Sunday Dinner

After however long it’s been, I still can’t get used to cooking for a smaller crew. Part of this is unconscious, part of it isn’t. I can’t explain the part that’s unconscious, other than to say that it’s either force of habit or wishful thinking - or more likely, some combination of the two.

But for the part that is conscious, I guess my thinking is that if I’m going to go to the trouble to grill/cook/bake something, I might as well cook a ton of it and make it worthwhile.

I think there’s a certain logic to this, though I’m not saying it’s always defensible. It works out great when one of the kids is visiting and I can send them off, fully stocked with food. And it works out well when I can mail them some baked goods that I know won’t spoil. And if neither of those are possible, it gives us a few extra meals during the week - and those are meals that I no longer have to plan for.

Every once in awhile, I'll be left with more food than I can use - even in a week's time. I try to wedge the overflow into my over-stuffed freezer. And there are those rare occasions where it doesn't work out at all.

This past weekend, Sam and I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs - largely because we hadn’t had it in quite a while. But we also happened to have a coupon for some frozen meatballs, so this seemed like a good time to go for it. Normally, we would make our own meatballs, but this was kind of a last minute decision, so we were taking a short cut. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

On Saturday, along with our other groceries, Sam and I picked up the frozen meatballs, and on Sunday, we dumped them into the crock pot, along with some sauce, some garlic that Sam had diced, and then we added some spices.

Later in the day, Sam sliced some mushrooms, which we cooked separately, and then we added them into the sauce mixture. Sunday night, I boiled two pounds of spaghetti and we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It was delicious - for a while.

Later on Sunday night, it hit me - literally. I felt like I was getting a stomach bug. I was getting achy all over, and I was getting this vaguely queasy feeling- the kind where you can’t tell if you’re really feeling that way or not, but you don’t want to think about it too hard because it might make it worse.

Sunday night into Monday, I got maybe a total of four hours of sleep. I kept getting up, and while I wasn’t getting sick, I was in full body cramp mode. As I lay back in bed, I remembered that the last time I felt this bad was several years ago. Back then, I had bought some frozen mini-tacos - again with a coupon, and almost immediately after eating them, I felt pretty much the same as I did right now - maybe even worse. At least at this point, I wasn't breaking out in sweats. I tried to tell myself that I was lucky.

Anyway, I was pretty sure at this point that using those store bought, frozen meatballs had not been a good idea.

Little by little, over the next couple of days, the ill effects began to wear off -for the most part.

Today is trash day, so last night, along with filling our usual bags of trash and garbage, I added several quarts of meatballs and sauce, as well as the unused portion of frozen meatballs that were still in the freezer.

Before leaving for work this morning, I set the trash bags outside for the trash pick-up and I’m hoping that no animals are currently ripping them apart and spreading tainted tomato sauce all over my leaf covered lawn.

I’m not sure if there’s any lesson to be learned from all of this or not. But I’m kind of upset that I have just under two pounds of cold spaghetti sitting in my refrigerator right now, and my meal planning for the week is completely shot.