WHY COOK? IDK

I don't know why I even bother cooking anymore.  I live within walking distance of many fine and reasonably priced restaurants and within driving distance of dozens more. 

The deli down the road makes excellent honey BBQ chicken calzone and outstanding steak tip salads.  I can get Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranean, fancy pizza, char-broiled burgers, Indian, and Italian practically out my front door.  The pizza place across the street makes consistently solid pizzas, packed-full subs, and has fabulous dinner plates, all at reasonable prices.

Tonight I am exhausted from breakneck speed at work today (and quite a bit of fighting with technology).  I come home, take a shower, throw in a full load of laundry, and start attacking some phone calls I've needed to make.  A certain magazine to remain unnamed (but sounds a lot like Sports Illustrated) has bogusly charged my credit card for $55, and I have been fighting with them for a couple of weeks.  This afternoon I call India (or Pakistan or wherever it is) and argue with yet another employee mysteriously also named Jim.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, I'm done threatening "Jim" and assuring SI that my bank intends to investigate their bogus practices ("We don't verify the name or the three-digit code or the expiration date ...")  Um... dude?  That's FRAUD.  Finally, my bank confirms that the refund has gone through. 

Wonderful.  Now, time to deal with the Department of Education's loan division.

Before I realize the time, dinner should really be on the table.  I haven't even given it a thought.  Luckily, my son has also had a long few days, and we decide it's a steak tips kind of night.  We both decide to order the steak tip dinner (complete with a side salad), but, at the last minute, I change my mind and go for the baked haddock dinner.

Seriously.  The dinners are amazing, and I spend less than I would have to buy a couple of pieces of semi-fresh haddock myself, then I would need to prep it, cook it, get the smell out of the house.  The baked haddock is to die for, cooked to perfection and seasoned to an unfathomably tasty level.  Same with the steak -- the meal is less than a package of steak tips at the store, and it's cooked flawlessly.

I know that I'm spoiled.  Dinner is never further than the end of my almost strangely short road.  Most people don't even know it's a road at all.  Most people think it's part of the nearby church's parking lot, especially since there are only a handful of houses, and we're all living on the same one side of the street.  For $10 or less a day, I can eat like the spoiled brat I am.  For $20 or less a day, I can eat like freaking royalty.

I'm free, free at last from the oven and its post-Thanksgiving treachery.  No turkey leftovers tonight -- we've moved on to surf and turf.  No dishes to wash, either -- it's all eat-and-recycle. 

Best of all, though: I don't have to cook.  Believe me, if you've ever tasted my cooking, this is truly a win-win situation.