by Lisa Termin

Created on: August 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 20, 2009

Can you freeze tuna salad? I find myself surrounded by perfect 'Good Housekeeping' female in-laws. They are great conversationalists, pretty and self-assured... and I swear they were all born with a cooking spoon in one hand and a pot in the other. Like Royalty, they gracefully pass around the kitchen as if it were their castle. Everything their spatula touches turns to pure gold! To have one of them tell you, "Oh this dish did not turn out" is like hearing the moon really is made of cheese... you just know that it is simply not true.

And then there's me. I'm shy, introverted and do a good job of making grilled cheeses... really, it's my specialty. Well, that and cold cereal. My husband and I have been married just over a year. Every time we see his family, it involves food. And really good food at that. Restaurant grade, I call it. So I thought I would invite them over and make enchiladas for them. I thought I would live on the wild side and take a chance that my Mexican might turn out well and it would impress the socks off of them. Another thing I am is a dreamer. I over-tried and over-did... I really can't recall what all I shoved in those corn tortillas but after all was chewed and spewed, I probably would have been better off serving them my specialty.

I happened over at their house one afternoon and my mother-in-law opened her freezer and it was jam packed with breakfast burritos she'd just made. Perfect little gems, they were a symbol of her thriftiness, stellar ability to concoct, outstanding gifting to plan ahead and a wonderful jesture of love in saran wrap for her husband, since she doesn't even like breakfast burritos. My heart sank. If this is what it means to be accepted as a dutiful daughter-in-law, I stank at it. My idea of a perfect meal is Taco Bell. What must my husband have been thinking of me all these months? After all, the women in his family were kitchen royalty and he wound up with a 'would you like fries with that?' kinda girl.

Still, I had to try. I ran home and eggs and cheese and sausage and potatoes and tortillas were flying across every counter in my kitchen as I stirred and chopped and fried and scrambled up my love for my husband. Thirty-two breakfast burritos and two packages of saran wrap later, I had to wonder if this was a good idea ... they looked nothing like my mother-in-laws gems of love but more resembled stones of i-hope-you-love-me-even-though-i-can't-cook-worth-a- flip-and-don't-think-you-have-to-eat-these-because-y ou-don't. I pondered whether or not to toss them. That wouldn't be thrifty. After I stuffed burritos in every nook and cranny I could possibly find, I stood back and with a deep sigh told the freezer at least it sort of looked like my mother-in-law's. It's been four months since then and the other day I found a couple of those burritos way in the back of the freezer and sacrificed them to the trash can. My poor husband had been drowning them in picante. I couldn't see punishing him any further.

I'd like to say that was my last attempt at frozen love but it wasn't. Something else I am is a die-hard. Keep trying til I get it right, right? I so admire the magic my mother-in-law performs in the kitchen - as well as out of it. She inspires me but I do know now that we all have our own excellent areas. Cooking is just not mine. And that's okay, with a mother-in-law like mine, it doesn't seem to matter one bit.

Oh, yes, by the way, you can freeze tuna salad. It's in the defrosting phase where you learn not to.

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