So I had planned on making the classic southern meal of cornbread, a pot of beans and greens. Grandma got very excited about this idea. She always tells me that this is the only meal she ate growing up. Even though I make this meal every couple of weeks, she doesn't remember. She keeps saying that we haven't had a proper meal since I moved in. I finally reminded her that I had been here for almost nine months and we have had lots of meals. She was totally shocked that I had been here so long. She thought we'd just moved in and is also wanting us to get organized again. The cycles continue.
I put the beans on to cook and she takes them over while I sneaked off to put my boys down for their naps. I come back and the beans are cooking away and she said she took care of them. I assume they are good since she has made this dinner hundreds of times over the years. A couple of hours go by and she goes to stir them and asks me if I have seasoned them and when was the last time I stirred them. She begins to get onto me for not paying close enough attention.
Later I go to the store and pick up some fresh spinach and turnip greens. I got home and asked if she could get started on them. She was telling me earlier in the day exactly how I should go about cooking them. I thought she had it covered. I stay outside and play with the boys a little and by the time I make it in she had the spinach in a pot of boiling water, the turnip greens in two piles on the bar...one pile was blanched and the other was completely raw, and had cut the leaves off the radishes I'd picked from the garden and was washing them in the sink. I tried to ask her what she was doing and what her plan was and she just got more and more flustered. She said the radishes were spinach, and I said no they were radishes. Then she said the radishes were turnips and I said no they were radishes. I asked what she was doing with the turnip greens and she said they were all bad and needed to be thrown out. Finally she asked what I thought her plan was and I had NO idea. The kitchen was in a mess. She then gets mad and yells at me that this is why she is not supposed to be in charge of anything. She storms out of the kitchen and leaves me to figure out her mess. I immediately throw out the radish greens because I don't even think you are supposed to eat them. I make due with everything else the best I can. In the meantime, my youngest son comes into the kitchen and cries at my feet because he is hungry. Grandma comes in immediately, because she can NOT stand to hear him cry, and tells me to go take care of him while she finishes up dinner. Are you SERIOUS?!?
It is getting to the point that any project she starts ends up being a big mess for me to clean up. Dinner, laundry, whatever. Things can be challenging around here sometimes.
