Saturday 26 May 2007

When my husband goes to the kitchen...


Jim is a loving husband. When he is on his night off, he makes it a point to do something special for me. He tries to take my mind off from homesickness and worrying. Last Wednesday, he took me to dinner in a nice restaurant, which is unusual because he had to go to work at 8 p.m. and we were still in Norwich at 6:30 p.m. I was thinking this came about because I wasn't feeling very well the previous night. It was only a simple backache and it was gone in the morning but Jim, because of his loving nature, always tries to make me feel better. He thinks that sometimes I have these aches and pains because I am fed up with the everyday routine or I miss home or I miss my family. Somehow, he correlates what I am physically feeling to homesickness.

On Friday night, he cooked something special for me. Cottage pie. I watched him as he prepared all the ingredients. Onions. Carrots. Tomatoes. Beef stock cubes. Seasonings. Lots of ground black pepper. He said the more the seasoning, the tastier. Instead of using minced beef, he opted to minced vegetable meat which I prefer as well. I helped him slice the carrots then left him in the kitchen. I was in front of my computer the whole time. Then he came and told me that the cottage pie is now in the oven. I didn't know exactly how much time we waited for it to cook but he asked me to take it out of the oven. So, I went back to the kitchen. Uhhhmmm, it smelled really tasty, really good...and then my eyes widened in horror! Oh my God! What happened to my kitchen??? It was in complete disarray! Everything all over the place! It looked like cookie monster came and opened all the cupboards and threw everything all over! Breathe in. Breathe out. Cottage pie. Cottage pie. Clean up later. Just enjoy the cottage pie. I took the cottage pie out. It smelled really good. It needed a little bit more time in the oven. After awhile, we were sat at the dining table, enjoying the sumptuous cottage pie. Hhhhhmmmm. Yummy. I momentarily forgot the whole world.

My kitchen just before the invasion

My kitchen after the chaos


After having dinner, I was sat there, quiet. I looked at Jim and uttered a prayer of thanks. Thank you, dear Lord. For a very loving husband like Jim. For my happy marriage. Oh yes, for the cottage pie. And for something to keep me busy tonight - cleaning up my kitchen. Amen.

Yes, I know, I should have called this entry, 'Jim and the Cottage Pie.'












6 comments:

Makis said...

You're not alone in having your kitchen turned upside down, Len :D Men just have a different sense of "clean" when it comes to housework. No photo of the cottage pie at least?!

Gina said...

Baligtad naman ako. I am the one who turns the kitchen upside down, inside out ;) when I do some cooking . It's Tony who's the "neater" one!

YOu know what, Jim could be right about those aches and pains. I guess, aside from the fact that our bodies have to adjust to the new environment /different seasons , these aches & pains are probably non-physiologic and are just manifestations of homesickness, worry,or boredom (?) Well, I know that I go through these things occasionally. Less often now though,unlike when I first came here in Canada.

Lady Prism said...

You still have any left huh?!...Sounds super delicious!

Apol said...

This made me smile, Len, because last night my husband just did the same thing to the kitchen and I did the same as you: Breathe in, breathe out. It's okay... Then I watched TV and told myself we'll just clean up in the morning.

Rosemarie said...

Kenny does most of the cooking at home and is equally bad with cleaning up after his mess. Len, to avoid cleaning after, I use disposable plates if possible. Thank goodness for the dishwasher, huh?

Anonymous said...

hi len..
wow.. God has blessed you a lot!
would love to taste the yummy pie!