The Lone Gardener

[Smart Red]

Mary, your DH made muffins? And that drives you crazy? You need to reassess that DH. Now there are plenty of things a DH might do to drive me crazy, but cooking is not one of those.
I could tell the story of the one time DH tried cooking, but it belongs in the humor section.

Today, as I mentioned something I wanted to add to the garden (love that bottle art) DH said that "MY" garden was the rectangle with the fence around it and the rest of the yard was "HIS". Sure, as soon as he starts spending 4 hours on a mower each week he can claim the yard. Until then it is "first one to plan, first one to plant". Only one of us might make the new bed, but we both work on keeping the flower beds weeded so if I make a new bed somewhere, the maintenance work is shared.

 

[catjac1975]

My husband would NEVER finish those muffins. If fact we had some rather unpleasant words over the fact he did not know how to turn off our 18 year old oven. He is not dumb. Selective knowledge.

 

[thistlebloom]

My husband makes awesome toast.
He prefers not to know how to cook anything more complex than that.
One of the times he took the boys camping without me, they came home rather dumbstruck that their father gave them "hot" cocoa made with cold water.
Yep, cocoa mix poured in a mug and cold water poured over it. His defense was that they were camping like men and didn't need all those girly luxuries!
Gotta love that guy, he keeps me entertained if nothing else.

 

[ninnymary]

smartred and cat, I left out a lot of text, like "I can't make muffins". My response, "You can read, can't you?. This sort of stuff is what drives me crazy sometimes. He is soooo helpless in the kitchen. Part of the problem is that I do everything in there. But come on, how hard can it be to read the temp. on the pizza box, turn the oven on, and put that darn pizza in the oven! This is what I have to deal with sometimes.

Mary

 

[catjac1975]

I always tell my husband when he says the he can't cook,"Any idiot can cook. If you can read, you can cook."

 

[digitS']

Maybe he needs to renew his creativity licence, Mary.

Get him talking about the foods and flavors he likes. The hour before dinner is a good time for that. Just mention several things. Try to think of totally unrelated ingredients/dishes.

You might see the wheels start to spin! Just stand back. You might set some boundaries like, "well, you can try that on the weekend." Or, "there better not be any pans left in the sink."

When the food shows up on the table, make sure that he knows that you had a late lunch and aren't really hungry. That way you won't really be expected to eat much of it. Try to think of something polite to say like, "you really chopped this ginger up nicely." "Interesting" might be a cliche but if you time it right and with the right expression, it may fly.

More boundaries may have to be drawn after this like, "you are gonna have to take it outside next time."

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

ahahaha, you're making me laugh! And reminding me that I need to appreciate that my DH is a great cook, and makes dinner regularly. Fish tacos last night

 

[Smart Red]

My DH the cook:
It was early in our married life and I was under doctor's orders for complete bedrest. DH offered to make soup for supper. He went to the kitchen at the other end of our ranch-style home. Here is his side of our loud 'conversation'.
"Where's the can of soup?"
"What pan should I use?"
"Where is do you keep that pan?"
"Where is the can opener?"
"Do I just put the soup in the pan or add water?"
"How much water do I put in it?"
"Where is the spoon I use to stir it?"
. . . 15 minutes later "Why isn't the soup getting hot?"
I got out of bed and turned on the burner under the pan of soup. It was his last attempt at cooking.
Perfect though he might be, I would count my blessings if my DH did anything other than eat in our kitchen.

 

[so lucky]

My DH the cook:
It was early in our married life and I was under doctor's orders for complete bedrest. DH offered to make soup for supper. He went to the kitchen at the other end of our ranch-style home. Here is his side of our loud 'conversation'.
"Where's the can of soup?"
"What pan should I use?"
"Where is do you keep that pan?"
"Where is the can opener?"
"Do I just put the soup in the pan or add water?"
"How much water do I put in it?"
"Where is the spoon I use to stir it?"
. . . 15 minutes later "Why isn't the soup getting hot?"
I got out of bed and turned on the burner under the pan of soup. It was his last attempt at cooking.
Perfect though he might be, I would count my blessings if my DH did anything other than eat in our kitchen.

This is my DH now. He has regressed considerably in the 21 years we have been married.

 

[so lucky]

You know, I read and hear about guys liking to cook, or garden, but these have been my domain for so long, I don't know how I would feel about it if he suddenly became interested in either. Mixed blessings. But I don't want this to turn into a DH bashing thread,