By Kathryn van
The holidays are now officially over and it is time to breathe a big sigh of relief and get life back to normal. The only problem is, before can be reestablished, all the decorations must come down and be put away. Oh, and all those new acquisitions have to find a place to be “put away” to. Is that another carton of eggnog in the fridge? That has to go. And what on earth do you do with Aunt Marge’s fruitcake?
The even bigger question is: What’s for dinner? If you’re like me, you are so sick of being in the kitchen that rooting in the freezer for a stray Lean Cuisine pushes the limits. You’re too exhausted to go grocery shopping and all those holiday leftovers are gone, so you can’t just tell the kids to go fend for themselves. And after wrestling that tree to the curb, the last thing you want to do is change out of your ragged, paint-stained sweats and go out to eat.
It’s time to order in.
It used to be that the only food you could get take-out was pizza. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with pizza – I can down a couple slices of pepperoni just about any day of the week – but it has never felt like a real dinner to me. It’s the “Dad’s in charge of dinner and he ordered pizza” meal or the “we’re in the middle of moving and need something we can eat as we go” dinner. And I always feel a bit guilty eating it – let alone feeding it to kids.
The choices are much broader now, with most restaurants now doing take-out and some delivering. Unfortunately, when it comes to families, more choices isn’t necessarily better. If you think getting everyone to decide on what kind of pizza to get is hard, try deciding which restaurant to order from and THEN deciding what to order. It’s enough to make you opt for Taco Bell.
Here are a few hints to make the ordering out process smoother:
* Don’t let the family pick the restaurant. Removing this choice drastically cuts down the amount of arguing. Pick the restaurant yourself, then tell them “We’re ordering from (insert restaurant here). What do you want?”
* Have a menu. Don’t go by memory. Have an actual menu in front of you. Some restaurants have their menu listed in the phone book, and still more have theirs listed online. A tiny bit of research will save a lot of headaches.
* Take their orders. Assign someone to be the “waitress” and write down everyone’s order in detail. Double check side dishes, steak doneness and “soup or salad” just like a waitress would. Make sure it is written down legibly.
* Call it in. Use the menu and your list of requests to call in the order. Use the names for the dishes listed in the menu and have the person repeat everything back. Be sure to ask when the order will be ready, and verify the price.
* Go get it. Play rock, paper scissors or draw straws to decide who among the drivers in the group will go pick it up. Send the list of orders with them so they can verify it again when they pick up the food. Tell them to get a copy of the take-out menu for future use.
* Eat. This is always my favorite part.
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