I Suck At Recipes

Kicking off Memorial Day weekend, Karen and I (and our baby daughter, Briana) headed off to the All-America city known as Lowell on Saturday. For anyone curious, the city of Lowell did win the title of "All-America City" in 1999 after being a finalist for the award the previous two years. Despite the award, I am still not sure there is a lot to like about Lowell... as much as the city would like to have you believe there is.

The trip to Lowell was another milestone for Karen and I. After all, the road trip was the furthest we have gone with Briana since she was born a little over two months ago. And apparently, Briana did not seem to mind the ride as she basically was asleep the entire way up.

So what is in Lowell besides textile mills? Karen's cousins (Karlene and Matthew), Karlene's husband (Tommy) and Karen's aunt (Denise) and uncle (Paul). As Karlene is big on tradition, she invited us up for our annual Memorial Day trip to Gath Greenery which is located in Dunstable. The rest of Karen's relatives would join us later for after-Gath celebration.

Anyway, it was a thrilling time at Gath Greenery. Karen basically looked for some vegetables to plant in her garden this year while I watched Briana. In case anyone is curious, I think it's going to be a zucchini and squash year this year. After some chitchatting with the owners and such (who apparently are now grandparents to a child similar to Briana's age), we headed to Karlene and Tommy's for a cookout.

Needless to say, the cookout was good. I devoured many ears of corn (I love corn) and steak tips. Yum. I would have eaten more if I could. And from there, the hilarity ensued. And by hilarity, I mean that some of Karen's relatives joined us after the cookout. Naturally, with family gatherings, there is a lot of "rigamarole"... a term that I first heard of within Karen's family when they described themselves to me.

The family topic for the day: recipes. Now I suck at recipes. And truth be told, I should have tuned everyone out like Karen's cousin, Matthew. Matthew seemed very good at tuning things out as he was engrossed in a book... something he has not done in quite a while, or so he told me. (And as a side note, Matthew has a friend named Meg Ryan which I thought was funny.)

Anyway, these family things always start off with the best intentions. Unfortunately, the idea snowballs into something bigger... and then the rigamarole. You would think that people would learn from past history. It almost reminds me of that classic Bush quote: "Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." Almost...

Awhile ago, Karlene and Karen thought it would be a great idea to share all of their Nana's pictures with everyone in the family. So, they spent countless hours scanning and indexing picture after picture while Nana's place was getting ready to be sold. Good intentions? Absolutely. Huge undertaking without any thanks? Yep.

Flash forward to today. The grandiose idea this time around: Nana's recipes. Karlene and Karen again thought it would be great to share Nana's recipes with everyone who wanted them. Good intentions again? Yep. Huge undertaking again? Absolutely considering the volume of recipe requests. And personally, I think what makes portions of this undertaking ridiculous is that there was a request for an iced tea recipe. I mean... really? A recipe for that? I don't even cook and I know making that is simple.

Anyway, that's just my opinion about the subject matter. But to each their own. I'm curious to see what will be the big idea next year. Needless to say, the recipe idea was a main topic of discussion for the day. Thrilling, I know.