Dinner at my House

My oldest child can really cook well and, on Saturday night, prepared a beautiful dinner: orange-fennel pork chops, mashed potatoes, carrots and turnips; the appetizer was roast red peppers garnished with olive oil and garlic; and dessert was Hagen Daz Ice Cream. The pork chops are a specialty and really, really good and the peppers were new. To be honest, no one liked them except me, because I like everything my children cook, and the matriarch. She ate them on top of her mashed potatoes--as an alternative to the chops because, after all, she cannot chew. The woman ate half a platter of them.

There are times, my husband and I argue over the matriarch. He's at work so, half the time, he doesn't really believe me about some of the things I tell him about his mother. We've gotten over the whole sugar thing because he has come to realize his mother will eat us out of house and home for the sugar. But, the matriarch does eat, too, and not just sugar. Sugar is merely the coating for everything. My husband didn't really expect his mother to want a snack after dinner Saturday night; she ate everything on her plate, plus all the peppers, and the ice cream which she really doesn't like but ate anyhow. He had also brought her a bowl of popcorn which we had made for family movie night. (Don't ask me how she eats it, you don't want to know) The matriarch also likes butter which I won't even discuss because the sheer amounts almost nauseate me and my youngest child takes it as quite an offense that no matter how much butter there is on the popcorn, more must always be added for grandma. Anyhow, on weekends, it is my husband's turn to bring his mother her water, snack and do her eye drops; I do the chores Sunday to Thursday, he does Friday and Saturday.

He went to her room without the snack.

What were you thinking? I asked when I found him in the kitchen putting sugar on her strawberries--he now does the quarter cup thing, too.

She ate so much at dinner and the popcorn. I really didn't think she'd be hungry.

When has your mother not been hungry?

I figure the matriarch uses so much energy going up and down the stairs for every meal, she probably really is hungry. She is using up her energy (calories). For this really old lady, who is shrinking before my eyes, her diet is immense. Plus, as she very rarely eats any type of meat anymore, the matriarch really stocks up on her vegetables (except for carrots, she despises carrots), her fruit and her sugar. And, the butter which we won't talk about suffice it to say, we also go through pounds of it, too.