No Cooking Here

Lack of inspiration is an ailment that often rears its ugly head when writers are faced with a blank page or screen. Lately, this same lack of inspiration has invaded my kitchen. Perhaps it's because graduation is only three weeks away. Perhaps it's because my juniors just finished research papers that now have to be graded, while my sophomores are handing in district mandated writing assessments tomorrow which also have to be graded. All of these factors are conspiring with long twilights, early sunrises, and stress over next year's budget cuts to make me want to crawl in bed, pull the covers over my head, and hide from the world. Needless to say, this precludes any semblence of cooking dinner, which is why we ate at McDonald's (again) tonight.

Dinner has been non-existent this week. Monday afternoon the boy and I ate at Mickey D's and followed up with ice cream at Sonic. (Poor Jeff was left out and made frozen pizza later, which six-foot-two-and-always-hungry helped him eat.) Tuesday night Jeff and I attended a school banquet where we were fed take-out pizza. Wednesday night Jeff and I were home late, so he stopped at Walmart to pick up something frozen - yup, pizza - which I had left over for lunch today. Hmm...in retrospect perhaps I'm just pizza'd out. Sigh...tomorrow night we will NOT be eating pizza.

Since the weekend is almost upon us, I have another opportunity to dig into the recipe files and find something more appetizing for next week. Hopefully, creativity and inventiveness (which Edison said is one percent inspiration and 99 percent persperation) will take hold and steer me toward food that is actually worth eating. I've already planned a lovely brunch for Mother's Day, so I have a head start. My hope is that eating something wonderful on Sunday will entice me to jump back into cooking dinner every night next week. I also have entree ideas posted on the side of the fridge including fried fish (from a recipe that is supposed to replicate Long John Silver's), mushroom risotto, and lemon-herb pasta with shrimp. The trouble is none of these sounds particularly tantalizing. What I really want is a five course dinner waiting on the table when I arrive home from work complete with a complimentary wine selection, linen tablecloth, and a busboy to clean up at the end. What I actually have is a glass-top kitchen table I can't seem to keep clean, mail stacked on the counter, and cats who shed constantly across my laminate floor.

Perhaps I should download one of the dinner-on-the-go apps for my new IPod to help me through this cooking crisis. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)