From Gordon Ramsay...to Gordon's Fish Sticks

Untold truth about parenthood (at least in my house): its killed my ability to cook well.

Actually, its more accurate to say its killed my desire to cook well.

When Jim and I were dating and in the first year or two after we got married, gourmet cooking was a hobby - dare I say - a passion of ours. We were foodies and proudly wore the mantel.

Michelin star restaurants? Tried em. Culinary food fests? Always attended.

Eight course wine pairing dinners at the top rated eateries in New York, London and Edinburgh? Yes, yes and yes please.

On vacation and 2/3 of the way through an eight-course wine-pairing and tasting lunch at The Kitchin restaurant in Scotland. Probably the best meal we ever had.

We celebrated Jim's 35th birthday at the exclusive Chef's Table at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in London. We taped Bobby Flay cooking shows, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and made a habit of trying new recipes every week out of our vast litany of celebrity chef cookbooks.

Jim plating food in Gordon Ramsay's London restaurant on his 35th birthday,

Me, prepping freshly caught (as in Jim...reeling it in out of the ocean that afternoon) Mahi-Mahi in our hotel room in southern Florida.

Things are a LITTLE different now.

Jim will sometimes tease me. "How come you don't cook anymore?" he'll say. Or, "Remember when we used to actually eat good food?"

Tonight, I was reminded why things have changed so drastically.

I do try to make an effort - albeit only once or twice a week, to make something a bit more involved. This evening was one of those nights.

The menu wasn't overly ambitious -- or at least it wouldn't have been -- in those days before we had a kid.  Rock cornish game hens with an orange-maple glaze, and steamed artichokes.

Everything started out well enough - I prepped the hens before I picked up Scott from daycare, put the artichokes on the stove, and prepared the glaze. All I had to when I got home was baste the hens a few times, reduce the glaze, pull the artichokes out of the steamer and plate dinner.

It was, essentially, an unmitigated disaster. Oh, the food turned out fine - yummy even. But I had to stop mid-basting on three separate occasions to find Scott's squishy baseball, re-assemble a Thomas train track and pick the kid up off the floor after he somehow managed to trip and cut his knee on some unseen piece of glass from an earlier broken bowl.

Each of these events was preceded by either whining or a full-on crying jag/temper tantrum.

Once we sat down to eat, Scott took exactly TWO bites of his dinner and then proceeded to whine/cry for the duration of the meal. Jim and I ate, in between repeated calls to "stop whining" and "take your fingers out of your mouth."

Jim had eaten about a quarter of his hen when Scott announced, "all-DONE!!" and started crying to get down.

A relaxing meal it was not. And at the end of our 20 minute inhale session, all I had to show for my 70-plus minutes of work was a pile of pots and pans that needed scrubbing. Scott later ate grapes.

Post dinner, post grape eating and about to embark on another temper tantrum.

So is it any wonder that our typical dinner menus now consist of takeout 2-3 times a week, and a stash of go-to-kid-friendly faves like fish sticks, macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets?

Some days I do feel bad about it - I always said I didn't want a fussy eater. I envisioned raising this kid who would eat sushi, lamb, risotto and whatever else I served with equal relish. Maybe I still will. But for now, he's freakin' two. It simply ain't gonna happen.

Scott has, in recent weeks, rejected my homemade clam chowder, my lasagna, and my steak quesadillas. I work hard at not taking it personally. Can I blame him for wanting In N Out burgers, fries and shakes? I admit it...they are truly yummy.

Burger, shake? Fries? Scott asks for this almost every day.

Don't get me wrong: I don't encourage pickiness - I won't serve him something else if he doesn't eat, but I have modified our menus to try to make kid-friendly meals on a regular basis.

It's just one of the many things that's changed around here since we've had Scott -- like the dishes that get stacked in the sink after breakfast and typically stay there until I finish cleaning dinner up at 8 p.m., or the basket of clean laundry that's been sitting next to my bed, unfolded, for at least a week. I'll get to it eventually.

And you know what? Shake and Bake Pork Chops, bananas, applesauce, frozen waffles, edamame, vanilla yogurt, chicken nuggets, string cheese and Gordon's Fish Sticks actually combine to make some interesting meals.