We’ve all been there, we’ve been busy cooking a multi-course meal trying to impress friends, family, maybe a stranger or two. We’ve invited too many people, selected an over ambitious multi-course meal, didn’t plan out the ingredients list well, been too worried about decor or table settings and just didn’t think it all through. Next thing we know, we’ve got the spatula in too many pots, things are getting chaotic and splattering out of pans onto walls, underneath upper cabinets and we’ve become a bit overwhelmed. The kitchen is filling with steam and a little smoke. Frantically, we place the pot, the one filled with the most expensive ingredients but the recipe that’s most familiar, on the back burner, on low. We’ll get back to it in a bit. This will buy some time and space for all the other recipes perceived as needing more attention since they are new and more of a challenge, maybe even more exciting and will certainly garner more attention than the good-ole standby.
Now breathing a bit more easy, having gotten a better handle on the other courses and dishes, we start to feel like things are gonna be ok, the meal will get served on time. Phew, everyone will be happy and fed, the dinner won’t be a failure. We won’t be failures. There’s a feeling of relief when pulling out the good plates, setting the table around that new center piece that was purchased last minute, but certainly wasn’t needed. As guests arrive and take their seats, realization hits we’ve forgotten to eat or even drink water all day, exhausted and run ragged by trying to clean the house and get everything cooked on time to please all the guests. Then feeling too stressed to eat the meal. But that’s ok, everyone else will be nourished, we’ll take better care of ourselves tomorrow.
After dessert and coffee or after dinner drinks, it’s possible to relax a bit more. Everyone has said what a delicious meal they’ve had, maybe even told us we’re amazing in the kitchen. They are thankful and gushing as they leave. Picking up the plates, a few spilled morsels off the floor, glasses half filled with wine, and dirty silverware, and placing them back into the kitchen, there’s time to pause and feel proud of a job well done. That’s when it happens, that’s when the smell and sight catches on the pot on the back burner. The pot strategically placed there to buy more time with everything else. The one containing the most valued ingredients of our favorite dish, the go to, the rock-steady-can’t-go-wrong-with recipe. There it sits, dried up, burned and bitter.
What’s on your back burner?
Serena
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