What’s for dinner?

It was a familiar scene at the house Tuesday when I walked in after work. Husband was working on his current project. Daughter bent over the sewing machine. A son sat in front of the computer checking his e-mail. It was time for supper and nothing was started.
Not to worry, super-Mom was home with her miraculous skills at whipping up a meal in no time at all, out the nothing to eat that some say I keep in the refrigerator,freezer and cupboards. A quick review of the refrigerator revealed bits and pieces of our weekend’s belated holiday celebration and early anniversary and birthday parties.
I dumped the half a bowl of rice and left-over sautéed hamburger and onions into a cast iron skillet. That was a start, all I had to do was figure out how to make this particular mixture presentable and edible. My daughter turned off the sewing machine and came over to the stove,
“What are you making?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I said stirring the cold food as it re-heated.
She went to the refrigerator and returned with a green pepper, “It’s starting to wilt, but sautéed with the hamburger, who will know?”
I sliced, diced and added it to the cast iron skillet.
Before I finished, she had pulled out the last of the celery and a lonely tomato to add to our “create a dish” supper. She studied our concoction, “We could wrapit up in the flour tortillas. Jacob loves that kind of meal,” she said, referring to her fiancee’.
Working together in unspoken harmony, we transformed the left-overs into a once in a lifetime meal. The sink filled with dishes. I pulled out the last of the sour cream. She uncovered a bit of cream cheese and
I sliced up the remaining slab of jalapeno cheese to line the tortillas. We assembled the rolls of left-overs into a spicy south-of-the-border casserole creation. I tossed empty cartons and plastic wrappers into the trash freeing the fridge of the last of the holiday left-overs.
The two cups of left-over filling were stuffed around tortilla rolls
along the edges and in the corners of the pan and drenched with salsa.
The last of the sliced cheese covered one corner and an opened block of Monterey Cheese was grated over the rest. In about fifteen minutes our synchronized supper preparation ended with her setting the oven temperature and me sliding the dish into the oven. We make a great team.
I escaped into my current novel to wait for the cheese to brown. At 6:14 p.m. pangs of hunger broke the computer’s pull on my son, “How much longer until supper?”
“About one minute.” I finished the chapter and went to take out the golden brown casserole. My daughter was pulling out a tray of hot chocolate chip cookies. While I had waited for the main course to brown, she had opened and prepared her last Christmas gift: a jar of chocolate chip and nuts cookie mix.
Less than an hour after I arrived home, we thankfully prayed over our casserole created from left-overs and fresh cookies. The refrigerator was ready to be cleaned. The cupboards were stripped of their holiday riches, but thanks to my super-daughter’s help, my family once again feasted together royally.