Dinner is served!

I woke up this morning A WHOLE HOUR BEFORE MY ALARM WAS GOING TO GO OFF.  Why, you ask?  Because I had a nightmare that someone was driving me away from my house in a pickup truck when I was supposed to be making dinner and I was freaking out because it wasn’t going to be ready on time and I was “just wasting everyone’s time” (this is what I yelled at the dream truck driver).

I think it is safe to say that I was a little bit nervous about cooking dinner for my house for the first time today?  I lived in a dorm all four years–I’ve barely ever had to cook for one person, let alone twelve!  There are so many factors—timing, food restrictions, preferences, so on and so forth.  The sheer quantity of food that must be made to feed (at least) 12 people is a bit absurd.  It’s enough to drive me, the queen sleeper, to lose sleep.

I’ll be honest.  I did a lot of motherly conferring on this one. Mom, can you send me the recipe?  Mom, is this the right tomato juice? Mom, will doubling this recipe fit in the crock pot?  Mom?  Mom?  Mom?  I am positive that some of the texts I sent her during the food prep today probably made her wonder whether she taught me anything at all over the last 22 years.  But I did it.  We had chili, cornbread, salad, and for dessert (a rare treat in our house) we had apple crisp.  It was served on time, people actually wanted seconds, AND there was some left over.  Not to brag or anything, but for my “maiden voyage” (as it was referred to) it couldn’t have gone smoother.  Don’t worry, I won’t be getting over-confident in my abilities, the next couple of times will probably still very much include Mom’s input.  But hopefully I won’t have nightmares about it next time…