If I had it my way, our Friday evenings would look like this:
I’d prepare a beautiful, multi-course meal. Rho would sit in his high chair, happily playing with spatulas and munch on softened veggies. My husband would arrive home from work early, to a perfectly set table and with a bottle of wine in hand. We’d sit down to dinner with Rho and enjoy our meal in relative peace. After giving him his bath and putting the baby to bed, we’d play a game of chess over a post-dinner drink, classical music softly playing in the background. I’d be wearing a matching pajama set, hair artfully thrown up in a high bun.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a Friday night like this one. They look more like this:
I’m dashing after an increasingly mobile Rho, trying to get him fed and bathed before Sri gets home. When he arrives, I pass the baby and the bottle to him to sit for a minute and order whatever sounds the best off Seamless or Postmates. Creamy chicken tikka masala and samosas? Check. There’s no wine at home, and I can’t be bothered to run down to the wine shop and grab a bottle. A beer it is. My husband emerges from the baby’s room just as the dinner is delivered, which we eat in bed while watching our latest Netflix obsession (currently – Master of None and Jessica Jones). I’m clad in an old graphic t-shirt and ratty pajama pants, my eyeglasses askew on my face. No games. No talking. Just food, a show, and re-reading A Discovery of Witches for the gazillionth time while my husband sleeps next to me.
We needed a change. A BIG change.
Preparing dinner was my biggest hurdle. I could set a table and make a quick drink while chasing after my son. Cooking a full meal, however, was out of the question.
Enter Kitchensurfing, a service that has been my savior during the early “come over and meet the baby” visits. You select one of three meals. A chef comes to your home, prepares the meal and serves it, and cleans up. All for $25 a person.
It’s the overworked entertainer’s savior. Did I mention the food is ridiculously tasty?
To shake up our typical (and sad) Friday nights, I reserved a Kitchensurfing chef for 7 pm. The table was set and the hot toddy fixings prepared while Rho scampered underfoot in his walker. I focused on his bedtime routine while Sri let the chef in and prepared our drinks. Too tired for a board game, he found a movie for us to watch here (we tucked into an old favorite, Coming to America).
Once the baby was down, we enjoyed our drinks while the chef put the finishing touches on the meal. No matching pajamas here – instead, I wore glasses, my favorite sweatshirt, and ridiculous slippers.
Dinner was fantastic. We started with a corn chowder, made spicier thanks to red pepper flakes and cayenne. Next came black bean burgers on a toasted brioche bun.
There was salad, which was dressed to perfection. Laney let me in on her trick – she prepared the salad in a gallon-sized Ziploc and massaged the dressing into the greens in the bag. No muss, no fuss.
Bag salads may be my new favorite kitchen hack, after bag omelettes.
As we do during a date night out, we left our phones in the room and spent our dinner reconnecting. We finally got to discuss the articles we had sent each other that day (one of my favorite habits), have the cliched conversation of how big Rho is/how fast the year is going, and talk about the big trip for 2016.
There was no music, even though I had this Songza station all queued up on the Sonos. Whoops.
And we may have fallen asleep minutes after dinner. Double whoops.
Was it the Friday night of my dreams? Not quite.
A wonderful night, nonetheless? Definitely.
This post was sponsored by Kitchensurfing, a company that I truly love. I was given a free meal and compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.
