I Don’t Know How To Cook – Help!

I don’t know how to cook and my wife is off visiting our eldest daughter in Israel. It’s just me and my 10-year old, and since she can’t reach the stove, kitchen duties fall to me.

I very rarely touch the business end of a pan or pot in our house, so nobody expects me to discover the joys of cooking.  But I have discovered one thing – mac & cheese saves lives and marriages. If you have ever been suddenly thrust into the position of chief operating manager of your household, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  I’ve concluded that it’s much easier to master how to make a business successful than how to make tuna casserole.

Outside of cooking, I really hold my own.  Washing clothes.  Doing dishes.  No problemo.  I enjoy it. But cooking – not my bag, man…not my bag.

But being Mr. Mom isn’t too bad.

To be frank, I love spending time with each of my children alone.  As you may recall, I visited my daughter in Israel last month so we had great “just us” time.  Now, even though I miss my bride, it’s very cool to spend some time with our youngest. It helps me learn things about her that I never noticed before.  I’ve got to find a way to spend some “just us” time with my middle child soon.

What has this got to do with personal finance?  Absolutely nothing.  I just wanted to share that I’m having a blast this holiday season and I hope you are too.

On to the Pilgrim Pick of the Pack:

Darwin’s Finance snags the award just in time to put it up on the trophy rack for 2009 – nicely done, Dar. Our scientific explorer of finance offers up 7 Year-End Tax Tips You Can’t Miss. Check it out.

Patrick over at CashMoneyLife has some bold ideas about your press release. Me likey.  Helpful and clear.

Green Panda has some great advice for automating your finances in college. (Are you listening, kids?)

Monevator asks why anyone goes shopping in stores when they can do so at their keyboards.

Weakonomics offers insight into our banking industry.  Interesting…very, very interesting.

Liz Weston suggests gifts that save folks money.

Check out the various posts in Best of Money – this is a carnival that I participated in.

My brudder Matt suggests the importance of character in success.  A message we can’t hear enough.

Financial Samurai wrote an award-winning article about credit cards possibly being a weapon of mass financial destruction.  Do you agree?

Are the wealthy really who you think they are? FreeMoneyFinance suggests they are not.

Mike talks about the real risks of owning bonds.  Really important if you own or are thinking about bonds as an investment.