Mine's a large portion...

It says on the packet “serves 2″. Two what? Elves? Mice? People who have already eaten?

My wife became seriously ill last November, and was diagnosed with cancer. Not only did it change her life dramatically, but it put me in a position I’ve never been in before, and one that left me no choice but to get stuck into running the house single handed. After being waited on hand and foot by my mother for 20 years and then my wife for the following 4 decades, I was suddenly a full time cook, cleaner and washer woman (man).

Over the past ten months my cooking skills have gone from non existant to reasonably good. I advanced from the George Forman lean mean grilling machine to the oven and four burners. I am at the stage when I can cook a reasonable dinner for two, with the added bonus that I can now time everything to finish cooking at the same time. The microwave was redundant except for minor tasks!

My wife had a short stay in hospital this week, and as I left Bart’s hospital on Monday night around nine, I thought “sod it! I’ll nip into Tesco when I get off the bus and get a ready meal or something”. I had a look round and grabbed a bag with a Chinese meal for two. Never tried them before but it was a quick microwave job at that time of night, and I could have the other portion the next day. Some chance! Who measures out the portions I wonder? Mr. Puniverse?

Menu “A” consisted of egg fried rice, chicken and cashews, sweet and sour chicken, four microscopic spring rolls (that were not suitable for microwave cooking) and a bag of prawn crackers. Sounds a lot, but I scoffed it all and hunted round for something to fill me up afterwards!

Tonight, the same thing. My wife only wanted some soup and a roll so I dispenced with the oven and got myself a “serves 2″ carton of two chicken pieces with smoked ham and red onions. Looked really good on the box. Good job I had a bag of salad in the fridge and a large bag of salted peanuts to snack on afterwards!

Think I’ll go back to proper cooking from tomorrow. At least I can decide the size of the portions!

What we want are large portions!