Saturday, September 12, 2009

The best laid plans ...

The missionaries were coming over for dinner on Friday. Simple right? How hard can it be? Being unemployed allows me to express myself culinarily in the kitchen; so, I planned on meatloaf and mashed potatoes. But, I was trying a new meatloaf recipe from the Cooks Illustrated "Best of" magazine with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh asparagus.

My wife works one day a week, normally on Thursdays; but, this week she also worked on Friday. Friday morning my daughter-in-law called. They had a minor emergency and she wondered if I could come over to babysit my granddaughter while she took my grandson to the doctor (he's fine - btw). His appointment wasn't until the afternoon; so, I didn't need to be there until noon.

So, I decided to do as much ahead of time as I could. I made the meatloaf, wrapped it in plastic, and put it in the refrigerator - ready to go right into the oven. I roasted the garlic and put it in the fridge covered in plastic. I washed and cut up the potatoes and had them on the stove covered in water so that it just had to be turned on.

The missionaries were supposed to arrive at 5:30pm. I wasn't sure what time I would be home; but, my wife worked until 4pm; so, she'd be home with plenty of time to cook everything.

The plan was foolproof - or so I thought . . .
  • My daughter-in-law got hung up at the doctor and didn't get back until after 5:00pm - mind you, it's a 45 minute drive to my house.
  • Shortly after 5:00pm I was in my car. I called home to see how dinner was going - and no one answered the phone. I called my wife's cell phone - she hadn't left work yet. She had gotten hung up.
  • At 5:30pm she called me. She had spoken with the missionaries - and they were hung up and were going to be late (thank goodness!); but, she was hung up in traffic - seems a traffic light was out and cars were backed up for quite a ways.
We decided there wasn't time to cook the meatloaf. So, I stopped by a deli on my way home and picked up some sandwiches. Turns out the missionaries were even later than they expected; so, we probably could have cooked the meatloaf.

Now we have an uncooked meatloaf in the fridge which I'm not quite sure what to do with. We already have dinner plans for tonight and tomorrow; so, I could put it in the freezer and have it sometime next week. Or I could go ahead and cook it and use it for sandwiches.

It was going to be a fabulous meal . . . oh well, at least the missionaries were cute [slaps face - I didn't just type that]

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I love meatloaf, you could send it to me if you want!

Philip said...

Meatloaf was big in the early
60's.

Have a Mad Men party and serve meatloaf sandwiches.

In the last episode, Sal did an impromptu impersonation of Anne Margaret in Bye Bye Birdie and the expression on Sal's wife's face was priceless when she realized for the first time what the underlying problem was in their marriage.

Can't wait to find out if Kitty, Sal's wife, confronts Sal or goes into denial or leaves Sal and moves back in with her Mom or leaves Sal for someone that can tend to her needs.

The most interesting part about their marriage is that, unlike the other Mad husbands, Sal is a very attentive husband and sensitive to his wife's feelings.

Beck said...

"... Oh well, at least the missionaries were cute..."

You've got to claim those blessings where you can find them! :)