Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

  


           Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks


     Over the last few months it became more and more evident that the time Linda had left was getting shorter by the day. She was worried about me and suggested that I start looking around for a new wife as I would need someone to look after me, after all she had been doing just that for forty seven years and she had doubts that I could pick up the slack. All those many years ago she told me my job was to go to work, cut the grass, paint and keep the house in good repair she would take care of the cooking and housework.
      She continued to do as much as she could with the strength she had left but it soon became apparent that little everyday things drained her of her energy. First it was the vacuuming, not a job that anybody looked forward to doing but if you have a dog and don't vacuum then you are quickly up to your eyeballs in dog hair, loose grass, leaves and dirt that was tracked in and the combined aroma of those things can get to be a little overwhelming. Vacuuming was a no brainer just plug it in turn it on and go back and forth over the floor - got it.
     Housekeeping in general is turning out to be a little more problematic. Chasing dust bunnies around the floor is one thing but having to chase them off the furniture, walls and TV screen is another. I now know why they are called dust bunnies for as quickly as you swiffer them away a new generation pops up and starts to multiply. It is a never ending process.
     Shopping presents a horse of a different color. There are four different grocery stores plus Walmart within an eight mile radius of our house. Linda would look at all of the newspaper and online adds each week to determine what she would buy from whom and search the newspaper for coupons. One store would have the best overall prices and would get the bulk of our business, another had the best meats, another doubled the coupons on Wednesday and they all had sales items the others didn't have. Linda would spend two or three days each week on grocery shopping. Once you get to the store you've got to find what you are looking for and it seems that it is never in the same place twice. I found out that there are several brands of the foodstuff and they are all different prices, math was never my strong suit and I probably look pretty silly standing in the aisle starring at the rows of cans, jars and boxes as I try to figure out the best buy, Linda could instantly spot the best deal and quote the savings.
     Common sense told me that it was a waste of time and money to go from store to store in order to save a dime especially with the price of gas being what it is so I decided to to do all of my shopping at the nearest store with occasional side trips to Walmart as they have the brand of grape kool-aid that I like and a fairly good assortment of fishing lures. I do consider myself a savvy price conscious shopper, in other words I buy on the cheap side and purchase stores brands whenever possible but if that lesser brand has no taste I will move up to a more palatable product - if it makes your lips pucker or throat constrict it is not worth the savings. If something is on sale three for two dollars why not buy three, think of the time saved trying to figure out the individual unit price besides I'll eventually eat all three.
     Grocery shopping was not all that difficult but I am having trouble on the planning stage even though I do make a list and stick to it. The problem seems to be planning ahead and knowing what you need, how am I supposed to know what I will be hungry for next Thursday, got to work on that part.
     Laundry, this is not the first time I have done laundry, as a young boy I often helped Mom wash clothes on an old wringer washer, hang them on an outdoor clothes line in weather so cold that the clothes froze before they dried then fold and iron them. My first two years in the Navy I had to take care of my own clothes, Mom wasn't around to do it for me, Linda did take over this chore once we were married. Laundry so far has been a piece of cake and may be the easiest bit of housework yet, I mean all I have to do is load up the washer with dirty clothes and detergent then turn it own and go watch a little TV. When the washer quits throw everything into the dryer with one of those dryer sheets that always seem to turn up in the most inconvenient places days later and watch more TV. I have found that there is no need to be concerned about the various settings on the machines as every thing I own is so old that there is no need to worry about the colors running or the material shrinking - don't have enough whites to make a load go ahead and fill it up with some colored shirts, jeans or a bath towel or two.
     Now cooking is another of those things that Mom taught me to do. By the time I left home I could make toast and mash potatoes, iced tea and fry a hamburger. These skills I passed along to Linda when we first married, her mother was not a good cook so that skill was never passed down to her. When I went to Vietnam Linda stayed with my family and Mom taught her most everything she knew about cooking and Linda became quite adept and over the years expanded her culinary skills. She was also very inventive like when we were first married she wanted me to go out and fight the dragons of life with a good breakfast. Eggs were never high on my list of breakfast foods so she substituted with the next best thing - pancakes. The recipe she used called for milk in the mixing of the batter but one morning she went to the frig and there was no milk and no neighbor to borrow a cup from. What we did have was ice cream or to be specific ice milk that after a little thawing worked very well except there was just one tiny little problem, the ice milk we had was strawberry flavored and the pancakes turned out pink in color - not a good color when waking up with a hangover. I suffered but had to admit they were just as tasty.
     After all these years I have to start cooking again and find that this is one bicycle I am not going to just climb back on very quickly. Forty-seven years ago we didn't have microwaves or quick fully cooked easy to prepare instant meals but thank God for Campbells soup - I won't starve.
     There are however several tasty dishes that Linda cooked that are my favorites and I had her spend an afternoon showing me how to cook them.
      The first is cube steak. Dad used to cook cube steak which is just a round steak ( the toughest steak there is ) run thru a tenderizer, he would pan fry them to the point that they bounce across the floor like an old dried out cow paddy and they were just as hard to chew. Linda on the other hand cooked the cube steaks in the crock pot all day with mushrooms, mushroom soup, carrots and onions - they were tender and delicious. She would cook enough at one time that I could make several meals, add a helping of mashed potatoes and Navy beans and corn bread and you had Southerner cooking at it's finest. I don't eat the onions but I do like the flavor they add. My first preparation of this meal was a success and I am off to a good start.
     Next came the meatloaf. You will note that I am a meat and potatoes type of guy, after all  I am a butchers son. Linda's recipe calls for a pound and a half of ground chuck but she usually buys two to three pounds uses half for the meatloaf and the rest she makes into pre-cooked hamburgers which she stored in the frig until ready to eat. The first time I made meatloaf Linda had taken a turn for the worse and I didn't have time to make the burgers, wound up tossing half of the ground beef. the next time I made it was after she passed and I wound up making a three pound meatloaf that fed about seven people plus some leftovers for later. Nobody complained and even sister Vicki ate leftovers, still I think the next time I will add a little onion for a tad bit more flavor. At least this time I didn't throw out half of the ground chuck.
     Her chili recipe is equally delicious and allows for the making of several batches to be made at one time. After cooking the meat and peppers you place the ingredients into containers and freeze them, later you thaw out a container add chili beans and there you have several meals. I still have several containers in the freezer for later consumption.
     Now we get to the really good stuff - cookies and cakes - specifically peanut butter chocolate chip cake and the breakfast of champions chocolate chips cookies ( they are also a great snack food any time of the day or night ). I must say I have had a few problems in this area but I am working on the third time around so I hope my troubles are over. I must preface this by saying that Linda's recipes were not what I call all inclusive as there were little things that any good cook would automatically know to do but a novice like me would wind up with a mess on his hands. I was at least sharp enough to sit down with Linda and rewrite the recipe to where I could understand it and the finished product would not be wasted - so I thought.
     My first stab at the cake went pretty well, it looked like what Linda cooked, it even tasted like Linda's cake and everyone liked it. My son Clay even took half of it home with him. Still after all was said and done there was something that was gnawing at me and being the meticulous person I am I got to the bottom of the issue. It appears that when translating the recipe to better understand the steps either Linda forgot to tell me or I forgot to write down a key ingredient - eggs. As I said the cake came out very tasty and had the proper appearance but it didn't rise up to the proper depth, it was kinda thin.
     Trial and error number two came after Linda became bedridden, I had added eggs to the recipe and was ready to try again. I got out all of the ingredients in preparation for mixing and started putting things together. I got everything mixed poured into the pan and in the oven, I even tasted the batter and let Linda have a taste - it was delicious. While the cake was in the oven though there was a gnawing sensation in the back of my neck that I screwed up somewhere so I went back over all of the steps and ingredients and there it was, I screwed up again. When gathering the ingredients I grabbed a box of cake mix from the pantry and mixed it up, I noticed several times there were little specs of redish color in the mix but thought nothing of it at the time. What happened was that I grabbed the only box of carrot cake mix instead of yellow cake mix. However not all was lost the cake was delicious and I think even a little tastier, I may even get more carrot cake mix. Tonight I made another cake following all directions with the proper ingredients and it is great - just add ice cream. Yep third time is the charm, oh and I must remember to grease to pan before pouring the mix next time.
     I have only made the cookies one time and they were tasty although they were a little thicker than Linda's. The little kids next door, Rachael and David, are my cookie critics and they gave me two thumbs up. David has reminded me that they are out of cookies so I promised him I would make more tonight. This time I will flatten them out more, it won't effect the taste but appearances are important.
     This old dog may not hunt to well but he can learn a new trick or two.
     Linda is gone now and the house is quiet. I am starting a new phase in life, there are many life changes I am struggling with and at times it is very overwhelming. I have asked myself why bother, maybe Linda was right and I do need a keeper but then that would be giving up and I can't do that. I have friends and family that won't let me quit and certainly not let me starve. I have to go on for MJ and her soon to arrive little brother Mathew I have to tell them about the Grandmother they won't know. I have to tell them how beautiful she was and how much she loved them and how much I loved her.