You have probably heard it said over and over…the way to your man’s heart is through his stomach.
I’m not sure that my husband was that easily ‘won’ but I think there is an element of truth to it. Think about the last time you fell in love. At first you probably lost a bit of weight to begin with because the butterflies in your stomach didn’t leave very much room for food. Then as the relationship progressed into something more solid you probably wanted to impress him with your culinary skills. This was certainly true for me.
Out came the cookbooks and on went the apron. Many hours were spent leafing through pages of exotic recipes books trying to decide what to conjure up. Most of the time the decision was made by whether or not I knew what the ingredients actually were.
One of the first dishes I made for my husband was Chicken Parmesan. I served him enough to feed an entire army but to give the man his due he ate the entire dish. He could hardly move afterwards but he managed it all and I was impressed. Looking back I now realise that he was probably full to point of vomiting but he didn’t want to hurt my feelings.
Many years on he is still as diplomatic where my cooking is concerned. I am not a bad cook but I have to say that I don’t think Delia Smith has anything to worry about in the competition. Most recipes I try turn out pretty well but we have had a few disasters.
There was the pork joint cooked in the slow cooker. I had always been under the impression that even the cheapest cut of meat could be thrown in a ‘crock pot’ and would come out all tender and delicious; boy was I wrong! Over the course of the day the fat around the pork had melted and formed a nice thick oily skin on the top of the gravy. I was near to tears while my dear husband scooped it off with a spoon, all the time telling me it would be delicious. As I had anticipated it was disgusting and out came the takeaway menu.
There have been umpteen charcoaled pizzas that he has crunched his way through telling me how he prefers his food ‘well done’. More recently we have had the mushroom omelette that was still runny in the middle. All of the above eaten with a loving smile.
These days I try to stick to ‘all over’ meals. What I actually mean by that is a dinner that will fill his stomach, warm his heart and not attack his intestines.
