We got home Friday night. The kitchen was passable. There was definitely work to be done to bring it up to my standards, but after nearly 24 hours of travel, I was not ready to tackle it.
First thing Saturday morning, I went to work. I started with cleaning out the refrigerator. There were still a few leftovers from before we left two weeks prior. There was a package of chicken that had the "use by" date of October 20th. I picked it up to discard it and it was a drippy mess. It actually dripped in to the vegetable drawer. Basically I ended up having to wipe out the whole refrigerator.
Then I noticed this:
It made me smile! I think this is his way of making sure we don't forget he's here. Actually, his kitchen cleaning assures we won't!! (Just in case you don't know what it is---it's a Clemson Tiger paw.)
Oh, and a little later, he said he planned to make dinner for us. I said, "Were you planning to use that chicken in the refrigerator?" He answered, "yes."
"Well," I said, "I threw it out because it expired over a week ago." Then he told me that after we left, he had gone grocery shopping. He bought the chicken and put it in the freezer. He had taken it out the day before to thaw! I can't believe I threw away $10 worth of perfectly good chicken!!
I also noticed that he bought the biggest bag of rice I'd ever seen. For us it would probably last 10 years!!
When he was ready to start dinner, I told him there were a couple tips I could give him to make the cooking process a little easier:
1. Start by cleaning up the kitchen so you have plenty of room and counter space.
2. Fill the sink with hot sudsy water so you can clean up as you go and rinse your hands.
3. Wash your hands.
He just smiled. After that, I told him I would leave him alone. I went back in the family room and put my feet up!
Anyway, he made dinner and it was really good. He marinated the chicken and grilled it. He served it with rice and grilled asparagus that he'd seasoned and added parmesan cheese.
I told him that his dinner was good, but the best part was that I didn't have to make it!! With that, he put away the leftovers and I cleaned the kitchen---to my standards! If someone wants to cook for me, I'll gladly do the clean up!!
I would have stood in the doorway and directed him on how to clean. I used to warn my kids that if they thought they could do things so badly I would do it for them they were wrong. If they did it badly they obviously needed more practice and they could start right now. They soon learned to do it properly and do it only once
ReplyDelete