What's For Dinner

My Mother has been cooking since she was 5 years old.  She would roll out the biscuits and put them in a pan.  She would help with baking on weekends.  As an adult, my Mother had a catering business.  In the last year or two my Mother has been unable to process some of her recipes.  Mom was the type of cook that knew most of her recipes by heart and never wrote down ingredients or measurements.  After a few cooking disasters she started using her written recipes again.  Recently even using the written recipes, Mom gets some of the ingredients wrong or forgets elements of the recipe.  I can see how much this frustrates her.

We plan our meals weekly and daily.  We discuss what we will have so groceries can be shopped for and ingredients checked.  Mom still has some days that what we planned gets forgotten.  A few weeks ago she cooked roasts three days in a row.  I can only describe it as a needle getting stuck in a record.  She knew she wanted to cook a roast, she just did not remember having cooked one on the previous day.  Several times a day she will ask me what's for dinner.  I will repeat our plan to her each time.  I have been cooking more and more lately, but that bothers her as well.  The kitchen is her domain.  Mom is determined to keep doing all of her regular tasks and routines as long as possible.  I want to encourage that, for as long as possible.