Cooking Dinner

The vast majority of my cooking time, I am cooking something I have already cooked dozens if not hundreds of times before.  Tonight was spaghetti with hamburger made from hamburger, a jar of sauce, sliced olives, green chilies and seasoning with fresh cauliflower as a veggie (it needed to be cooked).

That might be an easy pedestrian meal to make, but there are many components in the making of that meal that are a total blessing.  I had not particularly planned on making that meal, those were food items on hand that either needed to be consumed, was easy or both.  The hamburger was a FDA inspected chub that I had cooked two days ago.   The cauliflower was in my refrigerator staying cool and fresh for a week.  The angel hair pasta had been on the shelf in the pantry for months.  The jar of spaghetti sauce had been in the canned-food cupboard for months.  My hot & cold running water is fantastically pure run-off from the Cascade Mountains that had been treated and fluoridated.  The piece of chocolate for dessert was an individually wrapped leftover from a Christmas gift.  Canned sliced olives have become a big favorite in the last six months—they are easy, nutritious and delicious in a cold pasta salad or a bubbling hot stew and every temperature between that.  My electric stove/oven has four burners.   My electricity is part of the Overlake hospital grid—it NEVER goes out.

For a simple catch meal of whatever was on the shelf that was easy and quick to make, there is a lot to be grateful for in this dinner.  Now I have leftovers for the weekend.  I am blessed to be free from food, water and energy insecurity.  Thank you god.