Mrs. Flinger has a funny post about the “Lost Mommy Files”–the chronic forgetfulness and lapses in brain activity that happen so often after one has given birth. Most of my mommy brain malfunctioning occurs in the kitchen. I’m no Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray, although I do have a list of tried and true basic recipes that are very good. There was the time I added raw ground beef to chili mix when I was supposed to add browned ground beef. That was the day I learned I really can’t multi-task while cooking (or at least talk on the phone). There was the time I let the boiling water completely evaporate out of a pot when I was sterilizing pacifiers and they were melting to the bottom of the pan. There was the time I was making dip in a bread bowl and the recipe said to take it out of the oven after a certain amount of time and then cover it and put it back in the oven and I covered it completely with plastic wrap (which then melted into the dip). There was the time I threw away a rebate check my husband had been waiting for (not cooking related but I threw it away in the kitchen trash can.) There was the recent post-holiday incident when I nearly set our new toaster oven on fire. I’ve always been a little “blonde” around the edges and now that I’ve had two children my brain is permanently in the mom zone. I think this could be the inspiration for a new game show: Cooking In The Mom Zone. Three moms in a cooking competition must keep their cool and prepare a fabulous dish as they face distraction after distraction after distraction…the barking dog running through the kitchen with muddy paws, the delivery person at the front door, the cat jumping on the kitchen table, the impatient toddler tugging on your leg, the crying baby, the ringing phone. They just need to make sure they have a fire truck and an emergency medical team on site in the event of food poisoning.