Everything continues to grow more terrible and worrisome in the world and I hope you and your loved ones are safe, healthy, and coping okay.
Here, I am dealing with my own very-small-in-the-grand-scheme frets and stresses, including, as always, what to feed my family.
I had dinners for the week all planned out as of LAST MONDAY and was feeling very smug about the whole thing… but now my in-laws are coming for an unspecified amount of time, and they are staying with us, and so that whole list is OUT THE WINDOW. For one thing, I do not want to experiment with new dishes when it not just my very forgiving, very agreeable husband who is trying them with me. For another, having guests is so stressful that I want EASY and prep-ahead-able.
I have not come up with much, let me tell you. I think my plan is going to be “mainly takeout.” But there are a couple of nights where that is just not possible, because we have Evening Commitments.
Oh, I guess now I am going to do some fretting.
My husband asked his parents if there were any things we could get at the grocery store, to have for them to eat while they’re here. They requested milk and cereal, which are obviously things I am happy to provide… But… what else??? What do they eat for lunch??? I feel like I have purchased deli meat in the past, so that they could have sandwiches, and it ended up going bad and I had to throw it away. But I think they were staying at a hotel, which makes it much easier to go grab lunch elsewhere. I don’t know if they will be meeting friends for lunch while they are here (which ACK is a Whole Other Topic that makes me very nervous, because I think we all have very different ideas of what it means to “be careful” during a pandemic ACK ACK ACK), or if they just assume that we will have lunch meat in the fridge? But we don’t EAT lunch meat. Why am I spending an entire paragraph fretting about lunch meat? Should I just go get some ham and turkey and plan to throw it out? Probably the cost would be worth ridding myself of this particular anxiety.
Currently, the plan is that my in-laws will be leaving the day before Labor Day, which is two days before Rosh Hashanah, so ostensibly I do not have to plan Labor Day/Rosh Hashanah meals for them. BUT they are here for health reasons, and so it’s possible that they will change their departure date. Which means I may have to plan Special Meals at the last minute. Obviously, I do not want to do that. I fretted about the Labor Day point to my husband, and he said, “hotdogs and hamburgers, done” and that made me feel MUCH better. So I guess Labor Day is taken care of. I do not even KNOW what to make for Rosh Hashanah, because I am not Jewish. I suppose I could make a brisket, but I don’t like brisket, nor do I know how to cook one. Okay. I am going to think about this later.
While I am glad that we can host my in-laws while they are dealing with the health stuff, and obviously volunteered to have them come stay with us, I am still stressed about it. Having extra people in my space is never easy. And it has gotten LESS easy since the pandemic.
Also did I mention that this is a Call Week? Which means my husband will be working longer and more unpredictable hours?
Well. We do what we can.
Dinners for the Week of August 30-September 5
- Mahi Mahi in Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce with Sautéed Zucchini: This is a new-to-me recipe, but it’s one my husband sounded interested in, so I put it immediately on the list.
- Tacos: This was Carla’s request for Tuesday, and I need an easy meal for Tuesday, and my in-laws seem fine with tacos, so done and done.
- Crockpot BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Coleslaw and Roasted Potatoes: This is for soccer night, when Carla has practice during the dinner hour. I got some slider buns for the people in my family who like sandwiches (not me), and some pre-shredded cabbage, and some baby red potatoes. Easy to put together, and the potatoes can roast while we put Carla to bed.
- Grilled Pork Chops with Some Sort of Vegetable: Pork chops were on sale. I will deal with the vegetable later. Probably corn on the cob or zucchini. I do need to go refill our propane tank for the grill, though.
- Takeout: Bless all those hardworking people in the restaurant industry. I plan to lean on their services a LOT this week.
I am also going to make my favorite plum cake at some point this week. Because we haven’t had it this summer, and I feel like it is a quintessential summer food, and because cake is such a soothing, comforting food.
What are you eating this week, Internet? And what are the go-to meals you feel houseguests?
Tonight we are having trash pizza, so named as to differentiate it from fancy wood-oven pizza. At some point this week we’ll probably make hot sausage/pepper/onion sandwiches, since I have a ton of peppers from my csa. And that’s all I got. That mahi-mahi recipe does look good however, please report back on how it ended up!
First of all, I sure hope your in-laws are well! But also, having house guest is – I can only imagine because I literally never have them – stressful. My in-laws used to stay in a hotel when they’d visit us (we don’t have a spare room) (they like their space) but the last time they visited was 2013 and I don’t really remember anything we did. Lunch…I mean…what do people eat for lunch? I guess I’d just buy some lunch meat and cheese and hope for the best. Maybe a pasta salad or something they can help themselves to? Or quinoa, and salad fixings? I am not helpful, I have no idea. In my experience, a casual “hamburgers and hotdogs” barbeque is always a good idea, Labour Day or not. Oh! What about having a fruit salad in the fridge and then some rolls and lunch meat? Or pitas, with veggies and hummus? I’m just spitballing ideas here. I mean, I have no idea what your in-laws might enjoy. GOOD LUCK is all I can say! Hope all goes well. Oh, one more thing about the brisket, that’s something my husband makes (not for me, obviously) and he puts it on the smoker for like 9 hours or something, so it’s super time consuming. But maybe there’s a different, more practical way to make it. Does your MIL like cooking? Maybe she can help in the kitchen? A fun activity to do together one night? Then again, if it was MY MIL, it would get weird fast. I don’t know, I’ll repeat: GOOD LUCK!
Sending good thoughts to all of you (in-laws for their health, you for the extended houseguests – gah). On the lunch front, I’ve noticed older folks (my mom first mentioned this, and now I see it with me and my husband) don’t eat a huge lunch. Maybe grab a few yogurts (if they like them) to stash in the fridge? My mom will skip lunch entirely (she’s 83). I’m 57 and my husband is 65 – we tend to go very light for lunch. Some salad fixings that they could use to make a quick salad perhaps?
As for the Special Meal, is it possible to let a restaurant take that on? It seems like that would require some extra planning and would be hard to pull together on the fly, but I’m not Jewish so I have no clue.
My family is Italian so our go-to guest meals involve things like pasta, sausage and peppers, chicken vesuvio and chicken parm, Italian beef. Pasta is especially easy to prep ahead of time and can be done in so many different ways and in big quantities.
It IS a curveball to have houseguests, yes! I usually provide sandwich meat and bread for lunches, because I know my usual houseguests will eat those. For dinners, I know I’ve done crock pot meals (shredded BBQ chicken, or taco soup) and easy rotisserie chicken from Publix, with a salad or another easy side like instant wild rice.
I say great idea on the plum cake! Having it will make things feel special (at least, that’s what dessert does at my house, since it’s a rarity).
Oh, we also have a lot of happy hour crackers-cheese-wine when I have guests! Good luck – I know they’ll be pleased with whatever you serve or bring in, don’t stress. (easy for me to say)
Yikes. I feel your pain. It’s been SO long since anyone stayed with us. We have a no-room-in-the-inn situation. The only guests who stay over are the kids’ sleepover friends. They keep the bar very low.
I like many of Nicole’s lunch ideas. Pasta salad. Pitas. Salad. Cheese and meat and crackers? I do not enjoy spending time with my in laws and in my advanced age I have let myself off the hook so I no longer make any effort. They had plenty of chances, but a few years ago after 20 some years I threw up my hands and gave up.
Our dinners last longer with 2 sons away at college and laddie choosing to hang with friends more often than not . . . so I am delighted that I have very little meal prep this week (and a closed daycare). I made pizza casserole Monday but Tues, Wed, Thurs, and quite possibly Fri we will be eating leftovers of balsamic chicken and peppers, chicken tacos, and barbeque pork. Two of the three are in crockpots so I just have to plug it in in the morning.
Good luck. Hoping for a great visit and that the medical issues are simple and easily resolved.
I had a friend stay with me for a week last month and it was kind of crazy how stressful I found all the food things. I wanted to plan ahead for each meal and she and my husband were just not having any of it. It was so hard for me, but we muddled through. Good luck to you and I hope your in-laws stay healthy and well!
We have no guest room, so when my mother-in-law visits she stays at a hotel (and my mom lives far away so we tend to meet up at the beach). But I remember it can be hard to feed guests (or for the guests to figure out what food they should ask for, because they don’t know what the hosts keep on hand). It’s just hard to mesh two different family food habits.
We had rice-stuffed tomatoes and sautéed kale Monday, a barley-tomato-yellow squash stew with fake chicken and yogurt Tuesday, and chili cheese dogs (with veggie dogs) and fries last night. North will ad-lib something tonight, probably pasta. Friday is frozen pizza and Saturday is eggplant parmesan. Sunday is Beth’s night. I don’t think it’s planned yet.