Trish Giordano: Menu Planning: Do You Do It?

Trish Giordano: Menu Planning: Do You Do It?: Each week, I sit down with a cup of tea and plan our house dinner menus around our activities for the upcoming week.....are we going out to ...

Menu Planning: Do You Do It?

Each week, I sit down with a cup of tea and plan our house dinner menus around our activities for the upcoming week.....are we going out to dinner, do I have an evening board meeting, are we in New York with the Grands, etc.

I assign a dinner for each night we are in town and from that I prepare my grocery store list.

I also typically check the cupboards and freezer  to make sure I am not buying duplicates.

This is how I have operated for over fifty years.  It absolutely astounds me when people say they
Never make a list when they go to the store.  They say that once they arrive at the store, they purchase whatever looks good and/or what might be on special sale.

Many, many people (mostly a younger generation) also declare that they never know what they are eating for dinner because they don't know what they will be in the mood for so they decide day of or that very AFTERNOON!

This totally boggles my brain!  Leaving this important decision to the last minute is something I cannot fathom!

Have I ever been in this position?  Absolutely!  And that is why it upsets me so!  I hate not having the control and confidence that a meal will be on the table at a certain time.  I love to plan my day and

scurrying around at the last minute is not something I want to do!

Of course, there have been many, many times that I have tried a new recipe and it just didn't work.....
so that particular well-planned meal was a bust!

My husband is not fond of crockpot meals.....he likes sauteed, broiled, baked .....not a fan of gravy and sauces, so the crockpot is not my "go to" for meal planning.

With this "self isolation" and "lockdown" it seems we are all cooking/baking more and becoming so very creative.  With the store shelves depleted, who knew or thought that pasta and flour would be
worth their weight in gold right now due to inaccessibility!

Taking time to decide on menus and ingredients gives one power and control over the entire week!

I must admit I am in awe of my friends...women who have or had demanding careers, active women

who do not waste a moment.....they are so very innovative when it comes to trying new recipes, new

desserts.....they, too, know each day what they are having or preparing.

The old Girl Scout rule of  "being prepared" resonates........this is a system that truly works!

Trish Giordano: Pandemic 2020, part 2

Trish Giordano: Pandemic 2020, part 2: Geeze Louise! Whoever thought this Pandemic would last this long? This truly is like something out of a bad sci-fi movie from the 1950&#39...

Pandemic 2020, part 2

Geeze Louise!
Whoever thought this Pandemic would last this long?
This truly is like something out of a bad sci-fi movie from the 1950's!
Most people  have cleaned their homes from top to bottom, organized their closets
 and drawers and have been cooking a treasure trove of recipes.
Zoom has proved invaluable, not only for business meetings, but for gatherings of
family and friends.  I do believe my Grands will have grown many, many inches since
I last saw them March 1st.
We all learned to appreciate our beloved family and friends all the more in their absence.
Missing the daily contact, hugs and kisses has been especially difficult.
We all were settling into a new "normal" with the hopes and belief that this would soon
pass and we could all get back to the way things were.
The politicians have turned the whole Pandemic into a circus.  Their denying science and
sending mixed messages to the public has caused nothing but confusion.
Now it appears we are moving backwards, not forward, with surges in new cases and deaths.
While it initially appeared to affect the elderly the most, now we have the 30-50 year olds
hospitalized and dying.  Not to mention our children and even infants.
Most of us are using common sense and wearing masks and following social distancing but
it appears many are not.  They must feel they are invincible.  We see the news photos of crowded beaches with most not wearing masks.   Now many of us are heading back into the safety of our homes due to our being unsure of what (and who)  is safe and what is not.
The whole argument of sending our children back to school is not to be believed!  "They" say
the children need to learn, to socialize, interact.....well, if they are horribly sick or dead they
can't do anything!  When we do not know the scope of this virus, we are constantly learning day by day, how can we rush into anything?  Rushing to send our children back to school.....why can we
not take it slow and easy and see how and where this all goes?  What is the urgency???
Of course, it is all about perspective.  A young mother with three children who worked at an upscale restaurant now finds herself home with her children, struggling to pay the rent or mortgage and buy food.  I am retired and not worrying about putting foods on the table or paying the mortgage.......so,
again, it is truly all about perspective.
Even so, the bottom line (to me) is that we go slow......better safe than sorry.  With the 42 states having spikes and, basically, going backward.....the slow, steady approach would seem to be the most sane decision  at this point in time.
The people who are balking at wearing the masks need to re-think this infringement on their "freedom".....The wearing of masks will enhance and  increase their freedom when we can conquer this virus, re-open our businesses, and get back to our normal lives!