On Sundays, Andre cooks. He’s been doing this for a couple of years now – planning a menu for the week, shopping on Saturday, cooking for most (or all) of Sunday morning. While he makes a few things designed to appeal to the kids – like a delicious mac’n’cheese – I am truly the lucky recipient of most of his bounty: blueberry scones, carrot-pomegranate-pistachio salad, baked squash with toasted almonds, eggplant parm, Navajo stew, all sorts of soups, and a recently perfected Caesar salad dressing that is just the right amount of tangy and creamy.
After he’s chopped and toasted and stirred and baked, he turns to his final act: dough. He often makes a loaf of bread for the week, then enlists the kids to help make some sort of bread for their lunches – for a while they made cheese buns; lately it’s been bagels – and he almost always makes us pizza dough for Sunday dinner.
Today, he wanted to make the pizza dough early, but he worried that if he left it too long, it might over-proof. So while I went for my morning walk, he was online looking for ideas to keep the dough just right. When I got back from my walk, the dough was rising in a container on the back porch – apparently the outdoor temperature was just what he was looking for.
After that, we spent the afternoon as we often do: catching up on work, tidying, planning. At some point I went into the kitchen for some water, looked out the back door and saw this:
Cheeky thing. This food is NOT for you!
(Fear not, the dough itself was covered with saran wrap & then I covered the whole thing with a large metal bowl that stymied the squirrels – no pizza dough was sacrificed to the squirrels. Now, as I write, the pizza is cooking and the salad is ready.)
I thank Andre often, of course, but it’s not really enough – how could it be? He spends hours every week doing this activity that is largely designed to take care of us, his family. I don’t intend to share his creations with the wildlife.
PS: Tomorrow is his birthday and he says it’s not really a big one for him so he wants to keep things low-key – so I’m writing today to keep things the way he likes them. But in case you’re wondering, he’s pretty amazing.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
My mouth was watering at the first paragraph and then I was laughing at the “cheeky” spuirrels! Happy birthday to the truly amazing, Andre🎉
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Silly squirrels – that’s *my* food.
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Happy Birthday to AB! Amanda, when Andre was 8 years old he surprised Robin and I with making us pancakes in the morning. We were supposed to be taking care of him but he wanted to take care of us. Sounds like he hasn’t changed much for the little boy we used to know.
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I had forgotten about that! I’ve brought my game up since then and do a pretty mean buttermilk pancake with freshly made whipped cream. I would be delighted to share!
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He’s still delighting us with pancakes and all sorts of care-taking. I should have known he’s been doing that since he was tiny! Thanks for sharing that story. I love it.
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Amanda,
While reading, I thought of all the things my husband does for me and has done to lighten the load. I feel like a total slacker reading your post today. I’m a bit like that squirrel. I want the bounty w/ out the work. I’m truly impressed that Andre cooks every Sunday. And the squirrel made me giggle and go “oh, no!” until I learned he’s plastic wrapped out of the dough.
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I just ate, am not hungry, but the food Andrew makes sounds delicious. I would eat if offered, anyways.
I think it’s a perfect story to go with your pizza-making about the squirrels that almost took the dough.
I appreciate how you, at the end, note and appreciate Andre. I feel the same about my husband, and, know I need to appreciate him more. Maybe a Slice for tomorrow?
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and how terrible of me, Happy Birthday to Andre!
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What a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. It’s so nice that your family can enjoy this all week. The squirrel is very cheeky! I’m glad you caught him. Once I put a pie on our sun porch and the next morning it was completely eaten. I have no idea who ate it or how they got in there!
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Today, T headed for the sugar bush, for a necessary overnight stint of boiling. Mr 19, as he does every week, had sent me his ingredient list on Friday, and made shakshuka for the two of us (he makes dinner every Sunday night). We first started the ritual of my spouse doing Saturday dinner and the kiddo doing Sunday night to ease the load on me on report writing weekends. Now, it’s our norm. I am incredibly thankful. T also managed to make some cheese biscuits this weekend (at least partly so he could take some with him). These are major gifts, and I know how lucky we are.
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Right? My kids can cook – and they watch their dad cook. Andre knows what a gift this is to me – and to all of us. Some days I just shake my head in wonder at how lucky I am.
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I love how you funneled this story from the big picture of what usually happens, to today’s meal plans, and shared how you all went about the day before revealing the climax of the story. The photos are pretty cute, too! Glad the pizza dough survived.
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Arnauld cooks on Sundays too and it is so appreciated. The bread baking takes all of this to another level. I love that you wrote this the day before his birthday. This says so much about your appreciation and how well you know Andre.
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Happy birthday to Andre! All of those meals sound amazing! The squirrel photos had me laughing.
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That he is! Happy Birthday, Andre!! 🎂
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Dear Andre,
Happy birthday!
Sincerely,
Squirrel
p.s. Feed me, too, please.
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Wow! This is impressive! My husband bakes but not so much with the meal cooking. Happy Birthday, Andre!
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