I'm certain my wife is tired of being told how "lucky" she is (not by me!). I know who the lucky one is. While I was gallivanting around the country in the '90s trying to build a career in sales and marketing, she was holding down the fort and raising three children (who, by the way don't mind being told they are lucky!) practically solo. I'm the lucky one; she just chose well! Nonetheless, in stereotypical fashion, when we encounter friends and acquaintances in social settings, if the conversation comes around to food -- and it often does -- my wife gets to hear it, "You are sooooo lucky your husband cooks!" (Sounds like a kept woman to me!)
I'm a "foodie," but let me say for the record, ANY spouse, man or woman, whose mate cooks three or more times a week is fortunate -- doubly so if the quality of the food is consistently high (which would be the case at our house). My interest in food, particularly the preparation of same, goes back 30 years to my tuna noodle casserole days as a college student living on my own. My mother's tuna noodle casserole was a staple in my house during my formative years, so when I rented my first apartment as a college sophomore, my roommates were introduced to Clara's Tuna Casserole. I picked it because it was easy. The rest, as they say, is history.
After a couple years alternating between tuna casserole, hot dogs, Campbell's chicken noodle soup and Domino's pizza, it was time to kick things up a notch. After all, man cannot live on Domino's alone! Having worked as a short order cook in high school at a popular home-town diner, I knew my way around a kitchen a little bit. I asked for one thing for Christmas in 1980 -- a cookbook -- and true to form, Santa came through with my very own Betty Crocker Cookbook (actually, it was from Mom). By then, I was sans roommates, so cooking for one wasn't the most efficient, but nonetheless, I forged ahead, determined to expand my culinary horizon. Lo and behold, the quality of the leftovers began to improve!
I married my wife the summer after graduating from college, and I've been cooking for her ever since. My second cookbook -- the classic New York Times Cookbook -- was a gift from my mother-in-law. I was pretty handy with a sketch pad and a box of pastels as a kid, but I chose a non-artistic career path, so I believe my discovery of cooking was preordained. It allowed me to satisfy my creative tendencies while serving a genuinely practical function -- we all gotta eat.
HOUSE RULE: You don't have to finish it, but you at least have to try it.
That's really the only hard-and-fast rule at the dinner table in our house, and it enabled us to greatly expand our children's palates when they were youngsters. That can be a two-edged sword, for if I dared serve a meat dish without an accompanying sauce, I'd be sure to get the evil eye from my daughters. "What, Daddy, no sauce? May I be excused?" Ultimately, my children grew up with a tremendous appreciation for good food and the effort that goes into it, not to mention the importance of fresh ingredients.
As you might imagine, our dinner table hosted dozens of our children's friends over the years, and the House Rule applied to them too. The only exception involved allergies. As a result, we exposed hundreds of kids to dishes they had never experienced, and expanded their culinary worlds in the process too. Our kids' friends knew - and still know -- that an invitation to dinner at the Stauffer house was a special opportunity, and we were blessed to have quite a few of them join us more than once.
What about our friends? Did the House Rule apply to them too? You bet! Having friends join us for dinner, or hosting a group for a football game or holiday represents some of our most memorable and enjoyable social occasions. Our idea of a good time is hanging out with friends, noshing on some top-notch home-cooked goodies complemented by some good wine and a few cocktails. For us, it doesn't get any better than that.
GOD BLESS THE INTERNET
I'm a strong believer that if you can read, to a certain extent, you can cook. Therefore, given basic requisite supplies and equipment, there's no reason anyone should eat bad, or even mediocre food, if you have access to a cookbook or the internet. The greatest resource for world-class recipes has become, without question, the internet. Websites like Epicurious.com, FoodNetwork.com and Allrecipes.com -- to name a few -- have become my primary source for new recipes. To an extent, the web has virtually eliminated the need for the average consumer to purchase expensive cookbooks. Most sites include user ratings, so a good rule of thumb is to stick to recipes that receive the maximum rating. Many sites also include degree-of-difficulty ratings and nearly all include preparation time estimates, so even the beginner or novice can determine whether to tackle a recipe. The highest rating on Epicurious.com, for example, is four forks. I never download a recipe that averages a collective rating of less than 3 1/2 forks, and generally I pull only recipes rated four forks. Over time, I have collected enough quality recipes downloaded from the internet to fill a 3 1/2" D-ring binder, and I add to the collection routinely.
Ladies, it's been said that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Guys, take it from me, it works the other way around too. Just ask my wife, and my daughters, and my neighbors' wives, and my friends' wives! Bon Appetit!
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