Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
My Live-in Chef
When I first married my husband, his idea of a meal was having half a Pepperidge Farm cake after a graveyard shift or going out for Mexican food. He knew better than to ask me if I wanted the other half of the cake (which he ate in his younger days), although I did enjoy having a piece at a time. But I digress.
I assumed as so many wives did of my, um, maturity, that cooking was my job. At least dinner. From the beginning, Jerry and I each fixed our own preferred breakfast and lunch, and I would plan the dinner menus. At first, I did all the prep for our simple “meat and potato” style dinners. To him, mushrooms were gross; broccoli was ruled disgusting (and it still is, to him). But gradually I learned the foods he liked or was willing to try, and I experimented with more complicated meals, as I enviously watched our gourmet friends cook the yummiest and most exotic meals.
Over time I asked my hubby to help me prep for meals. We eat lots of vegetables and he loves to chop. I couldn’t bear to watch him—his engineering nature would kick in and I would watch him precisely slice carrots and celery. Slowly. But he got the job done and it was one less task for me to do. We also discovered it was fun to chat while we worked, as long as I wasn’t in the middle of converting recipes to smaller amounts. Yes, I would often ask him to calculate, and he would insist on telling me how he came up with the amounts while I impatiently waited for the final sum so I could continue my work. I wasn’t really interested in how he arrived at the result!
At some point, he decided to make big batches of soup: split pea soup with smoked turkey, and a vegetable soup in tomato broth. He now does it all himself. He makes both big batches the same week, freezes them into portions for two, and every Monday we alternate having split pea or vegetable soup with French bread. It’s a great way to start the week and he makes a killer soup.
In the last five years or so, we started to share cooking duties. He enjoyed cooking certain dishes, like stir fry, and I liked to make the Caesar salads. The more we cooked together, the more prep I did and the more cooking he did. Suddenly I realized one day that he was not only doing the cooking, but he was prepping, too! (He’s very fussy about how he slices sweet peppers and sweet onions.) He gets nervous when I’m dicing things—I nearly sliced off my finger one day—so he began doing everything!
So nowadays, we have a very adept Chef. I still make out the menus for the week, but I always consult him first. When we have chicken, I encourage him to use whatever recipe he would like: chicken piccata, garlic chicken, Asian chicken, breakfast chicken (made with crushed corn flakes), and several other recipes. He follows a recipe for brisket with onions, potatoes, and carrots; taco bowls; and sausage lentil stew. Sometimes I go through the motions of asking if I can help, or he will ask me, if he didn’t allow enough prep time, but basically, he does it all. Am I lucky or what?!
I’m happy to pour the wine.
And we have a new live-in Chef!
Published in Group Writing
I do a pork stew with rutabagas. The following recipe serves at least two:
Chop up three slices of bacon and fry them up in a large skillet.
Take a pound of cubed pork, coat in olive oil and sear them in the skillet with the bacon.
Take one rutabaga, one large carrot, and half an onion. Cut them into chunks about 1″ to 1-1/2″ in size.
Mince three cloves of garlic.
Add meat, vegetables, garlic and bacon into a Dutch oven or covered cassarole dish. Add 12 oz of beer, pepper, and basil.
Put covered dish in oven at 350 deg for 3 hours. Stir every hour, leave uncovered for the last hour.
Serve with noodles and sour cream.
Note you can substitute parsnips (or potatoes) for rutabagas and upscale the recipe by multiplying the ingredients.
It also works if you substitute beef for pork. If so, use wine instead of beer.
You can do this kosher by leaving out the bacon and substituting olive oils for the oil to sear the meat with. (Obviously using beef instead of pork). You can also serve this with sauerkraut. With a few minor variations you can make goulash from this.
I’ve done a variant on this with chicken. Still starts the same with frying up bacon, though I also heap in onion and garlic with the bacon (the garlic, I’ve found, improves a bit when caramelized, plus it gets more deeply into the overall flavor), then cooking the chicken in the bacon fat. After that it’s whatever root vegetables I have at hand – rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, etc. Though I tend to favor using chicken stock to make a gravy, which I pour in instead of beer or wine.
Can be served as-is, or over rice or noodles.
Cabbage instead of rutabaga. And one or two sliced apples.
I think I’ll have to try these and expand my repertoire.
I understand Jerry fully. In my first marriage I cooked little, my wife was capable and was at home for our last 15 years. My abilities were few. When she passed I suddenly had to learn to cook for 4: 4, 11, 16 and 48 years old. I read books, I learned, I developed a basic repertoire. As you observe with Jerry, there is creation in cooking (what can I make with what I have?), but I suspect it is more than that.
Cooking for my wife, for my wife and family, is rarely a chore but rather, a loving act. I am giving my time and effort to plan, dice, chop, braise, pour, cook and serve this meal. I am giving them the stuff of life and a little of myself. It’s a gesture that bears repeating, for I learned 17 years ago that any supper may be the Last supper.
Jerry likes to cook for you because he loves you.
This comment is really beautiful in every way. It demonstrates one of many ways that we can show love and commitment. Thanks, @doctorrobert.
The small ones are much better than the big ones.
Two cooks don’t spoil the soup.
This post is part of our Group Writing Series under the February 2021 Group Writing Theme: “Chef’s Surprise.” Stop by soon, our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.