In the kitchen with Rene

Lately, I've been spending alot of time obsessing over the organization of the kitchen. It's been a great time hanging out with our "head" cook Rene, and getting to experience her taste for music and ...you guessed, food. Rene LOVES 80's music. Need I say more? All I know is I keep singing 'tularula' or 'tainted love' over and over in my head. Although I do absoloutley love 'video killed the radio star'. As for food, we actually have very similar tastes. We love healthy food and want to eat healthy food, yet often succumb to the call of sweets. Rene likes to cook alot of beans and lentils, and I think that Curtis really hates her for it. It all started with this great idea to eat lots of beans, because 1)they're good for you 2) they're cheap 3)we have a motherload of pintos downstairs-which I will now refer to only as 'the dungeon' 4)we need to be thankful for what God has given us 5)it's all Rene has mastered in cooking 6)we're missionaries so why not eat like we are? 7)we're reaching hippies so why not eat like they do? The reasons keep coming as I sit here, so I'll stop, or I might just start defending the little guys. The truth is I really like beans, or maybe I just really like when someone else cooks for me, and the fact that I'm not picky helps. Anyway, it seems since I've been up there giving my two cents, there hasn't been a bean abroad in days! (okay, i skipped the pea soup the other day) I found myself suggesting that Rene actually cook lentils. I had become so used to eating some kind of bean that when we visited our folks over Christmas, I was taken aback by how much meat we were eating. I had to ask Curtis if it was normal to eat meat every day, and he assured me it was. Don't get me wrong, it was great! (Especially for Curt, he is THE meat eater in our family - maybe that's why he hates Rene so much) But I suppose there is a greater reason for our slight shift in diet, and it's not only because I found the ancient 50lb. box of turkey in the bottom of the chest freezer. Which brings us back to my organization. I have (almost) succeeded in my plan to bring all the food in the dungeon upstairs. The goal is to use up everything that has been sitting down there since the dark ages, that the skunk hasn't eaten yet. Alot of it has proved very useful, especially the ice cream cones that I baked cake in, and taken the edge off our tummies - you know what I'm sayin'. I'm not really sure how brave Rene or I am though when it comes to the millions of cans of government pork that Brian got back in the day to feed us after Y2K. I guess we could use some good matzo farfel recipies as well, considering we have a few large cans of it. I am sure the matzo is Derek's doings, as are so many things we have had, and still have sitting in the dungeon. All I can say is teriyaki eel anyone? Or how about some pre-cooked licorice beef. I remember the cooks trying to rinse it off in a strainer to rid the flavor. The reason we have had so many random items, is that we used to get our food from the S.F. food bank, and random is it's middle name - if it isn't Derek's. Since we have been 'off' the food bank, I must say, we have really been blessed, and God is totally providing all that we need and more. Alot of this I must attribute to Rene, who I honestly can say, is doing a better job in the kitchen than anyone I have seen since I've been working in and around it. She gives us balanced meals, and doesn't let food go to waste, and drives the 25 miles to town each friday to pick up a food donation. I love her, and am glad she is my friend. We got to have some fun the other day with a bunch of unlabeled cans I found in the dungeon. My plan was to open at least one can a day and figure out how to use it in some meal. So we opened the first can. Mixed vegetables. No problem, easy to use, then Jed comes in and wants to eat some-cold. He doesn't care, just loves canned veggies. So I put some in a bowl and let him at 'em. I turn my back and he's dumping more in his bowl. We're just a little more curious, so we open another can. Mixed veggies. And another - mixed veggies. Six cans later, we decide that they are all mixed veggies, and we'll have turkey pot pie (yes with the turkey found in the freezer) for dinner. So much for the daily anticipation of opening the can. We get entertainment from what we can around here, which has included- riding a bike down a hill, up a ramp and flying into the raging river, climbing up a mountain and sliding down on your butt at alarming speeds (which ripped the bottom out of Curtis' pants), watching several guys that don't know what they're doing try to get a 200lb. pig into a truck(one guy ended up riding him like a bronco), shooting toothpicks out of straws like darts, and my favorite, every day at about one thirty...the mail. I'm the mail lady here, and I take my job seriously. Don't mess with the mail...man...ha, ha. Ahh, life at the Land.....