Isn't that grand?
I know older guys usually have the old lady cooking for them, and that is so sweet. But people like my sister have their husbands cooking dinner all the time. Like his dad did before him. What the hell? How can I get in on this sweet deal? I need nurturing, and I'm not being glib.
66 comments:
It's awesome.
Men who cook are sexy. *Chip bait*
Many men prefer it because they like cooking. Of course it does not have to all or nothing, but with some couples one spouse is just better at it (and usually that involves them liking it more). And given more couples have both partners working outside the home, why not?
Especially with all the chef and cooking shows on now (although James Beard was the granddaddy of American Chefs in media back in the day) it is obviously widely accepted.
I cooked a whole chicken on the gas grill rotisserie followed by sliced potatoes, crisped in olive oil and seasoned, followed by asparagus.
I do not know the answer to this puzzling question.
My dad cooked, but he was terrible at it.
One time we were together at their house watching Julia Child. By then she was quite old and invited chefs for each course, pastry chef for dessert and sommelier (either a wine expert of someone who falls asleep, I forget) <-- joke. Then they all sat together and ate the meal they each expertly prepared, my dad says, "Look a them."
I go, "What?"
Dad goes, "Pretending they're having fun."
I was dumbfounded because it was obvious they were having a blast together. I wanted to be there. I couldn't believe that was my dad's perception.
Sometimes, I swear, he could act as fucking retarded as a partisan Democrat.
He kept trying to make soup. By the gallon. Gallons and gallons of crap. He'd buy a bag of root vegetable that said, "great for soup" and thought all he had to do was add water and boil the shit out of it.
I said, "Dad, you have to begin with a stock."
Dad goes, "What's stock?" FFS.
Scottish. He wanted to make shepherd's pie. He thinks it starts with ground beef.
I go, "Dad, it's shepherd! Think, Man, think."
His crust was flour with oil poured in and formed into cardboard.
He'd follow a recipe, point for point, but not read through before beginning. He could not internalize what he read and go from there. He just followed one sentence at a time, then get to an ingredient he didn't have on hand and go, "Oh shit."
One day he was making scalloped potatoes in his way. I said, "Come on, let's do this together. Your recipe does not mention it, but here is a great place to use the ham you brought home. Also garlic. Let's use cream instead of milk and butter instead of margarine, let's put bay in there, and this is a good place for nutmeg." So we did. This is a day I recall with a good deal of fondness. We produced excellent scalloped potatoes together, with a great toasted topping and that turned out to be an excellent meal that we all three enjoyed more than once, my mother too, she loved it. Great leftovers too.
Thank you for making me remember that day, Deb.
My parents covered the Weber grill with tin foil.
That defeats the whole purpose of bothering.
But it did keep the grill spotless.
I must say, Evi, cooking would be so much more fun with someone else to do the dishes :)
Sounds yummy, chick.
Don't even get me started about seafood. For east coasters they should have known better. Dad's uncle owned a seafood shop in Scranton Penn, a good businessman. My cousin owns it now. With all that going for him he managed to avoid learning anything at all.
But he could tear an engine apart and reassemble it blindfolded, so there's that. Dad was a technical guy, and cooking is intuitive, I think. I don't know. Neither parent had an artistic bone in their body.
y/w Chip.
I'm with you, Deb.
I like to cook, but I'm also very grateful for a well prepared meal.
Darce, it's also not that I can't cook. And bake. I'm just worn out from years of it and the DISHES, and being far from family.
Sorry for the whinefest, all:)
I never saw my Dad cook even once until he retired. At that point it must have occurred to him that he had nothing to do and that my mother's cooking sucked. Since that day they have eaten pretty well. My mother always hated cooking and I have my suspicions that her tepid efforts reflected a certain amount of passive aggression on her part.
My dad was a really good cook. I loved his scalloped potatoes.
I have never taken the time to learn how to bake, but that's probably a good thing because I have a carb addiction.
My mom always said that she taught my dad everything he knew about cooking. I am skeptical.
My father used to cook, oh, this must have been 60 years ago or more, but I still remember it. I am the only one left who remembers it.
I do all my own cooking, and for many years the results have been remarked upon favorably.
I learned to cook and bake once I got a divorce - turns out it's not that difficult to make prepare good food if you start with good ingredients. My youngest son still talks about the French toast I used to make from giant slices of bread that I had baked.
This evening was an omelet, fried in a bit of bacon grease and olive oil. Two farm fresh eggs with the most amazingly yellow yolks you could imagine - I think the chickens get marigolds in addition to bugs and other good stuff. Whip in a bit of goat cheese, fry, flip, serve on a toasted piece of a baguette, freshly baked this morning, garnished with a piece of bacon (source of the grease - oh yeah - waste not, want not), sprinkle on a bit of pink salt and bam - a meal that is delicious and nutritious.
I cook most of our dinners. I learned to cook by taking classes at a chef school when I was in my 30s and unexpectedly divorced. I thought that chopping thinks with sharp knives would help with anger, and be better than sitting a bar. I didn't know that it would turn out to be fun, but it did.
Sounds delish, Sixty.
Thanks - stop by and I will make enough for two. ;^)
I do all the shopping and 90-95% of the cooking. My bride bakes. That's too precise for me.
:)
Pink salt? From what region?
Another meal my dad used to make is a baked spaghetti made with a very juicy tomato sauce and bits of bacon (and grease, I'm sure) topped with shredded cheddar cheese and a few bacon strips.
So simple. So good.
What's her specialty, Nick?
Mmmmm Darcy.
You remind me a pet peeve, though. Bacon strips on fast food hamburgers. Has the world gone mad?
ARM, I hate those older guys who retire and then feel compelled to go grocery shopping. They clog up the aisles trying to show their wives how to shop, something they've been doing alone for decades. Sometimes I get plaintiff looks form the women, like "WTF?"
Currently Himalayan pink, sometimes Peruvian.
In the past I have used Amabito No Moshio which is not pink, but is very good.
Coming from a restaurant family my old man taught my mom how to cook. They split the duties. But, they both worked factory jobs, different shifts. So, myself and my older sister would cook supper for the family on weekdays. When my dad worked first shift, and my mom third, we would eat supper @ 4:30p. Actually, a healthy time to eat, particularly in the winter.
Be careful shopping for pink salt. There is the type Sixty mentioned above, and there is 'pink salt' which is the nitrates added to sausage to prevent spoilage.
The former is excellent in foods, the latter can make you quite ill if to much is used.
Thanks for the tip, Haz.
Sixty, how does pink salt compare to white sea salt?
I love the word "supper". That's what my dad called dinner, and I hardly ever hear it anymore.
ndspinelli said...
ARM, I hate those older guys who retire and then feel compelled to go grocery shopping. They clog up the aisles trying to show their wives how to shop, something they've been doing alone for decades. Sometimes I get plaintiff looks form the women, like "WTF?"
Not from my mother. She packed it in the minute my dad took over. It was a mutually beneficial take-over. He got to eat properly and she got to stop cooking. She tried to get him to do the rest of the housework, with less success. I would guess that he saw taking over the cooking as a form of triage.
When we moved to Ohio, my one grandmother called lunch dinner and dinner supper. It was odd to us.
I find it is tastier, but am not enough of a foodie to describe it better than that. Builds strong bodies twelve ways or something.
The Amabito No Moshio is in a class by itself. What is does for food is remarkable. Once again, I don't have the words to describe it, it has to be experienced.
The European custom is to have a meal called dinner at noon, and a lighter meal called supper at evening.
@ARM
My mom packed it in too. ;)
deborah said...
When we moved to Ohio, my one grandmother called lunch dinner and dinner supper. It was odd to us.
Burl Ives sang "supper's over dinner's cookin' Ole Dan Tucker just stand there lookin'", which I think were his own lyrics, as other versions have different progressions of the daily meals.
Thanks, Sixty. I've been meaning to try pink salt.
John, those may be nonsense, backwards lyrics, as he combed his hair with a wagon wheel and washed his face in a frying pan.
Like Polly Wolly Doodle had 'laughing hair and curling eyes.'
Darcy said...
My mom packed it in too. ;)
Unfortunately I am my mother's son when it comes to cooking. I eat out at cheap restaurants a lot.
@Darcy: Do you have that scalloped potatoes recipe?
If you specialise ,let's say, in the cuisine of the British Isles,no one will ever ask you to cook. Ever.
I cook every meal. Have since we got married.
I love to cook. It is very relaxing to me.
Tonight I made thin crust pizza with onion mushroom and Gruyère cheese. A cucumber, peach, red onion, black olive and feta cheese olive with rice wine vinaigrette.
Desert 0% Greek yogurt on a fruit salad of strawberries, blue berries, raspberries and plums.
Tomorrow we are grilling rib eyes with a fresh salad and asparagus.
Troop, I knew you love to cook. Re 0% fat Greek yogurt, I have found a packet of Splenda sweetens one cup just right. But you probably don't need it with the sweetness of the fruit.
Love feta.
My culinary skills, however good they may be, are no match for those of Mr. Ahoy.
I don't use chemical sweeteners. I prefer stevia which is a natural sweetener.
You don't need much if you add the fruit to it.
Back in the day I might have added a dollop of Gran Marnier or something but I am on a no alcohol diet.
Right now strawberries are really great.
I am putting in almost every meal I make.
I dont cook anything. I go out for every meal. The hubby cooks but I cant eat his shit.
tits.
My dad's cooking is 50 times better than my mom's. So if he's cooking for her (or you could say for them), I'm not so unconvinced that it's for necessity as much as it could be said to be for kindness.
The only real sweeteners worth a damn are brown sugar, honey and maple syrup.
Even that agave stuff isn't so bad but I got a batch lately that tasted like it was contaminated with some kind of industrial metallic crap so since then I've stayed with the aforementioned guys, as likelier as they are to being closer to 100% natural.
Greek yogurt is good plain, too. Reminds me of sour cream. The great thing about it is the 22 grams of protein per cup.
I haven't tried Stevia.
Agave is pretty good as a natural sweetener but I have to say stevia is working out pretty good for me.
I make a natural lemonade with Fiji water, lemons and stevia. Pretty good stuff.
That lemonade sounds good. Don't forget to add a dash of mint from time to time too. It really hits the spot when hot as hell outside.
Here is a nice little desert. Get a bowl of Greek yogurt and add two stevia packets. Swill it around. Add and a bunch of blueberries and shaved almonds slices. Sweet as cake and not a lot of sugar.
I use that mint trick too Ritmo. Trust me the stevia is great in the lemonade. Much better and healthier than that package stuff.
Of course add lots and lots of ice to the Lemonade.
If there is any ice left after global warming. Just sayn'
Sounds good, but I'll substitute the blueberries...not a big fan (except in muffins).
Oh I totally believe you on the Stevia, esp. w/lemonade. And if there isn't any ice left someday we'll just go with what they did before freezers in the days of the guys with the ice trucks. ;-)
I started getting more open-minded about maple syrup after finding stellar batches of it at the farmers' markets and desperately wanting to add something original to an out-of-this-world natural strawberry ice cream I get. It's even better when you feel like sprinkling blueberries on top, especially if you have a girl over to impress and entice. But I'll admit it's probably not the healthiest and/or waist-trimmingest way to go. Such are desserts.
Although I'm seeing a girl lately who's gluten-free and I'll admit when adding some of these ideas to a bunch of the just-as-good baked products she likes me to buy for her to make, they also work really well, and seem to involve a lot less fat (but probably equal amounts of sweets).
Strawberries work just as well.
The almonds give it a nice consistency.
Fresh fruit makes anything better. I am sure Chip has a bunch of great recipes.
Currently I am doing a lot with peaches. I used to love chilled peaches in wine with some mascarpone cheese. In the winter the same with prunes was also a favorite. That is a great desert that is off the beaten path.
Fresh peach slices and strawberries in my salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar is pretty damn tasty.
MMMMM. Thanks for all the ideas.
Gluten free can be pretty good. I have been trying to stay away from carbs so no pasta or bread. Eliminates a lot of the glutens.
I have found a line of wraps and pita's made with mostly flax that are pretty tasty. You can broil them quickly to make a pizza that mimics a thin crust pizza very closely. Add some tasty toppings and it is as though you are eating at Grimaldi's or something.
Tonight I sautéed some vidalia onions and some mushrooms in one teaspoon of olive oil and then added some nice white wine. Cooked it enough to keep the flavor and burn off the alcohol. Added some shredded Gruyère cheese which works a lot better than mozzarella. It is very tasty.
Cool beans, Troop! It sounds like you're still whipping up a lot of tasty dishes even with all there is to consider! Most Italians I know have some appreciation for eating well and there's not much at all to be lost from doing it healthily, which is more often than not the best way to do it anyway.
I don't know that I have much left to add other than that a celebrity chef's bistro I know of has a sort of "tasting bar" filled with vats of oils and vinaigrettes with spouts that you can use to drizzle on some bread crumbs lined up on the countertop below. He gets them made in Verona CA and shipped over. So far I've got a blood orange infused olive oil, cinnamon pear balsamic, vermont maple balsamic, and honey ginger balsamic. I haven't had enough uses to whittle them all down yet, but I will.
The first one came in handy though when I had to improve a girlfriend's marinading skills and dunked some boneless breasts into the cinnamon pear and blood orange oil before cooking them. Pretty tasty way to infuse a nice filet or two with some very tender juiciness.
Deborah, Cookies are her specialty. Nothing fancy, just great butter cookies, oatmeal cookies, etc. Her mother is an ace baker. Pie crusts w/ lard!
My grandma made grape juice from the huge concord grapevine in her backyard. She would put it in 7oz. coke bottles and cover it w/ wax like she did the jelly she made. Once in awhile she would give you a bottle of the straight grape juice. You can't believe how good it was! But, to use the juice frugally, she would make fresh lemonade and pour one bottle of grape juice in the pitcher. Make you slap yo' mama!
Trooper reminds me of my old man. He loved to describe what and how he cooked. And, when he was w/ his dago buddies, they would talk about food constantly. They would brag about how much they could eat.
I like the way you think Ritmo. Blood Orange and cinnamon will be the way to go with some chicken breasts this summer. I will let you know how they turn out.
My grandmother used to make her own vinegars. Balsamic. Red wine. White wine. Apple Cider.
I think I am going to start doing that too.
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