Division of labor
When I first met and moved in with the Texan, I had been living out of my parents' house for 13 years and more or less successfully feeding myself for most of that period. However, due to the fact that I had to walk home from the grocery store and thus avoided heavy packages, and my concerns about the consequences of not fully cooking meat*, I rarely made full and complete meals. So doctoring up a store-bought pasta sauce?** Or making a salad or some couscous? Dinner is served.
The Texan, being a Texan, would not have any of that. A meal is not a meal unless it has a protein, and no, tofu doesn't count. So he quickly took over the dinner responsibility for the two of us, and I have been spoiled since then, as he is a really intuitive cook (he will smell a sauce and decide what he needs to put in there).
I still like to contribute, so I have crowned myself queen of the baking. This means that once a month or so, I make cookies or something along those lines. Today, it was banana bread (I don't think that we've ever finished off a bunch of bananas before they rotted on us). And I'm ready for another slice now.
* I was raised in a household where all meat was fully cooked. None of this medium well shit for us - well done or send it back. You can imagine how well that mentality went over the summer I lived in Paris. I would order burgers "tres tres tres tres TRES bien cuit"and they would come out just dripping blood, as opposed to spewing it. I have since learned to enjoy meat cooked to medium but by god, that's as far as I can go with this.
** Growing up with an Italian mother, spaghetti and meatballs was not an eh, I don't feel like cooking sort of meal: it was something that you started two days prior to your meal and spent a week eating the leftovers. As such, it was also something that we only had a few times a year. It astonished me as an adult that you could just buy the sauce pre-made. Don't get me started on how old I was before I realized that anyone could make mashed potatoes.***
*** Please note I am not making fun of my mom, she was a wonderful cook. But she also worked full time and ran a household with three kids and a hungry husband who'd been raised back in the day where men did not cook at home, so she used a lot of shortcuts.
The Texan, being a Texan, would not have any of that. A meal is not a meal unless it has a protein, and no, tofu doesn't count. So he quickly took over the dinner responsibility for the two of us, and I have been spoiled since then, as he is a really intuitive cook (he will smell a sauce and decide what he needs to put in there).
I still like to contribute, so I have crowned myself queen of the baking. This means that once a month or so, I make cookies or something along those lines. Today, it was banana bread (I don't think that we've ever finished off a bunch of bananas before they rotted on us). And I'm ready for another slice now.
* I was raised in a household where all meat was fully cooked. None of this medium well shit for us - well done or send it back. You can imagine how well that mentality went over the summer I lived in Paris. I would order burgers "tres tres tres tres TRES bien cuit"and they would come out just dripping blood, as opposed to spewing it. I have since learned to enjoy meat cooked to medium but by god, that's as far as I can go with this.
** Growing up with an Italian mother, spaghetti and meatballs was not an eh, I don't feel like cooking sort of meal: it was something that you started two days prior to your meal and spent a week eating the leftovers. As such, it was also something that we only had a few times a year. It astonished me as an adult that you could just buy the sauce pre-made. Don't get me started on how old I was before I realized that anyone could make mashed potatoes.***
*** Please note I am not making fun of my mom, she was a wonderful cook. But she also worked full time and ran a household with three kids and a hungry husband who'd been raised back in the day where men did not cook at home, so she used a lot of shortcuts.
posted by Her Ladyship @ 4:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home