Teaching the Husband to Cook

I am cook in the house. I enjoy cooking and I also have the most flexible schedule of the two of us and I really like to take time and make things from scratch: no boxed or processed foods. But once in a while, I do actually have projects that come up and deadlines and I don't have as much time to cook.

Trevor does not cook and, as far as I can tell, has never really learned much about cooking anywhere in the last 35 years. His solution when I am too busy to cook or just plain tired, is the "let's go out and eat then" approach and that usually is something I will give into, but lately I have been pushing him to cook too. Eating out is expensive and we tend to drink too much when we eat out (which is also expensive). So we came to an agreement that he will cook one dinner a week. This is just to start and we'll see where we go from there.
Now, I still have to plan the meal and grocery shop for it.

And give him instructions.

But last night he made Spicy Cauliflower Soup out of The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and it was delicious. Last week I had him make enchiladas and it looked like a bomb went off in the kitchen, so I thought a soup with simple ingredients was maybe a better way to go. Although it was funny because I looked at the soup and thought "that's not how it looks when I make it" and then realized I am constantly adapting recipes to suit my own wants and needs. Usually when I make the cauliflower soup I add an extra carrot or two and tons of red chile flakes and omit the tumeric and it comes out more orange in color. Trevor followed the directions exactly as written and the soup came out a lovely yellow color.

I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I caramelized some onions and made some flatbread pizza to go with the soup. I know, I know, it didn't keep me out of the kitchen, but the process was much faster than if I had been doing it all myself and I like to cook in tandem with someone else.

I have been using Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast and it really makes pizza making fast and easy. I like to roll it out extra thin and just coat it will olive oil, cheese and onions and have it as more of a crispy flatbread.

Now I have to start thinking about what I can have him make next week.