Julie has sent the emails out to everyone along with a copy of the menu, I’ve got the recipes printed out in the order that they’ll have to go on the heat. Normally I wouldn’t have to do this, but my brain doesn’t function quite the same anymore. Without a written copy to refer to, I’ll manage to screw it up. Like making lasagna and forgetting to boil the noodles first or roasting a goose for three hours only to discover I forgot to turn the oven on – so I don’t trust my memory for anything now.

Julie is becoming a pretty good cook. From someone who literally couldn’t boil water to make her own tea, she’s become a pretty competent helper in the kitchen with a well refined pallet that amazes me. Which is good as mine is shot… the accident again. I have her taste everything as it cooks and I’ll make adjustments to it and it turns out fine. 

When we started cooking about three years ago, for social events or have guests over for a cookout, I would lose my temper quite often. I’d become so focused on what I was doing that I would forget she wasn’t a cook, and blowup at her. She was helping me out and didn’t have a clue what would come next, while I assumed that she did. Things got pretty tense for a while, but I started calming down and had her help with the prep work so she could see how everything came together. When you’ve got four dishes ready for the next step and two more requiring you’re attention in fifteen minutes isn’t the best time to learn. With my speech being so fucked up, by the time I could figure out the words and get them out in order – I could do it myself. But when you have only one arm it isn’t that simple. So everything got delayed, instead of having six dishes done perfectly, I had six that were only good and by the time the last one came off the heat the first was cold. 

That was awhile ago, and now we work as a team, Julie has picked up both her skills and speed, and has prepared entire meals on her own, with me helping out when needed.

This will the first big test, where we will do everything from baking the bread to smoking the turkey and everything in between.