Amy Currioman

Written by Sonny Quinn

My sister-in-law was getting married. Everything had been set up the night before. It was going to be an outside wedding. There were gorgeous white and yellow roses in large white frosted vases staggered around the yard. Chairs had been set up, and a lovely white lace lead of fabric wove its way around the perfectly manicured yard. The wedding was going to take place at one of the most beautiful parks in Southern Oregon. I was thrilled. I had been chosen to cook for the reception dinner.

I looked through magazines, cook books, but it was not until I watched the cooking channel on satellite TV from www.direct.tv that I found the perfect recipe. What could be better than soft, homemade noodles smothered in rich, garlic infused sauce, mountains of Mozzarella cheese, fresh ricotta mixed with basil and oregano, cottage cheese, fresh zucchini and egg plant, cooked to bubbly, wonderful perfection? Nothing is better than a hot, oozing, melt in your mouth lasagna.

The night before the wedding I had a lot of prep work to do. I painstakingly made the lasagna noodles by hand. I watched as they boiled in a salt and oil mixed water bath. When they were finally finished, I put them aside and began to work on the sauce. After seven hours of cooking, I finally had eight gigantic pans of fresh, homemade lasagna.

The next day after the ceremony, the only thing that received more compliments than the beautiful bride just happened to be my lasagna. It was a wonderful conclusion to an amazing afternoon.

A few days ago I decided to try one of the new Wendy’s salads for lunch. Normally I’m not a big salad fan, but I was feeling adventurous. So I decided to try the Apple Pecan Chicken salad. I picked it up on my way to work, and put it in the refrigerator at the office until lunch time. When I got around to eating it, I have to say that I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I think I had heard that it is not a low-calorie salad, but that’s OK with me, I wasn’t eating it for a weight-watching reason. There was truly a party going on in my mouth!

The next day I went to a different Wendy’s, in a town twenty miles away, on my way to visit my brother. I was sorely disappointed in the fact that this particular Wendy’s only gave me about 1/2 the amount of chicken and about 1/2 the amount of bleu cheese as the first salad I had gotten. So I was wondering if the first salad was a mistake in giving me too much, or if this second Wendy’s was skimping too much. I have to say that the smaller amounts of meat and cheese was a disappointment.

So today I went back to the first Wendy’s and ordered the salad again.  Just to see how much meat and cheese I’d get.  This time was not as much as the first day, but more than the second day.  I have to wonder why – I would have thought a big chain like this would have some kind of portion control going on!

Tonight I went to dinner at a restaurant that I had never been to before – Ryan’s.  I went with my parents when they got off of work.  I had heard that Ryan’s and Country Cookin’ were owned by the same company and that their menus were identical, but I found that the Ryan’s that we went to was different than the Country Cookin restaurants that I have been to before.  Their prices were very reasonable, about $10 for an all you can eat buffet.

I had fried shrimp, steak, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, sweet potato casserole, onion rings, hush puppies, and cheesecake for dessert.  It was really good food!  I wish there was a Ryan’s restaurant closer to where I live because I would definitely eat there again!

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions this year? One of mine is to waste less food. I am apalled every week when I get ready to go to the grocery store and I rummage around the refrigerator to see what needs to be thrown out and find so much food that has been there too long to eat!

Part of the problem is that often times when I cook supper the rest of the family decides at the last minute that they aren’t going to eat dinner. Now I know I’m a good cook, but the only time I can count on everyone coming to the table is if it is take-out Chinese Food or take-out Pizza. And I am NOT ordering take-out food every time we need to eat supper! So I think that I will put the rest of the family in charge of the meal planning, the shopping, and the cooking. I’m tired of wasting time, energy, and money on trying to feed this family. As for me, well I can just fix myself a PB&J sandwich or a bowl of soup if no one cooks!