Around here, we have three dinner recipes that we’ve mastered to high art: chili, a really great chicken casserole, and Pasta And Stuff. The latter is basically whatever pasta we have handy cooked up with whatever’s still in the fridge – usually shrimp, garlic, fresh tomato and lemon juice.

When I moved here, we had a common problem – we both ate like single people. Fast food. Ad hoc burritos made from mashed kidney beans and tortillas. Pasta. Basically, whatever was handiest, cooked the quickest, was easiest to clean up and didn’t cost a whole lot. We both agreed even before I arrived that this practice would not continue: we would fix dinner together and eat at the table like a civilized couple (rather than out of a large Rubbermaid container in front of the TV, as was my former custom). We went through this whole period of digging up recipes and trying things and experimenting, which is how we worked out the casserole recipe. I brought the chili and pasta dishes with me.

So now we’re in a rut. Every day, the question. What do you want for dinner?

I dunno. What do you want for dinner?

Could do a chicken casserole.

I’m tired of chicken casserole, and besides it takes two hours to fix and by then it’ll be seven.

Chili?

In March? I’m tired of chili, too.

Yeah, so am I. Let’s just order pizza.

Okay. Oh, wait: got a better idea. Let’s go to El Rosal. Mexican never gets old.

And this is how it happens that in a house full of food, we find ourselves eating out or ordering in far too often. It costs so much more than just fixing dinner. The problem is that calling Mountain Mikes for a large combo is a five minute decision followed by a thirty second phone call, and then there’s dinner – while the casserole, as good and filling as it is, is indeed a two hour operation.

We need new recipes, new things to try. My parents recently bought us a cookbook (from our Williams Sonoma registry), and lately we’ve been flipping through it. Lots of good stuff. So the quest for the fourth fix-it dinner option continues.

YARD UPDATE: We painted the side backyard wall today, a seven hour job for me and Kristi’s parents. We had to scrape off crumbling old paint (God, was that a mess), prime the whole thing, and then put two coats on. I got eave duty, scraping, priming and painting all the little crannies at the roof line, from atop a ladder; my right arm feels like Jello right now and my left isn’t a whole lot better. Don replaced some rotting boards and installed new board facings along the roof. It took pretty much all day but it’s all finally done and it looks great.. especially considering it’s probably been thirty years or so since those walls have had a makeover, judging by the deterioration of the eave paint and wood. I figure the next job, to be done in a couple week or so, will be Sprinkler Trouble Child #2. Again, big thanks to Don and Kathy today. It’s great to be able to throw a gang at jobs like this.

WEDDING UPDATE: After a bit of a drama, our wrought iron arbor arrived the other day. It’s beautiful; I’m sure we’ll get some photos up soon. We’ll be married under it, and then it’ll find a new home in the backyard as a permanent fixture in our garden.

PHOTO UPDATE: We’ve got photos of the yard taken. They’re still on the camera. Haven’t had time yet to sit down and sort through them together to decide which ones to post. But they’re coming.