A Slice of Memories

My husband, who once claimed his palate only sang for Chili’s Bar and Grill, now has a very refined taste and has expanded his range of what he likes to try. I tease him when he starts off sentences with, “I don’t like eggplant, but this rollatini is delicious.” We banter back as I say, “So I suppose that means you do like eggplant, huh?”

Whether sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry’s latest flavor (we like to be up to date on these important matters), taking an annual trip for all things chocolate in Hershey, PA or off on our one-year-anniversary foodie moon, as we called it, we are forever documenting the meals we share, and attaching them to moments, memories and meanings. The night we met, the two of us ordered a buffalo chicken pizza. He told me he was happy to see a girl who eats and I told him he hadn’t seen anything yet. Six years later, we made this sentimental pie our first meal in our new house when we got the keys.

Even the top tier of our wedding cake is still sitting in our freezer a year and a half later (My husband insists it’s still good and would rather bury it in the backyard than throw the red velvet with chocolate ganache in the trash), along with a piece of frozen sliced bread from our engagement day (more on that later).

Home cooked meals become an event for us when we have ‘Iron Chef Nights,’ a term we coined that entails us to raid our pantry and fridge for secret ingredients and whip up any combination we can master. Being creative in the kitchen is a great recipe for marriage because it’s the perfect opportunity to cook up conversation and surprise each other with what we can bring to the table. There’s a great feeling of accomplishment and teamwork when we both create a dish, and while we know the way to each other’s hearts isn’t only through our stomachs, it’s certainly a pretty good guess.