Mr. HalfFull and Ms. HalfEmpty enjoy the sunset on their first day of marriage
As you’ve been watching various tax forms appear in your mailbox, perhaps the marriage penalty has come to mind. But even this half empty thinker knows there are some benefits to marriage!
One of those benefits is sharing food. (Of course it’s not the only or best benefit, but stick with me…)
I don’t cook. Of course, I could cook. But I don’t enjoy it. Perhaps it has to do with my affinity for order and cleanliness. Cooking seems awfully messy for my taste!
It looks like I learned something about cooking at some point in the 90s.
That isn’t to say that I never cooked. In high school, I got an A in Gourmet Foods. (I got A’s in everything, but that’s not the point!) We cooked and baked all sorts of things that I would never dream of making now. We made pumpkin pies from real pumpkins with crusts from scratch…ridiculous!
We even separated whole chickens. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a whole chicken in my life. I realize it’s cheaper, but it seems impractical for a single person, especially one who doesn’t like dark meat.
Mr. HalfFull’s mockery of my high school Gourmet Foods binder
I’m lucky to have found a partner who enjoys cooking and grocery shopping. Knowing my dislike for the kitchen, he finds it terribly amusing that I still have my Gourmet Foods recipe binder from high school. He even made a label for the binder reading, “Ms. HalfEmpty’s A+ Recipe Binder, Circa 1995″ and constantly ribs me for my scores over 100% inside.
The first tab of my “A+ Recipe Binder” for Quick Breads showcases my more than perfect score. Ha!
Last weekend, Mr. HalfFull commented that I’m becoming quite the “microwave chef.” You may think that’s an oxymoron, but my usual microwave cooking involves a bag or a box that goes in the microwave, followed by me pushing a few buttons. Sometimes I even have to uncover and stir in the middle of cooking. What a process!
But when I was lauded as a microwave chef, it was far more complex and a creation of my own. Mr. HalfFull bought a plastic egg cooking container for the microwave. Some of you (like my mother) may be freaking out about plastic leaching chemicals in the microwave. But most of my self-prepared meals are in far less sturdy plastic containers, so it doesn’t phase me.
Don’t worry, I cracked the egg before I cooked it!
The egg container allows me to cook a fresh egg without additional oil or butter and without creating splatter on the stove! After cooking the egg with spices, I added it to bread and various cheeses, and stuck the concoction in the panini machine. Thus, earning the title microwave chef (even though I used two kitchen appliances)! Yes, it was delicious.
Since my cooking skills and desire are in the low to non-existent range, Mr. HalfFull and I enjoy eating out. This gives us the opportunity experience a benefit of marriage — being cute and sharing meals. It also affords us the chance to take more risks when ordering because we know we’ll have a fallback. When done correctly, it can also help us save money and eat appropriately sized portions (instead of restaurant-size portions) with variety.
But sometimes, we go all out. Like on New Year’s Eve, we went to one of our favorite local restaurants and each ordered the prix fixe tasting menu with a small plate, main plate, and sweet plate for each of us. So instead of a 3-course meal, we each got a 6-mini-course meal!
If you’re thinking about eating healthier and have a partner (married or not) to split with, check out the ideas in my meal sharing post for Northern Virginia Magazine.
- Do you enjoy cooking? Did you always or did you grow into or out of it?
- Does cooking an egg in the microwave make one a chef? =)
- Do you share meals?
#1 by Kathleen on February 4, 2013 - 10:04 PM
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I am laughing and smiling as I read this piece. It is only after being married and having to eat what my husband calls “man food” meaning hot dogs, steaks, potatoes, corn and spaghetti, that I got very interested in cooking. I love it now as for me, it is a playful experience and a break after a day’s work. I enjoy weekend cooking more than the daily meal preparation, which is less creative.
I always share meals, not only with my husband, but with friends too! But once in Wisconsin, when I suggested sharing with a friend, she was offended, but now tells me that she loves the idea of sharing!
I would rather cook than do dishes. There are many more advantages to marriage.
Maybe you will expand on the topic in your next blog post.
#2 by Ms. HalfEmpty on February 5, 2013 - 11:36 AM
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I’m glad the post brought you a smile and laughter!
Ugh, I can’t imagine cooking being a break after a day’s work. It seems like more exhausting work to me!
I don’t enjoy cooking or doing dishes, but cleaning up seems quicker and requires less creativity. I guess we each have our strengths…
#3 by Mr. HalfEmpty on February 5, 2013 - 6:21 AM
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My favorite Ms. HalfEmpty gourmet foods tradition has become her infamous brownies, which she brings for my volleyball team at the end of September every season so we can all celebrate my birthday after a match…she only bakes once per year, and it’s for my team! Best. Wife. Ever. Here’s her not-so-secret recipe, enjoy: http://www.ghirardellibrownies.com/products/dark-chocolate.aspx
#4 by Ms. HalfEmpty on February 5, 2013 - 11:39 AM
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Brownies are not from my Gourmet Foods days. It’s just a box requiring no creativity and very little skill — although this box doesn’t go in the microwave, unfortunately. I’m glad your standards for Best Wife Ever are so low! =)
#5 by Sarah Park on February 5, 2013 - 11:38 AM
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This is funny. I feel like I know quite a few couples where the wife doesn’t like to cook, but fortuitously found a husband who does.
I did not know much about cooking, growing up. I could make french toast, pancakes, and fried eggs. That was about it. I’ve had to learn a lot, and in general, I enjoy it. But I will say that there are things I don’t enjoy about it: the unending-ness of it… never having a break. The mess afterwards. The challenge of cooking things that everyone will eat. I’m in a period of life where I really don’t love cooking that much, but I know I’ll return to liking it in later years!
#6 by Ms. HalfEmpty on February 5, 2013 - 11:45 AM
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I didn’t even have “ability to cook” on my potential husband checklist! Perhaps it was subconscious. =)
Sounds like you were quite the breakfast chef as a kid! I totally hear you on the mess of cooking. If you cook, does someone else (husband or kids) do the clean up? As a non-cook, sometimes I feel that the chef is less careful when they know someone else is doing the cleaning!
Best wishes on being able to enjoy cooking in the future!
#7 by Sarah Park on February 5, 2013 - 2:21 PM
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Sometimes I clean up, sometimes Charlie does. Once in a blue moon, one of the kids will be inspired. Which is nice, but I don’t really trust their ability to do the job well!
I think you’re right that a cook is more likely to clean as they go if they know that they’re going to be the one cleaning up afterwards.
#8 by Kathleen on February 5, 2013 - 9:08 PM
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When I first met my husband to be, I invited him to share a meal with me and thought the safest was breakfast for someone who never cooked growing up or all through my single life living with others who cooked or in sorority type residences. Even that breakfast was ruined, the toast was burned, the eggs were overcooked and it was a mess. I did not score well on the cooking variable. I also know that there are phases in one’s life where cooking is a chore because you have to feed a family. It becomes fun when relieved of that pressure to balance multiple tasks at once.
#9 by Ms. HalfEmpty on February 6, 2013 - 12:19 PM
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Too bad they didn’t have microwave egg containers back then! But he married you anyway, so it seems like it probably wasn’t for your cooking. =)
#10 by Mr. HalfFull on February 8, 2013 - 11:10 AM
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Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that you didn’t complain to your Gourmet Foods classroom teacher about her calculation of your “more than perfect score.” She robbed Ms. HalfEmpty of 5 additional points when you think about it: 32 divided by 30 comes out to 107% (rounded up from 106.6%) She should have given you 100 + 7 points. Perhaps the “Beautifully done!” comment enabled your emotional right brain to make the difficult yet socially appropriate decision to ignore your analytical left brain’s desire for every possible point?
#11 by Ms. HalfEmpty on February 8, 2013 - 1:36 PM
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It was probably recorded as 32 in the grade book, so it would have been correct in the final calculation. But an A+ is an A+. After 100%, it’s just gratuitous.