Sometimes simple really is better

Tacos for dinner, hotdogs for royalty, and reminders of simplicity along the way

Last night, my 13-year-old declared he’d be making dinner for the family.

“Awesome,” I replied. “What are we eating?”

“TACOS, Mom. Tacos. We’re gonna have ourselves some tacos for dinner.”

It matters not that it took him nearly an hour to make the meal. He knows he’s not the fastest in the kitchen, so he purposefully started cooking early. It also matters not that I measured taco seasoning and water to pour over the browned turkey, or that I cut a couple stems of rainbow chard from the garden when we realized we didn’t have any lettuce. The sous chef to his mastery, I merely helped him carry out his vision.

When it comes to parenting, I think about how much it thrills me that my boys can and often will cook dinner for the rest of the family. If I can someday send them out into this world with a little bit of cooking prowess under their belts, then surely I’ve done something right. But when it comes to cooking, and perhaps even eating, I always return to the truth that simple is better.

Twenty-five ingredients does not make right a recipe. Laborious instructions that cost me hours of preparation in the kitchen does not mean that an offering is going to taste better. A Michelin-starred restaurant does not necessarily warrant a more memorable (let alone, cheaper) meal than my neighbor who makes and sells pupusas out of her driveway.¹

Sure, more ingredients and extensive preparation and an expensive eating experience can taste better, but that’s not always the case.

Sometimes simple really is better.

I love the story of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, when in the summer of 1939, she urged the President to invite King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom not to the White House for a formal dinner, but to their summer home in upstate New York for a picnic.

Image credit here.

Perhaps it’s just me, but you really can look at this moment in history through a lens or angle of simplicity — further proving that simple really is better.

Even though the First Lady received criticism for her plan to serve the Queen and King hotdogs (as she announced that wieners would be on the menu in “My Day,” a nationally syndicated news column that received over a thousand letters in response), Roosevelt stuck to her guns.

She chose a simple menu that included hot dogs, strawberry shortcake, and berries, among other June delights; she purposefully hosted the event at Top Cottage, a small property on the cottage that forced more than 200 guests (including “simple” staff members including gardeners, cooks, and their families) to sit at tables and chairs, and on picnic blankets, on the lawn. And, as legend goes, when the Queen and King arrived — under no such pomp and circumstance, I should add, but in a sports car driven by the President himself — Queen Elizabeth wasn’t sure what to make of the oblong piece of meat.

Image credit here.

“How do you eat it?” The Queen finally asked.

“Push it into your mouth and keep pushing it ‘til it’s all gone,” the President famously replied.

Nearly nine decades later, many historians say chowing down on dogs al fresco did more for diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Great Britain, and ultimately proved vital to allyship when the latter declared war on Germany three months later.²

I guess you could say the First Lady’s decision to relish in a most simple meal proved most extraordinary in the end. Hotdogs may not have been what I’d chosen to serve to the royal family,³ but they seemed to have done the trick if you ask me.

Here’s the truth: I am no historian, but I do love history. I am no professional chef, but I do love feeding my family and my neighbors and those who cross my path. And in all these many places of history and cooking and writing, and maybe a few other places along the way, one thing is true.

Sometimes simple really is better.

Love,

c.

1. The average price of a meal at a Michelin star restaurant varies, but Google tells me it costs anywhere between $25 - $500 per person. By comparison, we can feed our family of four with enough of Ms. Ana’s pupusas for $20 total.

2. Although I consulted a number of sources for this bit of history, you know which one proved most helpful? The children’s book, Hot Dog! by Leslie Kimmelman.

3. I was over hot-dogged as a child, you see.