Dear Amy: For most of our 20-year marriage I have cooked for our family. I am not a fabulous cook, but I can follow a recipe.
Over a year ago, I procured a big job making a lot more money in a new city. My husband agreed it would be a good move for our family, and we relocated. While I have been focused on getting established at work, he generously put his career on hold for a while.
He has gamely assumed kitchen duties, and I am grateful. Amy — he is a terrible cook. He will not follow any of the recipes in my library of cookbooks because he feels they stifle his creativity. And, boy, does he get creative! For a dish featuring Italian sausage, pasta and a tomato-based sauce, he substituted the Italian sausage with maple-syrup flavored breakfast sausages. For a guacamole recipe calling for chopped tomatoes and chopped onions, we had no tomatoes, so he doubled the onions, instead.
When I suggest he follow a recipe he is offended, saying that it is boring and he likes to experiment. He has rejected cooking classes. I am very happy to make my own dinner, but this also appears to offend him. Do you have any suggestions? —Desperate for Dinner
DETROIT FREE PRESS
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Dear Desperate: You don’t say whether your husband learns from his experimenting, and if so — great. There are a number of companies offering pre-packaged meals that can be delivered to your home each week in a box complete with all the ingredients, recipes and ideas. Your husband might enjoy assembling these ingredients and spices and being “creative” with side dishes.
As a gift to your household and a nod to your husband’s heroic efforts, you might sign up for one of these services to see how it goes.
I also can’t resist recommending a great cookbook for men (and women, like me) who want to cook, but just don’t know how: “How to Cook Everything, The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food,” by Mark Bittman (2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). I realize I’m recommending yet another recipe book, but this one has lots of pictures.
