My Man, the Master Chef

Favorite Part about being married so far: Discovering all the things Mike can actually do by himself.

I left Mike on his own last weekend to visit the country of Miami. I left Saturday from work and didn’t come back until Tuesday after work. And I didn’t even see him Saturday because they tried to beat the heat and play golf before the sun came up. I didn’t even ask – I don’t process anything before 8am.

I left him a list of all the things he could make himself for lunch and dinner while I was gone, to avoid a meal out (and support our freeze cause! woohoo!) and not eat a sandwich for every meal… although I am not sure he would have seen that as a negative.

Forgetting to worry about whether he was eating three meals a day or not, I was completely blown away by the picture text I received Sunday night. I would post it, but it was steamed up from how piping hot the meal was and how close (I guess?) he got to the food while snapping the shot. More important than photographic genius though was the appearance of a hearty glass of wine (Mike does not drink wine), the toasty piece of bread (Mike does not make toast to accompany his meals) and the bowl of ridiculousness sitting in the middle of his placemat (PLACEMAT!?).

The caption read, “Grilled Chicken, Pasta, Feta, Spinach and Balsamic.” I would have put money that Mike didn’t know those food went together before this weekend… and that’s probably why I am better at Roulette than mind games…

Sub-Favorite Part: How proud he is of himself! Cute.

The fact that he acknowledged my note, decided to cook his own dinner (and he had to use several dishes to make this meal happen) and send me a picture of it warms my heart. Heck, I felt it deserved a blog post.

Sub-Sub Favorite Part: How he still admits I do it better. Smirk.

There are a couple of things that Mike makes that give him away as a capable chef. If you’ve ever had his tomato cream sauce (which now I am thinking that he actually hasn’t ever cooked for anyone else), you know he’s good. He even breaks out the food processor for that one–something I’ve never even used. One time, he revisited a recipe for Chicken Parm that the famous chef/trivia star/handy man of all things Mr. Schlageter gave him that made me fall in love… (Later I realized I loved Mike too–zing!) And almost all of our friends know that he makes the best Buffalo Chicken Dip on the planet… Even though Renee taught him how to make it… Some have heard him say she actually taught him everything he knows, but I’ll let him ride this one out.

But alas, when it comes to putting dyn-o-mite dinners together out of nothing, he knows where he stands in the ranks. And I think THAT has actually made him fall more in love with me… either for my efforts to prove I can save money, or just my serious potential for culinary creativity. It’s probably the money part… but I’ll take it. And clearly, I’m passing along some of that creativity to him… And an appreciation for wine. Hey, and maybe even photography.