Weekend Cooking

Each weekend, I spend between three to four hours cooking a couple of dishes. These aren't for a homely weekend meal with the family.  These dishes go into the freezer for consumption during the weekdays. We've not had domestic help for many years now and this is one of the arrangements to get around a time-deficit work week.

As you can imagine, there are downsides to this arrangement. My traits at the workplace manifest themselves when I am in the kitchen. Those who know me from work will tell you that I like to keep things simple. Over-complicating things only lead to confusion. The other thing that my colleagues would say about me is that I like a modular approach to most things I do. Design self-contained modules that can be used and re-used. I cook the mince meat on its own so that it can be used in the porridge, or mixed-in with the fried cabbage, or with spaghetti sauce. Stir-fry two types of vegetables and they can be mixed-and-matched with the meat or the poultry to give you at least four different combinations of a balanced meal. 

Monday's are predictable - a meat and vegetable soup slow cooked overnight. Whilst we can't have soup for every meal, I am determined to have it at least one day of the week. It's not because I have Cantonese blood from my mother's side of the family, but simply because it's one less thing to think about on a Sunday evening - meat, root vegetables, onions, all in a pot and I am done. It's my sons' least favourite meal of the week, but I will keep at it so long as my daughter still enjoys it. When my sons give me the stare, I just tell them,"eat it, because it is good for you". 

Someday, when my kids get invited to their potential in-laws' home for dinner, they are going to realise that other families' meal times are quite different. When that happens, I hope they will see the humour in it and find it in their heart to forgive me. I hope that they will also understand that good tasting or not, it was a labour of love.