It’s Not Always About The Food

Ya know, it isn’t always just about the food.

Yesterday I had to work until 6:00. I don’t do that often, and when I left the house I told my husband that I wouldn’t be cooking dinner. This August we  celebrated our 40th anniversary. Add to that the 6 years we dated (steady in high school, lavaliered, pinned (Sig Ep), and engaged in college), we have known each other practically our whole lives.

My husband has been retired for two years and plays golf practically every day. He is absolutely the best at bar-b-quing, smoking and grilling anything but really has never been an “inside” cook. Over the last few years he has gotten involved in our Friday after Thanksgiving “family feast” and has come up with his own unique dishes the last few years. (I want him to post his smoked fish with fruit he did last year, beautiful presentation.)

So, when I came home last night and found him up to his elbows cooking in the kitchen I was amazed.  This may look like an ordinary plate of food but it was fantastic.

He met me at the door with a glass of wine. He was preparing some venison cube steak he had gotten from a neighbor friend.  He had breaded and fried it and was making gravy. He had potatoes in a pot that he was ready to mash and he had these delicious apples cooking away in one of the iron skillets we just brought back from my dad’s. (My husband spent two days, grinding and cleaning all the old iron pieces, from bean pots, to griddle, to get them back in condition to start seasoning them.

Don’t these apples look beautiful.

So we had Fried venison cutlets, milk gravy, mashed potatoes, and fried apples. May not sound like a gourmet meal to some, but believe me, at the moment it was the best thing I have ever tasted. Now, I’m wondering what more surprises he could have up his sleeve.