On Tuesday, Ed left one of his endearing, smart-aleck comments after I explained that, since I’m not exactly a cooking savant, my blessed palm earned it’s rightful place in my kitchen:
“If I see a picture of Riley praying before he eats that would confirm that you are not exaggerating about your cooking skills.”
I assure you, there is no exaggerating here. Now my mother… she is what we like to refer to as the MacGyver of the kitchen. I can look in a cupboard and see nothing of consequence. She can look in that same cupboard and come up with a casserole, side dish and dessert.
She has a gift.
I do not.
There is one evening that flashes into our memories from time to time, one that proves my mom is a genius cook under pressure… and that we’re a pretty good team in a crisis. I was still in high school and the only child left at home, so on this random week night we were pretty laid back. Dad had come in from doing chores, mom had a couple of chicken breasts on the grill and we were just having a simple salad with it. Nothing fancy… and as we were just about to pick up silverware and dive in…
Mom jumped up and exclaimed, “Don’t touch a thing!!!!”
It was 6:30, and she had just remembered we had company coming to eat at 7:00. Seriously. We were in sweatpants, with nothing prepared, and it dawned on her that she and Dad had invited friends of theirs over to celebrate a belated birthday.
I’m not naming names. Because I don’t think they ever knew the difference.
We hopped up… I lit candles around the house, set a nice table and threw something together as a centerpiece. Dad ran to take a shower while Mom took those un-touched chicken breasts and managed to throw together a casserole, a side dish and a salad.
I ran to the “gift closet” and wrapped up a Yankee candle as a present while Dad got out the supplies for drinks. We all ran to change clothes, and come 7:00 we opened the door to guests while trying not to look like the wide-eyed crazy people we were.
Her MacGyver skills totally saved the night.
And it is a memory I will never be able to look back on without smiling and chuckling and wondering what kind of evening we could have thrown together if we would have had a full hour to prepare. :)
I’m not exaggerating about the insanity of that night, or my lack of cooking skills. And to prove it, Ed, here is a photo of Riley saying grace before devouring a Cheerio. He learned early on to pray before eating, even if it’s something I didn’t cook.
Just to be on the safe side.
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.