Sunday afternoon, June 12, the four gardens at the Rotary will get their blooming start for the 18th year. Volunteers will dig in the dirt and plant flowers which will again provide a touch of beauty to our town. The four corners are called Smith, Hancock, Hall and Seavey. This project began in 1987 when Windham celebrated its 250th anniversary! As always, more volunteers are always welcomed.

Everyone who votes on June 14 will vote at the high school this year. Local non-profit organizations will take advantage of an opportunity to showcase their services and wares. The Historical Society will be selling home baked goods, books and other items. Do stop by and find out more.

It seems as though one of the most frequent questions asked by everyone from age four to 40 is, “What is there to eat?” Most mothers and wives and others in charge of household food production will recognize this question. The standard answer is, of course, “What would you like?” The temptation is to respond with something like “frosted grapes, glazed Cornish hens and lobster bisque.” Instead, there’s a choice of leftovers or a sandwich. This is the Hurry Up Heat Up style of dining.

Hurry Up Heat Up – or HUHU – is the result of the immediate gratification trend of the last several decades. These decades began with the introduction of the microwave, designed to go along with TV watching. Dedicated television viewing didn’t allow time to do actual food preparation. Instead, new food products were created – so called meals which could be heated up in the microwave, all of it timed perfectly to fit into the minutes taken up by commercials.

Some people love to watch cooking programs. Here they see actual chefs who filet, grate, whisk and braise – all skills which have become forgotten, in favor of the HUHU school. These programs must seem like Discovery or NOVA, but are actually on something called the Cooking network!

One of the most popular of these shows features a group of musicians sitting in the background of the kitchen. As tasks are accomplished, a drum roll is provided. To me that would be quite distracting, especially if I were measuring two teaspoons of baking powder or baking soda – and could have disastrous results!

And I never see these chefs washing dishes, although they have what appears to be a dish towel flipped over their shoulder. They use an awful lot of dishes, too, one tiny bowl for each of six or seven items neatly chopped and measured. And they never cut themselves even though their eyes are on the TV camera and the knives are very sharp. Truly, television is amazing.

Although it appears that a several course gourmet meal is produced in half an hour, common sense (or actual experience) tells us this is an impossibility. Marinating, for example, takes hours, not minutes. Occasionally, one of my friends appears compelled to replicate one of these gourmet meals, but so far has not mastered the patience that it requires. There’s a limit to what can be done in a microwave.

The appetite which is whetted by watching a cooking show guru prepare some exotic meal, will continue to prompt the usual question: What is there to eat?

The HUHU group will have to rely on little boxes of food which have an indefinite shelf life and can by popped into the ‘nuker’ for a minute or two, however long the commercial break lasts. Consider the ping of the microwave your drum roll. Think of yourself as the Emeril of the modern age.

I will spend my day tending a pot of baking beans – yes, they will be delicious and no, they don’t taste anything like canned. And of course they can be heated up in the microwave, but that’s after they have soaked in water overnight, and baked eight hours in a real oven. Call me old fashioned.

See you next week.

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