Dinner for two

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

It has been about three months since my daughter (and our last kid at home) left for college. Since then, it has just been my wife and I at home. Most of the time, this is a bit of a convenience, not having to consult with multiple people when making plans, needing only a consensus of two to decide on what to watch on TV, no play practices or ballgames or work schedules to consider when it comes time to event planning — that sort of thing, that enyone who has raised children can tell you is definitely a pain in the butt at times.

But there is one problem we have consistently run into now that we’re empty nesters… dinner. And I don’t just mean like what to have for dinner, although we definitely do still play the game of, “What do you want for dinner?” “I don’t know what do you want?” “I don’t care.” “Okay, what about Mexican

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food?” “Oh, I don’t want Mexican food.” “I thought you didn’t care?” “I don’t. I just don’t want Mexican food tonight.” “What about just getting some Wendy’s then?” “You know I don’t like Wendy’s…”

No, our biggest problem is that we simply don’t know how to make dinner for just two people. We hava a family of five, and right when the kids started leaving the house, one of the kids still at home started bringing home an extra kid with them a lot of the time, so we really have still had four or five people at the dinner table most of the time.

But now, it’s usually just the two of us. And it’s really hard to just make a full meal for two people. I mean, even a can of green beans or corn is listed as “about 3.5 servings,” so already you know there’s going to be leftovers. Macaroni and cheese is the same way, and you just can’t heat mac & cheese up the next day. It’ loses something in the process.

At least when we have something like chili or spaghetti or soup and we inevitably make several gallons of it (even cutting the recipe in half somehow makes just as much) we can put the leftovers in the fridge (some things do, in fact, taste better the next day, like gumbo).

I did recently come up with a solution that helped. Recently, my Dad has been busy with his bid to get on the Marion City Council (runoff De3. 3, by the way), and my Mom hasn’t been feeling too well, so I decided to just take our leftovers to their house. They were very appreciative, since my Mom hates to cook and my Dad likes to eat.

But now I’m torn between do I try to just make enough food for me and my wife, or now should I just plan on taking dinner over to my parents like Meels on Wheels?

And… now I’m hungry.