Maggie's Farm

There are few things I enjoy more after a long day at my dreary job than coming home and cooking dinner. Like an Amish women with a flamboyant and seductively scented flower garden, I can indulge myself with color, taste, smell, texture to tantalize my family and recreate the daily ritual of family dinner. Forget it that there are often battles and slammed doors and uneaten portions with 3 teenagers. Most of the time that from scratch meal unites us, if only in agreeing that Mummy has done better with the szechuan stir fry before. We eat dinner together six nights week (church on Sunday night condemns them to leftovers in the microwave)plus Saturday and Sunday lunch, despite sports practices, teenage jobs, etc.

The funny thing is, tho, that I am maddened by the question "what's for dinner." Always asked by a spouse and 3 kids who have been home a good hour before me, who would never think to put a roast and potatoes in the oven. I love to cook but hate to clean house, and I always have to do the latter to clear away enough of their debris to have space to cook.

I suppose the question drives me crazy because I went to school surrounded by intellectual feminists and I feel sheepish admitting that I like cooking dinner for my family. Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen days were the best...