I think my wife was a little concerned about last night. She was working on dinner and I said, “dang, I was going to offer to help and then I got distracted… I was looking forward to cutting something up.”
There are lots of circumstances when it’s perfectly legitimate to become concerned when someone shows a little too much fondness for a knife, but cut me a little slack here. While I’m not a particularly good cook, I like to play around in the kitchen. (You don’t have to be good at something to have fun doing it, do you?) Having cut my gender-role teeth in the 80’s and 90’s, I like to think I’m pretty good about sharing the household work load, and dinner has been one of my responsibilities. It’s one of those times when my kids show just how much they love to be helpful… to contribute. My two and a half year old will stand like a sentinel well beyond his normal attention span, awaiting that fleeting opportunity to toss ingredients into the pan. My soon to be ten year old will actually put down her DS for the opportunity to peel a potato.
Cooking dinner has been my time to unwind. I take my time. I involve the kids, and we all enjoy each other’s company.
And then I got sick. Now it’s been almost two months since I’ve touched my favorite kitchen utensils.
Maybe it’s time I started doing the cooking again.