DINNER INSPIRATION

“Well, that took forever.” I grumbled as I lifted the eight bags of groceries hanging from my arms, and placed them on the counter.

“Are they're any more in the car?” Steven asked as he headed for the front door.

“Nope.” I rubbed the spots where the bags had dug into my arms. “You know me, only one trip into the house with the bags, even if it's enough groceries to fill a shopping cart.” I began the unloading.

“Why did you say it took forever?” Steven took the pasta boxes and placed them in the cabinet.

“Because nothing inspired me.” I put the milk in the refrigerator. “I must have walked back and fourth in front of the meat counter twenty times and nothing, I mean nothing, called out to me. How many times can I make chicken, beef, pork or pasta? I was looking for something different.” I placed the bag of fresh spinach on the counter. “We can leave this out, I'm going to be using it.”

“Oh, fresh spinach, that's a good start.” Steven reached into another bag and pulled out a pound of hamburger meat and placed it on the counter. “So I see you gave up and we're going to be having hamburgers?”

I smiled as I grabbed my phone and pulled up the site I'd been on. “We're going to have Swedish meatballs!” I showed him the recipe I'd found.

“Swedish meatballs!” Steven started to laugh. “What made you think of them?”

“Well...while I was wandering back and forth in front of the meat counter, waiting for inspiration to strike, I started to think about the matching bedside tables I'd like to get.”

“Wait, what?” Steven looked over at me, a confused look on his face.

“Oh, come on.” I began stacking the yogurts on a shelf in the refrigerator. “We've had mis-matched bedside table for years. It looks stupid.” I complained.

“This is the first time I'm hearing about this.”

“That's because you don't even see it anymore.” I took the hamburger meat from him. “So when I was thinking about the furniture I thought about IKEA and that led me to their Swedish meatballs.” I turned around a big smile on my face. “And that, my friend, led me to our dinner!”

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “I haven't had Swedish meatballs in years.”

“I know!” I took the bag of noodles and placed them next to the spinach. “Who doesn’t like Ikea’s Swedish meatballs!”

Alex walked into the room. “Did I hear someone say something about dinner?”

“We're having Swedish meatballs.” Steven said as he put the last of the groceries away.

Alex looked confused. “I don't think I've ever had them before.”

“What?” I turned around and looked at him. “We've never taken you to IKEA?” I looked over at Steven. “How could that be?”

Steven started to laugh, “Remember about twenty years ago when we got the kids furniture there and it took me hours and hours to put it all together?”

I tried to think back that far. “Kind of.” I finally said.

“I swore then that I'd never buy any furniture that I had to put together.”

“So it's been over twenty years since we've been there?” I was truly surprised. “It's kind of funny that I don't remember the furniture but I remember their meatballs.” I had to smile as I looked at Alex. “Just wait until you taste these.”

Alex didn't look convinced. “Sure,” He shook his head and started to laugh, “Furniture store meatballs, who wouldn't love them.”