I went to my annual mentor training/recertification seminar a couple of weekends ago. It runs from 2pm on Thursday afternoon until 2pm (or perhaps a bit earlier) on Saturday. I always enjoy it; it is the one day I don't go to the office on a regular work day and besides, for almost 3 days someone else cooks and washes the dishes!
We meet at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, a tranquil and beautiful place. It's a great place to do training, very conducive to the often intense work we do but also a place where laughter is seldom out of place.
One of the great parts of training is, as I mentioned, not having to cook or clean up afterwards for the better part of three days. The boys are good, willing to try to clean up my plates, but they don't much care for pepper, vinegar-y things or onions (which isn't good for them anyway) so usually I just do it myself and let them forage for a dropped crumb or two on the desk where I usually take my meals. The week before training I didn't really want to buy too many groceries, preferring to wait until I got back just in case the power went out or something. As a result I more or less ate out of the freezer. One thing I seem to have a plethora of is chicken, breasts I buy in bulk from the local market and chop in half before tucking in the freezer. I like chicken although I usually don't fry it the way we used to have it back home. My little Foreman grill works just fine.
The week before I went to Scottsdale I had chicken three times, each time grilled with onion and mushrooms with a different marinade, served over similarly flavored rice. It was good, I enjoyed it, but I looked forward to the always good and plentiful food at the Renewal Center.
I checked in on Thursday, went through the afternoon session and headed with my classmates for dinner. There was the lovely bowl of greens and toppings of all kinds for salad although the dressing choices were limited to Italian and Ranch. There were potatoes and bread and the main dish -- chicken cordon bleu with mornay sauce. It was good, but it was the fourth time I'd had chicken that week so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have. But what the heck, I hadn't had to cook it, after all.
Saturday breakfast was lovely -- scrambled eggs, fruit, sausage, toast, hash browns -- one just like I like but seldom do at home because it messes up so many dishes. We worked all morning and then went to lunch. More salad with lots of toppings and the same two dressings, refried beans, spanish rice -- and chicken enchiladas. I'm not the world's greatest fan of Mexican food but I was hungry and what the heck, I hadn't had to cook it or clean up after it. Still, chicken 5 days out of 7 was getting a bit much. Luckily, dinner was something else, I don't even remember what, but it was good.
Saturday morning breakfast had pancakes, bacon, fruit, and other goodies. I could really get spoiled with meals like that. We worked all morning again and then went to our final meal together for this session. Lovely salad fixings, same two dressings, rice, veggies --- and oriental orange chicken. It was good, it was filling, and I hadn't had to cook it or clean up after it but it was still chicken. Didn't just taste like chicken, it was chicken.
I got home at mid-afternoon and the boys were glad to see me even though I had been home every night during the seminar. I fed them their shredded beef and eventually decided it was time for dinner. I hadn't stopped at the store so I was left to root through the freezer for something which turned out to be ---- drumroll ----- chicken nuggets! Where was the beef I thought I had? Or the tv dinner of mac and cheese or lasagne? Alas, the boys must have eaten them becuase they were gone (ok, I vaguely remember having them the week before and had not replaced them from the store). All in all, I had chicken in some form seven times in seven days. I did check in the mirror to make sure I wasn't growing feathers.
It's been two weeks and I am getting ready to fix my dinner. The boys have had their evening meal (shredded chicken-- which they will eat almost any time you offer it to them) and I'm ready to cook my own. Since I'm cooking and having to clean up, it's a simple meal with as little fuss as possible: flavored rice, seasoned green beans and, yes, chicken grilled on the Foreman with onions and 'shrooms with some kind of seasoning.
I have this mad urge to go scratch in the dirt and cluck. I wonder what the neighbors would say?
No comments:
Post a Comment