Men In the Kitchen

I enjoy cooking, but when I cook, it is usually for necessity and I do so much of it, I try to do it quickly. Maybe that's why the men in my life surprise me when I see them cook. They aren't burdened with the fact that a household of hungry people are depending on them for sustenance and that frees them up to take their time and enjoy themselves. When my dad found himself living away from home for his job years ago, he started baking in his spare time. He got really good at making bread and pie. I remember watching him carefully roll his dough into a perfect ball and thinking, wow, I never take the time to do that. Mine is always kind of half kneeded when I throw it into the bowl to rise. I have actually become a little self concious offering up any pie for his finely tuned senses to critique.

Sometimes the methods men use are unconventional. I'll bet if I took a survey, I'd find it isn't uncomon for garage tools to double as kitchen utensils. In high school I dated a guy who liked to poach salmon in the dishwasher. It drove his mother nuts, but it did taste pretty OK. And my Aunt can tell you stories about the way my Uncle likes to tinker with his giant espresso machine, and marinates strange meats with exotic sauces. He even deep fries several turkeys each Thanksgiving for families around his town. My Aunt stands by with the fire extinguisher since the whole thing is rather flamable.

Now Mechanism is learning to cook and bake. He questions the way I do things. They seem difficult to him and he can think of an easier way. I guess I never thought about an easier way to clean the counter for example. Today, after kneading his bread, he asked if he could use the vacume cleaner to clean off the counter. I told him "no". Actually, it might be a nice idea if it wouldn't gum up the vacume cleaner. I guess that's one more thing he'll have to invent. A counter top vacume.

So, I think this summer, I'll take a lesson from my guys and cook less. But when I do, I'll try to take more time, and enjoy myself. I might even get a little more creative with my problem solving. And hey, if I'm not cooking as much, we can just eat cerial and enjoy more time spent together.