By Tiber
Even in this economic squeeze, Dad is still loathe to give up Cook. He loves her desserts so much.
Sometimes, when she makes him peach cobbler, he’ll flee with a piece of it and all you can hear is growling and chewing, like a lion, gnawing on a wildebeest.
Dad also doesn’t want to let Cook go because he knows that putting Mom in the kitchen would be like putting a detonator in a dynamite plant.
In this bad economy, however, Dad figured that, at least, he could ask Cook to cut back on the price of the food she buys.
You remember, he tried to get all of us to switch to Spam but that just ended with Spam not so much being eaten as, surreptitiously, stashed under sofas and into light fixtures.
Cook’s buying some kind of less expensive food, however.
Probably exactly like his own friends, Dad doesn’t want anybody to know he’s short of cash so he and Mom are still inviting people over for dinner regularly and Cook is still serving everyone delicious meals.
Of course, neither Dad nor the guests know exactly what’s in the meals now and you constantly hear comments like,
Guest: “This is really good!…What ingredients exactly are…” (trailing off, trying to sound natural).
Mom: “Thank you! We love Cook’s recipe for…” (trailing off too, having no idea what’s in it either).
Guest: (trying to get it out of her), “You must ask Cook to give me the recipe!”
Mom: “Oh, well, you know how cooks are about their work.” (No way will you ever know what we‘re serving tonight).
Nowadays, we may be down to lawn trimmings and chicken chins.
Of course, the reason Mom and Dad’s friends all want that recipe is because they’re probably down to lawn trimmings and chicken chins too.
It’s just that, in their case, it tastes like it.