Forced Domesticity

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”  ~Fran Lebowitz

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”  ~Doug Larson

“Domesticity has to mean nesting.  Otherwise, six months go by and you don’t know where your underwear is.”  ~Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

 

Forget Atkins and South Beach.  I'm totally counting on the Papua New Guinea (Ice-cream-closing-in-on-$10-per-half-gallon) diet plan.  

Gone will be the days of purchasing boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Instead, whole (though, thankfully, beheaded and plucked) chickens can be delivered right to your doorstep.

Tortillas, bread, buns, noodles, pitas ... all from scratch.

No more Hamburger Helper, no more taco seasoning packets, no more cake mix. 

 

No more Sonic.

 

Though I have talked about it in the past, now I will finally be forced to cook, and even more frightning, plan ahead.

On the suggestion of other Wycliffe members, I have acquired the Mennonite cookbook, More-

With-Less.  At first glance, it's nothing to go wild over; the cover is plain and not particularly appealing.  Grains, legumes, and Swiss cheese create the outline of the Mennonite Central Committee logo ("a cross emptying into action in the form of a dove of peace?") to remind us all that the combination of grains and legumes or dairy and legumes or dairy and grains or ice cream and pizza ... or something like that ... form complete proteins.   

Uh huh.

The inside is filled with tasty morsels of wholesome, organic wisdom in the form of "Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas," "Soybean Souffle," and "Our-Children-Love-Liver."

Uh huh.

 

My mouth is watering even as I type.  Oh wait ... that's bile.

  

But it's all good, right?  'Cause I'm gonna lose weight and we're all going to be healthier.  :)

Three times a week, the national ladies bring their market to the center and for two hours you can feast your eyes on some of the juciest, freshest fruits and vegetables on the planet.  Even things that they themselves would not eat - broccoli, lettuce, etc. - they will grow because they know the missionaries will buy them.  And why wouldn't we, when a can of cut green beans is $2.00 and a huge handful of whole green beans (enough for several cans) costs ten cents?

 

So we're about to transition into a kind of forced domesticity.  

A few months ago my husband and the kids made tortillas.  And he's been experimenting with

 various kinds of bread

here and there.  Today?  He made granola.  I always thought making granola was pouring it out of the box into a bowl and adding milk and a spoon.   

On second thought, I think I'll let my husband do the cooking.  I’ll be out getting the underwear off the clothes line before I forget where it is.