Tuesday, December 22, 2009

T's Dinner

T's favorite meal...is anything that can be made in 15 minutes or less. He does have some favorites, but for the most part, when he's hungry, he wants to eat NOW.

For Thanksgiving, I didn't host or cook. I haven't really been cooking much of anything lately. I seem to be in a funk, again just with the idea of cooking anything more than convenience for T and I seems like a waste. A few weeks ago I made a fabulous turkey vegetable lasagna that could have fed a small army. We had lasagna for dinner, lunch, dinner and even gave some away. Other than that I haven't really bothered to make anything that was even remotely labor intensive. And I still haven't.

T loves ham. Other than on a deli sandwich or with pineapple on a pizza, I prefer to avoid ham. I do much better with ham in things rather than by itself with sides.

My parents are coming for Christmas. I will make Christmas dinner, which personally, I do enjoy cooking. I like making several things in addition to the mess. Multi-tasking for a reason is really something I enjoy. Dinner will be rather easy and seeing that I'll be heading out of town for a week, leftovers aren't much of an option but a waste. My parents are bringing steak, which T refuses to eat. T wants ham.

To pacify T, I told him that I wouldn't cook ham for Christmas Eve dinner, but we could have it tonight so that he could have leftovers. In the spirit, I picked up a 6.75 pound ham, way more than we can fathom, but it was definitely more cost effective. I picked up T and brought him home today during a late lunch and threw the ham into the oven. T's responsibility due to his strong fear of the stove and oven, was to turn it on!

The ham actually smelled good when I walked in the door. Much better than the lingering ham smell on my hands from putting it into the roasting pan and oven before I headed back to work. T made his favorite cheesy mashed potatoes (another ugh for me!) while I cut up veggies for a salad. Within fifteen minutes of walking in the door, we had carved ham, instant cheesy mashed potatoes and a greek salad. Less than an hour later from walking in the door, we ate, dishes are done and we have the night ahead of us.

T is completely happy. He had his favorites in a short amount of time and I have enough ham left over for him to have for Christmas Eve dinner and enough to make ham and cheese breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. Win Win. And the best part, the ham actually was pretty good!

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