Quite By Accident

I am very positive that I have mentioned many times that I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.

He is smart

He is funny

  But not as funny as me.  As I?

He is handsome

He can figure anything out

  Including me

He doesn’t get mad when I leave the gardening tools out - despite every effort I make to put them away, there is always one that remains.

It’s a conspiracy.

He bravely and politely endures me when cooking creativity born from necessity comes over me.

Dinner this week was one of those instances.

Now, we don’t go wild and crazy when it comes to meals.  For many years, we never had a real dinner.  Unless we ordered pizza or went out to eat.  Or it was a holiday.  Not because we didn’t like to cook, we both do.  And we are both pretty good at it.  It just turned out with work and other things we developed the ‘Fend For Yourself’ meal plan.  

For me, ‘Fend For Yourself’ consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich - made from Havariti cheese - most every night.  This was my dinner for about four years.  

For many years for lunch at work I had oatmeal with raisins.  Every single work day.

When I find something I like, I make a commitment to it and I stick with it.

Anyway ~

Back to our dinner.  Since we are a team effort, and I have a wonky situation with my fingers and toes going numb, Randy is responsible for taking things out of the freezer.  It is a collaborative effort to decide if he is going to barbecue, smoke or use ‘The Big Easy’ or if I am going to cook.

Steven - have you put a ‘Big Easy’ on your Christmas list for Santa?  You won’t regret it!

Anyway ~

I was doing the cooking and I decided on comfort food.  Pork chops browned in the Dutch oven, slathered with Cream of Mushroom soup and then popped in the oven for about an hour.  I usually make wild rice to go with it, but I was in a Cous Cous kind of mood.  

I looked in the pantry for the Cream of Mushroom soup and there weren’t none.

About ten years ago, running out of a pantry item would have shocked the socks right off of Randy.  He used to claim that when Safeway ran low on stock, they would come to my pantry to fill in.

Somewhere, there is a picture that Randy took of the pantry at the Edgewood house.  The shelves were so heavy with canned goods that they were bowed in the middle.  After searching through all my pictures saved to CD’s, this is the best that I could do.

This picture was taken in 1999 when Ed and Nina and their two kids, Krystina and Eddie came to visit.  I have no idea why they are hanging out in the pantry.  We do not make our guests stay in small closets.  And that wine on the bottom shelf?  More than likely, I still have some of that wine. 

Besides not finding the picture I wanted, I also came to the sad realization that I still have some of the same clothes I am wearing in pictures that are well over ten years old.

Oh well ~

Not willing to accept defeat - or take 20 minutes out of my life to run to the grocery store - I improvised.  As I dreamt up a suitable sauce,  I started to get carried away with seasoning so I had to stop with the hunt through the spice cabinet.  But I had to add my ever faithful...

Fenugreek Seed

Fenugreek seed makes everything taste so nice and mild.  Just the scent of it makes everything right with the world.

“When I Take Over My World There Will Be Fenugreek Seed in Every Spice Cabinet”

The moral of this story:

I was nervous to admit to Randy that I ended up having to be creative with dinner.  But I received a huge thumbs up and decided that I will never buy cream of mushroom soup again.  The sauce that I concocted was delicious.

And the best part - I even remember how I made it!

Dorothy's Mock Cream of Mushroom Soup Sauce

16 oz Sour cream

4 oz Cream cheese

A Splash of Buttermilk

Minced Onion

Minced Garlic

1 t Salt

1 t Pepper

1/2 t Celery Salt

Dash Red pepper flakes

4 Dashes of ground Fenugreek seed

I almost forgot the most important ingredient -

One small can of Mushroom pieces, liquid and all

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy