid. We're trying to coax him into doing his pre-school homework right now. Something about drawing a picture of a pancake.

And I'll tell you another thing. I feel like this whole process has brought me that much closer to my goal of one day writing a self-help book on techniques for covert insertion of leafy green vegetables into children's food.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Corning ware? Those have to be some fairly old casserole dishes!

Congrats on the aquisition, though.

My sister says that she's found the best way to get her boys to sit down and do schoolwork is to first have them go outside and run around the house five or six times. Of course, it also helps that she's in Mississippi right now. The number of laps may need to be increased for cooler climates. ;)

kurt_t said...

I think the casserole dishes are about 40 years old. I have some hand-me-down cast iron skillets that are probably even older than that. I can't stand cooking in that cheapo nonstick stuff.

The kid has a mini-trampoline. Maybe I'll try to get him in the habit of trampolining before homework. Thanks for the tip, seithman.

Anonymous said...

You're welcome. But please, call me Jarred. My display name changed now that I'm using my typekey account. I forgot to sign my last comment. (Oops!)

Well, I figured the cookware had to be at least twenty years old, because I think it's been that long since Corning Inc. (formerly Corning Glass) got out of the cookware business. That's cool about the cast iron skillets, too.

And I think we can now check off another item in the Homosexual Agenda(tm): flooding this blog with discussion of cookware! ;)

-- Jarred.

grace said...

yes...it's all part of the plan you see...

"normalize" "the gays" and then society crumbles amd we all kill each other as the continent sinks into the sea...there'll be nothing left of this shining star of capitalism and greed but the tiny shards of a 40 yr. old corningware dish at the spot where kurt and all the rest of "the gays" once lived...

kurt_t said...

I use Pyrex too. I love that stuff! And I'll tell you one thing I love about Pyrex is it's still made in the USA. Not to be xenophobic or anything, but I won't buy kitchen stuff made in China. For one thing, there's just too many tainted products coming out of that country, and for another thing, I'm just not comfortable buying stuff from a country with that kind of human rights abuses going on all the time.

Anonymous said...

ha ha ha! If only GE made a freezer big enough you could cook for just one whole maniac weekend and not do anything but reheat for the rest of the year!

We mostly cook with a wok... but, do you remember the delights of an old-fashioned pressure cooker?

(flashback to childhood. the sound of "pist, pist, pist" on the stove)...

Before microwaves, that was a way to get a mean "chow mien" on the table in next to no time. Both our mothers "developed their skills" in the late 50's/early 60's and we are the proud holders of an original 1956 "Australian Women's Weekly" cookbook that helped set them on their way. And let me tell you, it's real hard to cook while you're laughing fit to bust at all the AWW's helpful suggestions to the little woman of the house. Aah, them were the days... man work, woman cook. (gay couples... excuse me, did you just say "gay"???)

Actually, last winter, I (G) did sneak home the old pressure cooker one night, and I did prepare a truly authentic 1956 meal from the book. Yes, chow mien. With minced beef. And frozen sliced beans. And rice boiled to death and then rinsed in a colander. Not too much pepper (don't want it toooo "spicy" after all!). A dash of Worchester. And some of that crazy seeyoo sauce from China.

Dale took one mouthful and said "Oh my god... this is just like mum used to make!"

A high point in my culinary career. Obviously.

Actually, we enjoyed it. Comfort food -- felt like being 8 years old again. Happy days. (There was even enough left over to have on toast for breakfast, as we always used to do!) Mum nearly laughed herself silly the next day thinking of us sitting at home with her old pressure cooker hard at work again.

I set the dining table up too, just like the book said. Nice white linen table cloth. A candle. A small posy from the garden. I even made their "exotic mediterranean salad"... you guessed it... lettuce, tomatoes and (wait for it...) an olive oil dressing with (huh! shock!) garlic.

GARLIC. Yes, garlic. Can you believe what those people eat in Italy?

Lucky I had the faithful Australian Women's Weekly to guide me through that minefield.

And mum's "Namco" pressure cooker to do all the work.

(cheers Pam! Don't know why I felt like telling that long irrelevant story, you must have triggered something; but there you have it. Been a while since we checked in -- we've both been lost in work and stuff. Hope you and yours are all well in any case. xxG&D)

And agree with kurt ... if it cannot be dropped, or assaulted with a steelo pad, it ain't real cookware!

God, how gay are we? Opinions on cookware, fa' lawds sake!