Monday, March 29, 2004

Away from the kitchen, away from the blog
Posted 10:57 PM by Mike

New duties at work have kept me working long hours six days a week for the past few weeks. The long hours during the week will continue, but at least I have my weekends free once again.

The new role at work and the subsequent longer hours have meant that I have had the time to neither post on the blog nor work as much in the kitchen as I'd like. In fact, I gave my family the warning that for the time being they would have to fend for themselves come dinner time.

I did, however, attempt to help make things easier. I built and froze some lasagnas in advance. I stocked the pantry, the fridge and the freezer with easy-to-make items and even some kits (hey, I'm the one who took the no-kit pledge, not my family).

The irony of my wife having to do more in the kitchen (not that she has that much more time than me; her hours are long, too) is that she is, in fact, a much better cook than I am, always has been. She also is a much more imaginative cook than I and can present a better meal (in other words, a more rounded meal, wheras I tend to obsess over the main course and throw together some sides). It's just that she doesn't enjoy cooking as much as I do. In fact, she doesn't really enjoy it much at all. It's a chore at which she's very good, but it's a chore all the same.

A few years ago, when I proposed that I leave my day job to pursue cartooning and graphic design fulltime, I made the pledge that I would be the one to prepare the meal every night. She was more than happy to take me up on the meal prep proposal. Three years later, when I returned to a day job, I continued to be the main meal preparer, although I was often Helper-Dependent.

Once I took the FoodDork pledge (no more kit cooking), I was happier in the kitchen than ever, and my wife was even happier to have me in there.

These days, with the new responsibilities, I'm having some problems with meal planning, and with my continued culinary education.

Like I said, though, my weekends are free again, which is when I'll continue to experiment and learn in the kitchen.

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