Giving up the kitchen chores

Relinquishing the kitchen chores was not a hard decision. Charles retired two years ago in 2008. Unlike many people who think "What will I do when I retire?",Charles has been busy and enjoying retirement. Some days he volunteers at the Bob Bullock History Museum,or he golfs, or takes off fly fishing, or he works on the Sierra Club programming. To add to his activities he takes yoga classes and he works out with his trainer at the gym. Every once in a while he will announce "I am going to take a nap,because I am retired and I can take a nap when ever I want to!"

To my surprise Charles has added taking over the daily preparations for our dinners. When I asked Charles what he "thought" about taking over the cooking he said "Well, I have to eat don't I!" In any case he has prepared some delicious dinners,and the presentation of each meal is always nice and the meal is tasty.

One of the best parts of the "friendly takeover" of the kitchen is that Charles likes a clean kitchen. He likes the counter tops to be clean, and the stove to shine. And he likes to shop for the ingredients for his meals.

Today I came home from running around doing "other chores." I found the menu for the evening meal on the kitchen counter dry board. The dry board has become our communication source where we leave a written message to each other. Most often the message is if the dog has been taken out or fed. In the afternoon the menu for the evenings dinner usually appears with main entry, sides and desert. We do not have text messaging or a Iphone or any of the technical stuff. We write to each other so that we know what the other person is doing if we can't reach them by phone.

Charles prepared a wonderful mixed fruit desert for tonights dinner. We just returned from a 40th anniversary trip to Costa Rica. While shopping for food he found a huge pineapple in the local HEB store from Costa Rica. The fruit was wonderful on our trip, so fresh and sweet. His mixed fruit desert sure looked good in our blue bowl.

Every day is turning into a surprise for dinner. Occasionally I make a suggestion for the main course;but Charles decides and does the preparing .What follow in this blog are some comments and photos of dinners prepared by Charles.

Charles spent most of the day fly fishing on Barton Creek. When I arrived home I saw the evidence of a day of fishing and falling into the water which usually always happens when he wades in the creek...

Tonight's dinner Menu