Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell;
While other may go hungry,
We're eating very well.
Dearest Rachel -
This won't come as any surprise to you, but as fond as I am of eating (and enjoy cooking now and again – although I don't get the opportunity as much as we used to, for reasons I'll get into further in), I really dislike having to clean up afterward. It's an unpleasant task, hands wading through soapy, running water to clean off dirty and greasy dishes. While I'm grateful that we have a dishwasher that does the real sanitizing for us, I still feel the need to ensure that there's nothing visible (or tactile) on them before I arrange them in there.
When he first moved in, Logan would often put dishes in there in the condition he'd left them after using them – I guess he trusted that the dishwasher would take care of every particle of dirt – but I just couldn't countenance that; I still had to rinse them off before putting them back in. He's learned better since then, either rinsing them off first, or leaving me to do so, which I do, since there's no one else in the house who will.
That being said, one might think that I actually enjoy cleaning, despite having just insisted otherwise. And while I like seeing everything clean and tidy – and ultimately put back in their place – I don't enjoy the process. It's rather like my exercise regimen; I loathe having to waste an hour or so walking uphill and pushing weights around like I do, but it's nice to see the results in terms of a lower number on the scale. These things are necessary, and there's a little dopamine hit at the end when they're done, but when you're in the middle of doing these things, they're no fun at all.
I suppose it's one of the reasons you didn't do them as much as you probably thought you ought to; you didn't enjoy it any more than I do now. At least when the girls came over, you could make a thing of it, where everyone would gather in the kitchen, talking and laughing (and helping) during both the preparation and the cleanup of a given meal. The fellowship made the whole process at least tolerable.
Oddly enough, that wasn't how things went down last night. When the group chat began discussing whether to get together, Logan unilaterally spoke up with having an idea of what he wanted to make for dinner. While I did offer to help at one point, all he asked for in terms of assistance was whether we had gallon-sized freezer bags (which I proceeded to find and point out for him). From there, he claimed he had things well in hand; too many cooks spoil the broth, as far as he was concerned. And that was fine; I could rejoin Daniel in watching this or that YouTube channel with a clear conscience, having been given permission from the cook to depart.
And considering the work he turned out, Logan was quite correct in his assessment; he needed no more help to assemble these meatloaf cupcakes that he planned to serve the five of us (and yes, there were just five; we still can't seem to get everyone together anymore). For what it's worth, the freezer bag was used as a piping bag, to squeeze mashed potatoes atop each cupcake like it was frosting.
I will mention that we didn't come close to finishing all these; we barely polished off half of them, in fact (although they were very good, better than his previous attempt, which he attributed to putting in teaspoons of salt into his recipe rather than misreading it and putting in tablespoons like last time around). Which was fine with Logan, as this meant he had several days worth of future lunches already prepared for himself. So, as the pithy little bit of doggerel says, we are, indeed, eating very well; I should be happy for that fact, despite having to deal with dirty dishes as a result.
But it's hard to get over the fact that this leaves so many such dishes, and they are so dirty…
I'd rinsed out most of the grease in the muffin tins, but you can still see that most of the cups are still quite dark with it. And while the dishes in the left basin have been rinsed and are ready to go into the dishwasher…
…it's already full of mixing bowls, the blender, the masher and all sorts of crockery from previous meals that need to be run through the wash cycle, before being emptied out and put away in their rightful place before I can do anything with all that I have still in the sink.
It's weird, honey; normally, it takes at least a week for the three of us boys to fill up the dishwasher, but it's as if we might have two loads to go through in two successive days, judging from the pile of dishes waiting to be loaded in. It's a bit disconcerting, to be honest, since it's so much more than I'm used to going through in such a short amount of time. And as you can guess, I didn't enjoy having to rinse everything out, nor am I thrilled about having to unload and reload the dishwasher in such quick succession.
But you know, if this is the result of being able to have our friends over, and to enjoy a good (and creative!) meal every now and again, it's worth it. Thank God for dirty dishes; it's not only an indication of how well we're eating, personally, but that we have friends willing to join us and enjoy the time and food together with us. Maybe not to the same extent as we used to (and maybe that needs to change, and I have to get a little more used to washing – well, rinsing, anyway – dishes more often), but we still have that, and need to be thankful for it all the same.
Anyway, that's been my day, honey. For now, keep an eye on us, and continue to wish us luck. We're going to need it.
No comments:
Post a Comment