Archives October 2024

These days, if it is time for dinner and I make it, you don’t want to eat it. I have written about this before. My husband is the chef now.

The other night, I had found a recipe for “Cream Cheese Chicken,” which sounded delicious. It featured the cream cheese, along with white wine, dill, and chicken broth added to the chicken with some other stuff. I thought it looked relatively easy. To serve under it, I got some Rice A Roni, (The San Francisco Treat). It was nostalgic for me, as I used to make it all the time when I was the cook. Back in the day, when the dinners I made were totally nutritious and almost delicious.

The cream cheese chicken was much more laborious than it looked like on paper. It took Charlie over an hour to make, and in the process, he used at least three pots and every spatula we have, not to mention the measuring cups, mixing bowls, and utensils.

It was a triumph, really. Charlie’s cooking skills are now way up there. The sauce with the dill enhanced the delicate flavor of the chicken. There was also broccolini and salad.

When dinner was over, Charlie, as he snuffed out the candles, remarked “You know, Rice A Roni is complicated to make.”

RICE A RONI.

https://www.thekitchn.com/cream-cheese-chicken-recipe-23281115

What do people with insomnia do?

They get up, wander around the house, and sit alone in the dark, hoping that somehow, sleepiness will overcome them.

When that doesn’t happen, they scroll through their phone, look at all the Instagram photos, move over to places like Twitter, read stuff about the coming election, and fall into despair.

Then, if you are me, you turn your photo app on, and you take a shot like the one above.

Then you go back to bed and try to imagine what sleep is like.

This person most likely has a very important job. He’s a “stock” photo, but there are lots of people like this out there. Men and women who are decision makers, carriers of stress, makers of policy, and savers of lives.

I watch them on TV all the time. They wear Apple Watches, get into buildings using their fingerprints, and they eat standing up. They have drivers so they can do business on the way to work, because they live in huge cities with lots of traffic, so they use their time commuting wisely–getting ready to transplant organs, save a species, or control the markets of foreign countries. Some of them cause wars. Others stop them, or try to.

Here’s the thing about these people that I wonder. They probably don’t go home for long stretches, but when they are home, what do they do? Do they put on their pajamas the minute they walk in the door? Or do they have a brown drink poured into a crystal glass splashed from a cut glass decanter? Do they eat Cheetos ever? I know Taylor Swift makes pop tarts, but do any of the others  make their own snacks?

Do important people stay on alert all the time? Can they relax? How do they do this? I can’t imagine an important person taking a nap, for instance. They would keep getting interrupted by their phones binging. Do they ever do crafts? They must have the ability to immerse themselves in something that will take them out of themselves so completely that they can just focus on that thing and let the rest of the world go. So. I wonder if Bill Gates has ever used a pot holder loom.

Wouldn’t it be sort of great to be so important that you could see a problem and just pick up the phone and call another important person and get it solved, right on the spot? This must happen all the time, but we are just not aware of it, because we are not very important.

I would just once like to be so important that I could decide, for instance, that there should be more equality at the doctor’s office, and if they weigh you, you ought to be able to weigh the doctor. Who could I call to make that happen?

But actually, I am glad I am not important. I just don’t have the wardrobe for it.