Daughter is coming home for a visit Friday through next Monday, the weather gods willing, and we are all excited. She hasn’t been home for two years. She is currently working six days a week at her agency job and her private therapy practice, and is exhausted. She begins her full time private practice in mid April.
Her plans are to vegetate on the sofa, crochet an afghan for us, and be pampered. We have the yarn. She doesn’t want to go any where, just be at home and have us cook for her.
We planned menus yesterday. There will be chicken enchiladas Friday, German roast pork braised in apple cider with butternut squash risotto Saturday, and pasta with mom’s red sauce and Calabrian meatballs and bruschetta on Sunday. Monday will be leftovers. Her dad has to make bacon and scrambled eggs for her. The bacon must be Cloverdale brand, thick-sliced, hickory-smoked variety, cooked just the way she likes it, meaning it is crisp in the middle and more chewy on the ends. She also wants homemade French bread. I already have two loaves in the freezer as well as the chicken, pork loin, meatballs, and red sauce. There is one remaining butternut from the garden. I think we are set.
What would you request if you could have someone cook for you for three days. When was the last time you were waited on hand and foot?
Trail Baboon 
I am more likely to be the waiter than the waitee. I am uncomfortable being waited on except in the most limited circumstances, like a restaurant.
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I know what you mean, Bill. I get really annoyed having people hover.
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I can’t even think of a time in my life where I was the waitee, I was really sick. And then being the waitee fun anyway.
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As nearly as I can remember, when I was sick I just wanted to be left alone. No food. No coddling. No sympathy.
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One challenge this weekend will be keeping the dog from running off with the yarn for the afghan as Daughter lies on the sofa. We have a foldable play yard fence we can set up around the sofa to keep him way from Daughter as she crochets. We used it to great effect with Grandson when he wanted to be left alone by the dog. He made it into a fort with blankets. I don’t think Daughter will do that, but you never know.
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Love that he made a blanket fort with it. : )
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OT. Blevins Update (page updated as well)
The Seed Keeper (Diane Wilson)
&
Boys in the Boat (Daniel Brown)
Sunday, May 21
2 p.m.
Jacque & Lou’s
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Sidenote. The Seed Keeper her book is still kind of popular, even though it’s a couple of years old, so look for it sooner rather than later.
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I read it last spring or summer, I think. I don’t keep records the way you do, VS, I’m not very disciplined about it. Good read. Also MNHS has a similar (true) book about Sandy White Hawk and the experiences of a Dakota child who was adopted out to a white family. I have the MNHS magazine with a shorter article about it. I haven’t read that book but it might be a good read too. I’ll look for the correct title.
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“A Child of the Indian Race – A Story of Return” by Sandy White Hawk. I’m going to read it. It’s available on Amazon for Kindle, probably other sources too.
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Well, if we could duplicate the menu you’ve planned, Renee, I would be a happy camper… Wow.
Thinking…
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I’d probably go for a string of Michelin-star French meals. The classics that are some of my all-time favorites but take far too much time to make as well as the best chefs are able to make them: Cassoulet, coq au vin, quiche, beef Bourguignon, the perfect omelet, creme brulee, cream puffs, profiteroles, the perfect crusty baguette, etc., etc. And wine! Lots of wine! 🙂
Chris in Owatonna
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Yes, that sounds great!
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That would be a lot, in consecutive days. I’d want to space it out some.
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True. Then maybe I’ll alternate between that and fine Italian cuisine. 🙂
Chris
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But if I were to be waited on hand and foot, I need someone to bring me fat socks and a blanket. (For some reason I am equating getting waited on with comfort issues.). So that means hot noodles and broth, macaroni and cheese, orange crush, And M&Ms. Preferably peanut butter.
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I would want a seafood buffet. I’d like baked salmon with risotto and a green salad, or shrimp scampi. I’d like some Earl Grey tea, please, and some nice local wine with dinner.
It would be so nice to have someone monitor my yarn for me while I crochet an afghan! What luxury! I’m glad I don’t have a cat. I have nine or ten skeins of yarn piled on the table next to me right now, along with several rolled balls of yarn. It’s helpful to put the rolled balls of yarn into a round bowl with high straight sides. I use an old pottery bean pot with the cover off. It prevents the balled yarn from rolling. I’ve been making granny squares with old unused yarn all winter. I’m using three different flower pattern designs and one geometric design. I’m working on 40 of each design. Each square is about 5 inches. My plan is to join them all with a dark blue yarn which will take almost as much time as making the squares. This will make a 90×60” granny square blanket. It’s a big project and will get heavy so I probably won’t work on putting it together in the summer. I only crochet when watching tv. I can’t just watch tv and not do something with my hands. All my projects now are using recycled or unused yarn.
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Does Pippin steal yarn balls?
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Nope!
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I am glad Daughter didn’t ask for any fancy desserts.
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I am sure you all noticed the shameful absence of vegetable requests.
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I asked for a green salad… I make my green salads with fresh spinach. I’m not a fan of most lettuce. It seems like a waste to me. My salads are really nutritious. Fresh spinach, slivered carrots, various kinds of peppers, grape or cherry tomatoes, sometimes fresh broccoli, sometimes cucumber, sliced almonds, feta cheese, oil and vinegar.
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I was on bed rest in the hospital the week before our son was born. It was a real drag.
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Last question first because that’s easy. I don’t recall ever having been waited on hand and foot. Not that I wanted to be. Like Bill, I was more likely to be the one doing the waiting on.
I can’t think of anyone that I’d feel comfortable asking to cook for me for three days. But there are certain meals that I have loved to cook with good friends.
Tia, whether at her house or mine, is an excellent companion in a kitchen. We have cooked many, many memorable meals together starting while we were both in college. Tia’s parents were both Polish immigrants, and her whole family loved to cook traditional Polish dishes. Like me, Tia loves all kinds of ethnic foods, and neither of us is shy about venturing into all kinds of exotic foods.
My late friend, Anne, was another person it was fun to cook with and learn from. She was a French trained chef and tended to delegate tasks – and leave the cleanup to others – but I learned a lot from her. And her meals were exquisite.
Helen, Laurie, and Lucinda are three friends that I have cooked and shared many meals with as well. Some things are just a lot more fun when cooked in community with good friends. Dolmas, for instance, make for wonderful joint project. Early in the day, we’d wander around the neighborhood harvesting grapeleaves, and once back in Helen’s kitchen, we’d prepare all of the ingredients, and we’d make three different kinds of dolmas: one batch vegetarian, one beef, and one with lamb.
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I would love to cook with you, Margaret!
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Ooh, wouldn’t that be fun, although I have a feeling that you’re a whole lot more exacting in how you do things. I wing it a lot; there are very few things I bother actually measuring. At the moment, because I’m not supposed to be bearing weight on my left knee, Hans is doing the cooking under my tutelage, and I’m afraid it’s not going very well. This despite the fact that we’re cooking very simple meals. So far, though, the meals have been enjoyable to eat even if it wasn’t a whole lot of fun preparing them. April 5th seems a long way off. We may have to switch to take out.
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What a lovely thing, to cook with all these friends, PJ.
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We found a really great German salad with green beans, cannellini beans, shallots, tarragon, pine nuts, and cherry tomatoes that we love and we think Daughter that will love we will also make.
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And roasted red pepper
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That does sound good.
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I’m another who cannot recall being waited on hand and foot, once I left childhood, that is. And I don’t know that I’d want to be… I like the way I do things, and no one else will do everything like that.
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I would like a pasta dish with a slow cooked bolognese sauce and shaved parmesan, some garlic toast, and an artichoke with lemon and butter the first day; a salmon filet and baked squash with a side of rosemary focaccia the second day; and tomato basil soup with a grilled cheese sandwich and an artichoke encore the third day. For dessert, crème brulée, a flourless chocolate torte with whipped cream, and VS’s banofee pie. Red wine each day, I like Silk & Spice red blend especially.
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I clearly need to give question this more attention. That all sounds marvelous.
BTW, I also love Silk and Spice, was introduced to it over the holidays.
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…give this question…
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Your daughter sounds like she’s very high maintenance and a pain in the ass. I hope she knows how lucky she is to have parents who go all out to make her feel special. Have a wonderful time.
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Thanks, Matt! I know you are a dear friend of Anna, and this is a tease. I am so looking forward to having her home, and I am so thankful for you and your wife’s care and concern for her!
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I love her dearly. She is a huge blessing to me and our whole family. I don’t know what we would do without her. Just don’t tell her I said that please 😉
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