It's almost Thanksgiving, so turkeys are on sale in all the supermarkets. Heinz proudly told me a few days ago that he had bought not only one, but two turkeys. "Wow," I thought," that's one turkey per person at thanksgiving. Since they are not expecting company." But lo and behold I was mistaken. Heinz was blissfully unaware that it might have anything to do with an upcoming holiday that turkeys seemed to be on sale. So as he has done in the past, one of the poor birds had already become a project for dissemination. As I cringed at the thought, he proudly proceeded to tell me how he had partially defrosted the turkey and then cut it into decent portions for himself and Gertrud and then frozen it again. Aside from the salmonella factor, I also hated to think of the poor bird being attacked by Heinz with the saw and hatchet he uses for this purpose. So with severe doubts on whether I was doing the right thing, I informed Heinz and Gertrud of the upcoming holiday and offered to come over and cook them a nice meal.
First of course I gave great thought as to what to cook and since turkey is tradition, but a whole turkey dinner would be too much for me to handle, I opted for a simple turkey goulash over broad egg noodles and a pumpkin pie for dessert. That said, I now told Heinz to defrost a turkey breast. I went through great pains explaining that it would need to be taken out of the freezer and put into the refridgerator to defrost. I also explained to Gertrud who was on the extention line that this was very important for me as I would not eat meat defrosted on the counter. I am afraid of salmonella and would not be able to eat it. This conversation happened on Friday and supper was to be had on Sunday.
This morning bright and early I woke up to the phone ringing. It was Heinz. He wanted to know whether I was coming over to cook supper later. Bleary eyed and somewhat confused, I reminded him that I was not cooking until Sunday, upon which he explained that he needed to call me since he had taken the meat out of the freezer the night before and had let it defrost in the kitchen sink and if I wasn't coming over until Sunday he would need to put the meat into the fridge.
First my heart sank and then I got upset. I asked him if he hadn't understood the instructions I had given him night before, upon which he explained to me that the meat would not have been ready on time, so he decided to hasten the process by leaving it in the sink overnight. I decided to give up the argument since I knew I couldn't win. The problem however was how could I eat this meat. I still don't know how I will do it. I've thought about bringing something different to eat for myself, but I know that this won't go over well. So I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and cook everything really well done and hope I won't get sick.
The trouble is that Heinz and Gertrud are forever doing this type of thing. It simply drives me crazy. They always leave food out and then eat it later. I am surprised that we kids survived their cooking. Soups stay out on the stove overnight and then simply get reheated. I have been stressing the importance of putting stuff in the fridge asap after cooking, but the truth be told, I think they just ignore me thinking I'm too finicky. Gertrude often complains that the food is not agreeing with her and I always wonder if she ate something that has been sitting out too long. The doubt never subsides since whenever I visit them, there is food sitting out and I tend to wonder how long it's been there.
But tomorrow I shall cook. I shall overcome my fear of dying of salmonella one more time for their sake because I love them and want them to have a good time and then we will proceed to the next adventure in the lives of old codgers who do things their way because that's all they know and don't see any reason to change.
p.s. Gertrud ate half the sweets I brought I back from Quebec and Heinz ate all the creton.
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