A visit from the long lost grandparents

My grandparents came to visit me last night.

I love my grandparents, and I know they love me. But I don't see them/speak with time/hear from or about them very often. When I was a kid we would travel to Maine every summer and spend a month or so at my grandparents' very rustic and secluded cabin on a lake. Since I'm the only girl in my generation of family, I would set up a small dome tent on the porch in this sort of fenced off area. It was worth sleeping on wood. It was my own space. No one was allowed in without my permission. Every day I would sweep out my tent and tie the window flaps back like real curtains. Then I would have my cousins "over" to play cards, but they had to take their shoes off at the door. The cabin didn't have electricity or plumbing. It had an outhouse that my grandma called the "Patrick Henry." It also had a gas stove and an elaborate ice box with 3 doors that my grandma would fill with ice from the trading post down the road. Every day my grandma and I had toast for breakfast, toasted in the broiler with one side burned and the other side completely white. The last time I went to the cabin I was a looking forward to my senior year of high school.

As is likely true of most grandparents, mine haven't changed much over the years. My grandma still eats toast, fat free small curd cottage cheese, fruit, skim milk, and the same powdered drink mix for breakfast every day. My grandpa, though normally very quiet, still likes to tell stories and jokes in the evening.

My grandma has had food controlled diabetes for over 30 years, and she has been on the same extremely particular, and perhaps outdated, diabetic diet for every single day of those 30-some-odd-years. Cooking for her is a challenge (for someone like me who would feel slighted if my grandma had to whip out her own food to meet her needs). She is very particular. Peas, beans, corn, rice, potatoes= starch. Meat, nuts= protein. Thinking ahead, I was pretty sure she eats something from every food group at every meal, and I know she has to eat each meal during a particular window of time which means that I have to have the dinner ready fast. On top of all that, my grandparents eat very bland food (my grandma recently told me that a friend of hers made the best chili, and it was so easy! 1 can tomato soup, 1 lb ground beef, 1 can kidney beans, and 1 tsp chili powder- yuck!). At first I thought that a chicken/rice/veg. soup would be perfect. Good-- but not especially packed with bold flavors. Then I was worried that soup would make it impossible for my grandma to get the exact right ratios. Okay...so a roast? I could cook a roast in the crock pot insuring that dinner is ready during "the window" and allowing her to choose the ratio of protein to veg to starch. But grandma also has cholesterol problems, so I don't think she eats much red meat.

Perhaps not surprisingly to you... his timing was impeccable...a settled on Mark Bittman's recipe for this week. It's a whole chicken boiled in salted water with garlic and ginger. As described in the recipe, I then made rice with onions and ginger and the stock from the chicken and served the chicken, shredded, over the rice. After conferencing with my mom, I decided to serve it with green beans (grandma doesn't eat much salad). Meat--starch--veg. Mom said she might bring her own milk, cottage cheese, and bananas. If she needed something else, I'd have to go to the store.

I made the chicken the night before, so all I'd have to do is make the rice and green beans.

Success! The only thing I changed is I didn't make the dipping sauce. I put some grated ginger in the rice instead. I don't like my ginger too overpowering, so I only used about 1/4 t. (Oh! And grandma brought her own milk and cottage cheese. We had plain strawberries for "dessert" cause that's what they do.)

This served more than 4...that's for sure!