The 40 Hour Work Week

I believe it is no coincidence that the country perhaps most well known for culinary skill also has a legally mandated 35 hour work week. The French fight to keep their 35 hour work week because they know that 40 hours (and god forbid more) is incompatible with a good dinner.

On the first of the month my part time job became full time and I stopped cooking. Part of the problem is that when I get home I am hungry. So hungry I am on the verge of having a meltdown to rival the best unhinging of the under ten set. The most I could muster was a two course meal of Kraft Mac & Cheese and cod nuggets. Two courses because I screwed up the timing. C is much better. He is calmer and more rational when we get home. He knows how to improvise and deploy his secret weapons: pasta and grilling. Hence the only two outstanding meals (grilled chicken, veg and pilaf and a tasty improvised bacon and tomato pasta) have come from him.

But I can’t take the Rachel Ray route yet and let the prospect of “done in 30″ dictate the dinner plate. So, I’m going to plan. Perhaps do a little prep work in the morning but at the least know what I’m cooking and have the ingredients on hand when I arrive home.