Dinner Conversation about Future Dinners

Last week, Kristy said she was in a cooking funk.  I am too – maybe it is a symptom of grieving.  Even so, I should know better than to ask for dinner ideas from the Common Household, especially while we are eating dinner. 

A few nights ago we had this conversation, which came up because the Common Household Husband expressed some discontent with the dinner I had prepared since coming back from the Old Folks Home.  I had gone for several days to help my Mom cope and plan the memorial service which will be in a few weeks.  At the Old Folks Home there is food just everywhere.  

Once we were all back home, my husband wanted to pick up take-out, but I just wanted something simple as an antidote to the overabundance and gourmet nature of the food I ate for four days.  That sounds an awful lot like the Israelites complaining about God's wonderful gift of manna, but that’s just how I felt.

Me:  If you are at all interested in what we are going to have for dinner this week, please make suggestions for what I should cook.

Husband:  I’d like meatloaf.

Youngest Daughter:  Mommy, you know what I always ask for. 

Me:  I have no idea.

YD:  I’d like M and C.

Son:  What is M and C?

Husband:    Mice and Cockroaches!

Me:  Oh, PLEASE!  I am trying to eat here.

YD: M and C is macaroni and cheese!

Husband:  Ramen noodles aren’t too bad either.

YD:  Ramen noodles taste pretty good as long as you use the flavor packet!

Son:   What if I used the mac ’n’ cheese flavor packet on the ramen noodles?

YD: You could do that.  You could use the mac ’n’ cheese packet, and also substitute the mac ’n’ cheese pasta in place of the ramen noodles.

Husband:    Or you could substitute cream of mushroom soup.  In fact, I think I would like cream of mushroom soup noodle loaf.  Put it in the fridge and it would be sort of like meat loaf.

Me:   (further losing my appetite for the dinner in front of me)

YD: Poor Daddy.  You love cream of mushroom soup so much that you would eat it congealed.

Husband:    Well.  Cream of mushroom soup probably does have clotting factors in it.

And then ensued a whole conversation about blood.  During dinner.  While I was eating.  Is it any wonder I am in a cooking funk?  And how is it that I have raised children who speak positively of ramen noodles?