Chef Ellery? Hmm...

When I was growing up, my mom and dad, mostly my dad cooked our meals.  My dad is pretty good at making Italian food and baking.  I like my dad's Chicken Parmesan, Shepard's Pie and his cakes.  My mom is good at making sandwiches and random crock pot and skillet meals.  I like my mom's grilled cheese sandwiches and her Beef Stroganoff.  The only problem with my parents cooking is that my dad would (and still does) make just a main dish, where as my mom feels that a "meal" includes sides and perhaps a dessert as well.  Also, my dad's idea of making pasta was to pour a can of sauce onto the pasta and call it 'done'.  My mom puts meat, sauce, seasonings and mushrooms into a skillet and cooks it for a while.  These issues led to some arguments about dinner.


Just a side note about the Stroganoff.  When I was about 6, my mom made the Stroganoff before I had to go to Girl Scouts.  Somehow, the vent above the stove broke and many pieces of black "stuff" fell into our dinner.  However, since we were running late, she told me to pick out the black stuff and eat it.  I'm sure it sounds more child abuse-ish than it really was, but some 20 years later, I still remember that dinner.


Anyway, back to the post.  When I started cooking for Doug, he had been on his own for about 8 months.  He was used to either fast food (as evidenced by the multiple Burger King ketchup packets in his drawer) or "meals" similar to what my dad makes, which is to say, no sides and pasta sauce directly out of the can.  Also, I hadn't cooked all that much, so although I had good intentions to make yummy meals, it didn't always work out how I had planned.


I remember laying on the couch in his apartment and asking both my mom and my aunt for suggestions on what to feed this man.  This would be a good time to point out that my husband, for as easy-going and amazing as he is, has got to be nearly the most picky person on this planet.  The only vegetables he will eat are corn, green beans and lettuce.  He'll try certain potatoes and he'll eat the squash casserole I make once a year, but only because the squash is masked by cheese, sour cream and other gooey things.  This doesn't sound like a big deal, however, there are vegetables in a lot of foods/side dishes.  They told me to make ham and macaroni and cheese.  Doug says, "Well, I don't like mac n cheese, because I ate it too much in college."  So that kind of took care of that.  After I mentioned several other options, I ended up making spaghetti and meat sauce.


As it turns out, the spaghetti and meat sauce was maybe not the best option.  I made the meat sauce like my mom makes, except that at that point, I didn't know Doug wouldn't eat mushrooms.  He spent the meal picking the mushrooms out of the sauce.  Also, because I was trying to be June Cleaver, I was trying to have all the food done and warm when he walked in the door from work.  I ended up charring the bread so badly that even Hattie wouldn't eat it. 


For the first 6 months of our relationship, we ate A LOT of quesadillas.  Yes, they were quick and easy, so after working all day and getting home after dark, it was the go-to meal.  However, it was something Doug would eat and it was easier than trying to find something new every night that he would eat.  He would dip his quesadilla in cocktail sauce, which nauseated me.  I got SO sick of quesadillas, so I stopped making them.


As a result of his pickiness, our constant quesadilla eating and the loooong days we had (we left the house at 4:45am and didn't get home until after 6 everyday), the first real meal I had was 4 months after we started dating.  We went home for Christmas and my mom had made chicken, baked potatoes, blueberry muffins and salad.  It was delightful!


It was at the 6 month point that I decided that I was going to make meals that may contain items he would not eat.  I didn't do this to be spiteful, but I needed to have full meals in my life and something healthier than quesadillas on a daily basis.  I figured, he's a big boy, he can pick out or not eat whatever he doesn't like/want.  By doing this, he did start eating and trying more vegetables and foods.


The only time that I have not cooked and made him fend for himself is when I was pregnant.  I was very nauseous 24/7 for the first trimester and a half, so he had to find food for himself.  My everyday meal was ginger ale and crackers with cheese.  I didn't figure he wanted to eat that with me.

One day when Doug wanted me to make Chicken Parmesan and I wasn't really feeling it, I decided to try to make inside-out Chicken Parmesan.  I cut pockets in boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put sauce, cheese and breadcrumbs inside.  After I baked it for a while, I then topped the chicken with sauce, breadcrumbs and cheese and baked it a little longer.  I served bread and salad with it and Doug really liked it.  We have had it again since then.

I recently decided that I wanted to start experimenting with recipes, so I have looked through cookbooks and added the Epicurious app to my iPhone.  I did warn Doug that if he didn't like something I made, please
speak up.  If you tell me you liked it, you may have to eat it again.  The majority of what I have made does taste fairly good.  I have only made one thing that I can think of that was pretty gross.  I tried using leftover spaghetti noodles, the filling for inside-out Chicken Parmesan and some remaining pasta sauce to make a spaghetti casserole.  It was not tasty at all! 

Tonight, Doug and I made a provolone sauce from scratch and put the sauce and steak on garlic bread to make Philly sandwiches.  Obviously, we didn't have mushrooms or onions on it since Doug won't eat either of those things.  They were very good.  We both enjoyed the sandwiches very much.

I'll be making both Mexican lasagna and Italian lasagna and Chicken Caesar Salad among other meals this coming week. Hopefully they will also turn out well.