One would think that time would bring wisdom or at least a little bit of order.  And yet there are times, too many times, when dinner steals upon us.  You'd think we didn't face it every day the way we are surprised by the dinner hour!

Some years ago I started doing Mega Cooking, Once A Month Cooking, Marathon Cooking...call it what you will the result is Freedom from the Food Frenzy.  As helpful as preparing and freezing dinners in quantity is if the work doesn't go into the process nothing comes out at dinner time.

We moved half way across the state a few months ago.  Moved with two full size upright freezers and lots of food.  Did I say lots?  Imagine wheat for a dozen people...for two years.... and you have the beginning of an idea of what our move was like.  Our obsession with food storage wasn't a 2000 Crisis Thing.  I've been emphasizing storage ever since I joined the church.

When we were planning our marriage my future husband was concerned because he didn't have a job.  We quite literally married on faith.  I had no idea that someday he would be a doctor, all I knew was that it was right and the time was now.  I was full of confidence and declared, "It is O.K....I have FOOD STORAGE!"

So we married and moved that food storage with us wherever life took us.  What I didn't tell my new husband was that I hadn't a clue as to how to use it.  But I learned.  Some years I learned more than I ever wanted to know.  But now one of my daughters is paid for making bread for other families.  And is it ever delicious bread!

So we moved a few months ago and our food storage had grown from what a family of two would use to that for a family of twelve.  It had grown from a year's supply to two years in selective items.  And I went my merry way creating a new home in a wonderful location.  One day I realized that my freezers were empty of everything except corn!

My new home honeymoon is over and it is time to reorganize my kitchen, my menus and my cooking plans.  And that is what I've been doing this past week.

As long as I'm inundated with the process I thought I would share some of it with you.

A Lesson from Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House by Margaret Sidney:
   Polly was working hard to make the fire burn.  Something was the matter with the old stove that morning.  there had been a big crack for some time at the back that let in the air alarmingly; but Ben had stuffed this up with putty the week before, and it had done very well; but just as Polly had washed up the breakfast dishes this morning, and was going to put her pans of bread into the oven, out tumbled the putty, the old black stove grew cold, and everything came to a standstill.  The truth was, the poor old stove was about worn out.
    "Oh, dear!" said Polly, "now what's going to be done!  Why couldn't it have waited, and Ben's away, too!"
    She flew around for something to stop up the hole with; she couldn't find any putty of course, but nothing else appeared.  So she got down  on the floor before it and rattled the dampers, and put in more wood.  She was kneeling in front of it, her face very red with her exertions, and trying to push a refractory smoldering log of wood into a more "burnable' position, when Phronsie emerged from the bedroom with a very injured expression.  "Oh, Polly, I'm so hungry!"

Later Polly's brother, Ben shows up and wonders what is wrong with the stove.  I identified with Polly, remembering all the times I tried to make do with things on their last leg.  Polly answered her brother thus:

   "Oh, I don't know," said Polly despairingly.  "It WON'T burn!  The putty fell out, Ben, and I've put in wood, but it won't do anything.  And there's my bread, see!  It'll be spoilt, and what'll we do, then, I wonder!"

Sometimes we live with frustrations that only little bit of effort, a matter of organization or the ability to budget a solution would eliminate.  I have found that the amount of time and emotion that goes into dealing with frustrating problems is rarely worth holding onto that little bit of money or organization it would take to fix the problem.  But sometimes we hit blocks to fixing things.  Blocks like a difference in priority as to what to spend money on.

Husbands can be strange creatures.  They buy something and they just know it will last forever.  It should.  And if it doesn't...well...it should.  Reality checks are hard to come by if they are never directly involved with the faulty product.  There was a time when I was spending 2 1/2 hours drying a load of clothes.  With a large family that was the most discouraging part of housecleaning.  Half an hour to wash and 2 1/2 hours to dry and 15 loads of laundry per week...if I was lucky.  I lived with this problem quite a while.  When it was mentioned, carefully, in passing, the response was usually, "We can't afford...."

Along came one of my famous pregnancies.  When pregnant I have to stay in bed or on the couch almost the entire pregnancy to thwart a premature birth.  And my husband takes over my household responsibilities.  He started doing the laundry.  Let me tell you that exactly seven days of laundry duty was all it took for us to get a brand new dryer!  Good equipment saves time, frustration and sometimes marriages.

In the kitchen, take a look around and discover what is causing you frustration.  Is the frustration daily or weekly?  If it is only once a month or a couple of times a year then ignore it.  But if it is frequent then find a way to eliminate the problem.  You might have to budget for a future change but if you don't start it will probably never happen.

When I looked around and evaluate my new kitchen I find that we have been living with a faulty toaster far too long.  We had found ways to trick it into working but those times are past.  I found a real frustration area where we put school books and supplies.  Some effort will need to be done to organize that area.  Right now everybody tosses things onto the shelf...school related or not!  Recently I tossed out our old can opener and replaced it.  I cannot tell you how many months we suffered over something that cost only pennies to replace!

So first job in revamping the kitchen labor is to fix, replace, reorganize or abandon frustration spots

The next task is to clean.  In our home my children clean the kitchen.  They do most of the housecleaning as my job is to supervise and train while theirs is to learn the skills to become independent adults...including how to keep their environment clean...at least when Mom comes to visit.

Our chores are rotated through all the children on a weekly basis.  Before they can pass their job off to the next child they have to deep clean to that child's (and my) satisfaction.  So the worse time to plan Mega Cooking would be the Pass Off Day and the best time would be the first day of the next rotation.  Since we pass off on Thursday, I have to schedule my big grocery trip for Thursday and cooking for Friday and Saturday.

Marathon cooking can be almost overwhelming in a large family.  You have to buy several hundred dollars worth of food at one shot.  You have to fix meals that are triple the size of the average recipe...thirty to sixty of them!  And you have to have the mental ability to organize it all.  Hard?  Yes.  Manageable?  Barely.  But can you grow into it?  Absolutely!

I was so exhausted the first time I made a month's worth of meals.  I shuddered at the thought over ever doing it again.  But that month's worth actually lasted us over six weeks and it was WONDERFUL!  I was sold.  Something changed inside and I never approached dinner time the same again.  If I was going to cook I was at the very least going to make enough for two meals.  If my children cooked, they were to make enough for a dinner and a lunch.  And a modified Mega Style was developed.

My most satisfyingly cooking when I can gather my resources and fill my freezers all at once.  And I do it several times each year in one way or another. 

My kitchen articles are indexed and found under the topic Kitchen Chaos.

In the end our kitchen and cooking doesn't have to be superb for our children to carry away precious memories of their childhood kitchens.  A touch of beauty, a song of laughter and consistent flavor of unity will always be more important than the ideal.  So strive for the one without sacrificing the other and enjoy the process.  Again from The Five Little Peppers and The Little Brown House by Margaret Sidney:

   The old gray goose was killed.  Polly went bravely to work as if the pleasure of making the most beautiful chicken pie in all the world was before her.  And the "children," as Polly and Ben always called the three younger ones in the Pepper brood, laughed and sang and danced about, through all the preparations when they couldn't help them forward, and almost forgot they had ever intended to have a chicken pie...
    So Polly had her flowers after all, and she dressed the pie gaily with them, stifling a sigh as she put them over the old goose; and they laughed and ate, to be sure, not so much as if tender chicken had been on their plates.  However, it turned out better than they had expected, Polly having persistently boiled it before it was cut up to be baked in the pie.  And so they hurried over that part of the repast; they were all in such a hurry to get to that elegant pudding.  That was just magnificent, and done to a turn; and to Joel's great delight, fairly beaded with plums.  Wasn't it splendid, though!

The articles were written in the hope that they will help mothers realize just how normal chaotic life with children really is and how priceless the journey.