From childhood I have known that cooking was not going to be a passion for me. I developed a love of Ramen noodles mostly because of their ease of cooking. When I left for college, I moved into the dorms and quickly signed up for the meal plan. Then after a summer on my own, surviving on pop tarts and um... pop tarts, I moved in with Ms. Barbara Naul. Ms. Naul cooked eggs, sausage and biscuits each morning and served lamb chops and steaks for dinner. In short, I made it through five years of college without ever having to cook a meal. Ms. Naul didn't cook on Wednesday night, so I went scrounging for a cooked meal at my beautiful and talented girlfriend's house. A year later as that same beautiful lady agreed to become my wife, I moved into the apartment that we would live in after the wedding. Kerri came over to see me after I had moved in and after checking the cupboards, quizzically asked where my pots, utencils and plates were? The truth is that I had none and was forced to borrow a pot and fork from her until she moved in as my wife. After a few lessons, I became proficient in boiling water and soon was able to prepare a rather tasty meal of mac and cheese without any assistance what-so-ever,(except for the complex set of instructions on the box).
I have evolved some, and am actually in charge of making eggs on weekday mornings for my family. I can even cook sausage if pressured to do so. Now, I know that for those of you who enjoy posting articles about how you have discovered some small Italian shop that sells the secret ingredient to your exotic organic recipe for your world renowned home made bread, this may not seem that amazing. But trust me, it is tremendous growth in this man's life.
In fact, last Saturday, instead of making pancakes (from a mix), I decided to try and make something that I remember my dad making for my mom, when I was a little kid... Crepes. To my amazement, both the recipe and the cooking method are infinitely more simple than those ornerus pancakes. It was almost enjoyable, and that same beautiful and talented girlfriend from earlier in this article absolutely loves them. Bonus!
Today is veterans day, a Thursday, and we are off of school today. Since Kerri has started teaching, weekends and days off have become much more precious to her and at six thirty this morning I was pounced on and told to get up and make her crepes. I did not mind. The look on her face as she sits in her spot at our restaurant like booth of a dining room table was worth it. No amount of money could entice me to take a job as a chef (what a miserable existence that would be) but I will gladly wake early every Saturday and slave over a hot stove to make crepes if I am rewarded with a smile from my bride.
Surveys show that fewer and fewer families actually sit down to a meal anymore. Maybe we have gotten too busy with both work and entertainment to enjoy the finer things in life, or maybe a few husbands just need to see the look on their wife's face when they make crepes for breakfast.
