Variety

I need a new animal.  To cook.  Winter is over and has been for a while.  We're tired of the usual stew-soup-bean-lentil-beef-chicken-fish-pork dance.  It's too early for the salad and barbeque chicken-beef-pork-sausage-fish and salad-bean-lentil dance.  Our life has become too predictable, and there is no new animal to give our meals a kick start.

When you were a child, did you have special "days" for meals?  Sunday was roast, Monday was leftovers, Tuesday was chicken, Wednesday was pasta, Thursday was pork, and Friday was fish.  We weren't Roman Catholic, but my mother was convinced that the grocery stores in Saskatchewan brought fresher fish in on Fridays so we ate fish then.   Once that rule passed, she was at a loss because Saturday was chili and then we were back to Sunday roast.   The big advantage to this lifestyle is that you really don't have to spend a lot of time planning and thinking what comes next, only how you're going to prepare the chicken and the pork.  Fish was fried.  You can tell I am a child of the mid 60's because we went through a tuna casserole with potato chips on top stage.  Pasta was always spaghetti with meatballs and red sauce.  Roast is pretty self defining, and so is chili.

When we married, I never got into this kind of rhythm.  When I was gainfully employed (now doesn't that sound grand!) we got home at the same time, starving to death, and supper had to be ready to go.  Once our children were school age meals used to have to be ready when the kids were hungry (around 6pm) until my husband came home (around 8 pm).   That's why I consider myself an expert in soup-stew making.  My repertoire stretches from the classic chicken noodle soup or minestrone, to the always appetizing garbage soup.  Garbage soup is a combination of all the leftovers from the past week incorporated into a broth and cooked together, and it is always much better than it sounds.  

Friday nights when our sons were young were always pizza night in the winter, and taco night in the summer.  The boys and I would chop onions, mushrooms, peppers, and grate cheese regardless of the final outcome.   Other vegetables varied according to season, although we always found room for olives.  Then we'd cook Italian sausage or ground beef and add pizza dough or tortillas.  It gave me a break and company in the kitchen and made Friday feel a little bit special. 

I don't know why the between-season period is always so hard to adjust to.  I am totally lacking inspiration, and am relying far more than is healthy on grilled cheese with tomato soup.  Even breakfast for dinner is feeling old and stale at the moment.  When I reach this stage the only thing that will help is a new season, because I don't have the inspiration to tackle say, rabbit, or buffalo, or duck.  No matter how much I mutter about the same-old same-old meals, I'm not ready to step that far out of my comfort zone.