Neccesity is the Mother of Subway

I believe that the subject of dinner has caused a great deal of change and progress in the course of humankind.  Fire was discovered because some mom was tired of hearing her children complain about cold fish.  Then the stove was invented because some mom was tired of working all day and then having to come home and build a fire.  I'd even go so far as to say that dinner was the cause of revolutionizing women's fashions .  I mean c'mon who wants to stand around and mash potatoes and make gravy in kitten heels and crinoline skirts. 

Now in no way do I think that dinner is women's work at all.  I just happen to really like cooking but feel that dinner preparation and planning is sometimes the bane of my existence.  I have 6 people to feed with the hopes of leftovers to feed them all for lunch the next day.  If the sheer numbers of mouths I have to feed doesn't doesn't garner the dinner angst, then the "what" to feed them should.  I know that I should just be able to cook one meal and put it on the dinner table and say "if you don't like it then starve" but the only person not starving at our table would be my Bella who, as I have said before, eats ANYTHING.  Justin needs a low sodium diet as he battles high blood pressure. Rich and I try to avoid animal protein.  Sarah and Andrew are the pickiest but Sarah is at the age where we still can force her to eat what we put in front of her.  Andrew is a lost cause with nary a vegetable crossing his lips.  Not to even mention the fact that most of these days I am not even home until 6:00 or so due to baseball practice every evening.  So let me recap.

6 members of family + 6 different diets + mom who really likes and craves whole good food and nothing from a can or a box + not a lot of quality prep time = a very grouchy mama in need of dinner solutions to the extent of inventing fire or the stove or stretchy yoga pants.

I do have one ace in the hole.  I have an amazing husband who is a very good sous chef.  Most days he is home just ahead of me and is able to prep everything that I need to make a good wholesome dinner for 6 horribly picky eaters. 

Two nights ago was one of those occasions, that I'm telling you worked like clockwork. By the time I walked in the door the pasta was cooked, the veggies sauteed and all I had to do was make the sauce and plate it up.

Tonight not quite the same story.  I was running a little late due to my Grease rehearsal and as I was calling Rich to give my sous chef the list of duties he was informing me that he was also running late and that he would not be able to do much prep work.  So I get home and pull out the meat only to find out that it was still a little frozen.  I also very quickly realize that the potatoes were never going to get scrubbed, peeled, and boiled in time for my mashed potatoes.

If there were ever a meal that needed a sous chef, it was this one.

I did give it the college try before I sat outside and waited for Rich to come home to have him feel my woe and suggest we go to Subway to get sandwiches.

So if moms, trying to make dinner a little easier, discovered fire, the stove, and house slippers it was dads who came up with the idea of Subway.  They needed some way to please those moms, who on those rare occasions, can't get dinner on the table even with a great assistant.

More Later

- A Ro