Ladies of a Certain Age ~ for those invisible powerful, dynamic, vital women

Gee – It seems that I have been cooking all of my life.  It is something I love to do – but, when I became a lady-of- a- certain-age age, my cooking skills “went south.”

Like many ladies-of-a-certain age, I no longer had “anyone to cook for,” and many of my married friends only cook for two people now. It seemed like I did not know how to cook for just one person, and, I did not know how to eat for just one person.  (Census numbers)

My previous good eating habits left me. I lost weight and I lost some of my joy. (Mmmmm – the cookbook called “Joy of Cooking,” took on new meaning.)

Then, one day it occurred to me, I could do what I had mostly done throughout my life – I’d cook a batch and freeze half of it.  I did this for years when my children were home and I was working.  Actually, I did it before I went back to work because I had three children in four years and every little scrap of time was valuable.

So, that is what I have been doing for a number of years now.  I also figured how to “eat for just one person.”  Actually, I had to learn this lesson twice.  The first time was before digital television.  I would put dinner on my plate and watch the nightly news.  When digital television became mandatory, my “Irish” got ruffled and I refused to pay for cable each month.  (I still don’t.  I am now a very, very wealthy woman!)  So, what I do now is read.  Generally, I read the current book for my book club; but, I also read “my phone,” – I read the “Denver Post,”” New York Times” and “9News.”

Often, particularly on the weekend, I invite a friend to dinner.  It is so wonderful to cook for someone and eat with them.

You may be wondering what do I cook and freeze.  Well, in the fall, winter and early spring, I make a lot of soup and chili.  In the summer, when my little garden is so plentiful, I cook batches of spaghetti sauce with my homegrown tomatoes, basil, and parsley.  In some to the batches I put in green beans snapped in half or chunks of chopped eggplant. (I grow Japanese eggplant, the long narrow kind, because I find the Denver growing season too short for growing the large Italian variety.)  Also, I make ratatouille with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, basil and parsley from my garden.  Often, in the cold months, I make a bunch of single-serving fruit cobblers in ramekin dishes.  I use frozen chopped rhubarb from my garden, or peaches, apples, pears and plums I get from the Western Slope (my second home.) The little dishes fit in my freezer easily.  I just pull one out and put it in the toaster oven.

Some other things I have found to help my ladies-of-a-certain-age eating habits include: Dividing a loaf of sliced bread in thirds and putting each third into freezer bags, diving up a dozen cupcakes or cinnamon rolls and putting them in freezer bags, tossing a pound of cooked pasta with olive oil and splitting it into several freezer bags, and buying single stalks of celery.

I have never had a problem eating chocolate.