Date & Dine: Home Kitchen Edition!
Give yourselves a break - an easy date night!
So, just wondering, has this ever happened to you? You think you might want a date night, but you‘re tired, you don’t really feel like going out, or, you can’t plan to go out because of the number of things you have to have had in place in order to be able to go out, and the whole idea just starts to fizzle instead of sizzle? If you answer , “No, that’s NEVER happened to me/us!” then you haven’t been together long enough, you are wealthy or you live a charmed life! Because it's been a common occurrence with us over the years. In the end, we would often just throw something together for dinner for the family, spend some time with the kids and then warp out into our own worlds with the family happening all around. Sizzle gone to fizzle. So here’s what I hope you find to be an inspirational idea. And hopefully completely doable.
Set the kids up somewhere outside the kitchen (if kids are in the picture) with something that will occupy them. Maybe a game, perhaps the tv or something else they enjoy doing and perhaps it is not an activity they can engage in during family dinner time. Everyone gets a break form the routine!
Pull out one of those frozen pizza’s that you have in the freezer that the kids love and consider a treat because it is reserved for special occasions, heat it up and set them up. Mischief managed!!!
Then, make a meal together! Just the two of you!
Perhaps that is something you do regularly, but maybe not! In our house, I am the chief cook and bottle washer and for some reason I find it really hard to share that role, because I like to do things my way.
HMMMMM…
That sounds so selfish when I read it back.
Perhaps I could word that a little more softly. I’ll try again!
I am a foodie. I love cooking, and food is my love language. As well, Kevin loves what I make and often compliments me on my creations. That feeds me in a way that nothing else can - his praise for something I love to do! However, I have learned that co-creating things, now and again, is incredibly fantastic!
When Kevin and I met, he obviously cooked for himself. He had a few specials that he was pretty proud of. I’ll list them below!
Marinated chuck steak - beat the heck out of it and marinate it in beer and garlic powder and it is delicious!
Chilli, spaghetti sauce or lasagna. It all starts with the same basic ingredients and can be adapted into any of the trio over the course of the week.
Eggs - omelets, scrambled, fried - again add a little ham (see below) and some toast and its breakfast for dinner
Ham - good for omelet’s, sandwiches and the bones were good for pea soup, which could be lunch or dinner. (I was pretty impressed he knew about and used ham bones for soup!)
Pork chops with mushroom soup gravy - a specialty handed down from his mom (same in my family)
Does any of that sound familiar?
I remember one of the first times I cooked a special dinner for him. I planned a traditional meal - roast beef with all the trimming (except yorkshire - still can’t get that right!). I asked Kevin if he liked garlic in his roast beef - he replied enthusiastically “YES!”
So, I stuffed the roast with slivers of cloves of garlic, which of course not only enhanced the flavor of the meat, but sent delicious smells wafting throughout my little aprtment. I remember eating that meal, thinking, “Man if he didn’t love me before he’s really gonna love me now - this is DELICIOUS!”.
It was a few years later that Kevin finally disclosed that he thought I was trying to poison him during that meal. And it was not the meat itself - he LOVED the meat! He said it was the tiny slices of poison (otherwise known as REAL GARLIC) that were nearly gagging him!. He has NO IDEA what real garlic looked like, or tasted like. In his words, “I didn’t know anything about it!”
He had always had pretty basic food, and the only garlic he had ever known was the powdered form, as mentioned above. He was so darned polite he just told me it was really good - trying not to let it show that he could barely swallow it. He was in fear of those little bits of poison. We still laugh about that.
Anyway, as we have tried to maintain our date night commitments, sometimes Kevin sits at the kitchen counter and we review our food choices we could conjure up using the current fridge and freezer contents. I will pass him a knife and a chopping board for prepping things*, a bowl, the lettuce and other salad goodies and ask him to create - simple stuff - but by the time we sit down together, just the two of us, it seems pretty special that we have made a meal together, to share, all the while chattering away and catching up on our lives. We actually do gaze into each other’s eyes and say thank you with love and high regard, and if that isn’t an aphrodisiac, I don't know what is! Keepin’ it simple is sometimes the VERY BEST way to stay connected. And by the way, your kids will think it is a bonus for them as well - pizza and a movie! Or a game! Or something esle that is a treat! A special surprise treat they will definitely enjoy without mom and dad!!
*on the co-created meal, DO NOT criticize any results from prep tasks you have assigned your partner. Just because it is not how you would do it, doesn't mean it needs to be fixed. Say thank you instead! And mean it - see where that gets you!