Tantalizing smells from the kitchen

I don't cook very well.  Understatement of my life.  :)

I am also not very creative.  I have learned that garlic can make my kitchen smell...oh, so... intoxicating.  When I run out of garlic, I run out of ideas of what to cook.  When I don't have garlic, it is time to go shopping.  We can survive without bread, rice, and almond milk, but no garlic, no dinner. 

I managed to make no one complain about the brown rice I made for the grilled rice burritos a few days ago.  I made Spanish rice and it made for nice fat burritos.  That was the first time I grilled the burritos.  I have a feeling that as long as it's grilled, it'll go over well with my family. 

I have an organic chicken in the clay roaster with, surprise!, lots of garlic in the oven right now.  I took a short cut and dumped in a jar of cliantro salsa in with the rice.  Hopefully it'll produce Spanish rice soon.

It's really true that a well-fed husband is a happy husband.  I didn't want to believe that men, that my very own husband, could be so ... simple.  Alas, it is true.  Another nugget of wisdom that I didn't pay much attention to before is waiting to talk to my husband about pressing matters until after he's eaten.  An empty stomach will not give good responses. 

It would be nice if so much time needn't be spent on food.  Buying food.  Trying to save with coupons before even getting to the store.  Organizing the kitchen.  Not burning the food.  Making brown rice palatable to a family that lived in Japan for 4 years and loves sushi and all things pertaining to white rice.  Cleaning up.  But then again, it makes sense that a worthy pursuit should take care and effort and of course, time.  As a mother, my main concern is the physical and spiritual nourishment of my family.

I wish I had grown up being comfortable in the kitchen.  More importantly, being useful in the kitchen.  But all I did was eat.  I need to remember that before my children can learn to see the kitchen as an area of service, I need to enlist their help.  When they offer to do something that I think I can do faster and neater, I should gratefully accept.

I'd love for my children to grow up thinking that home is where good food is.  Good food doesn't happen by itself.  Thank you, Lord, for giving me a kitchen to prepare in and a family to feed.  And dishwashers.  7 in the making.  :)