Oh, It’s Tuesday: Two Unlike Cooks Converge

So yesterday, we went grocery shopping for a big experiment of cooking all of the recipes tha Roya has featured on Fierce Foodie. The main difference between Roya and me I found — other than her being a great cook, and me just being a mediocre one — is that she actually likes the process of cooking. A lot.

All of her recipes call for things like freshly chopped tomatoes (with admonishments not to used canned) or onions or hand-grated cheeses or meats lovingly cut into chunks.

I, on the other hand, have never met a pre-chopped vegetable or a can of diced tomatoes (they come in so many convenient varieties!) that I didn’t love. Actually buying tomatoes to chop up seemed gross, and  made me a little queasy as I imagined the mess they would make on my cutting board. I plain old ignored her directive on the onions and just got them pre-chopped. And the only reason we’re having asiago in the macaroni, and not all shredded (though the recipe calls for grated) cheddar is because CH agreed to grate it himself. He’s a nice guy.

Though, not so nice, when we were standing at the meat counter, waiting for the butcher. “What do we need from the butcher?” he asked. He used to trust me when I deviated from my usual routines, but that trust has died a little every day that he has actually gotten to know me, and I’m afraid that he’s learned the hard way to always ask, when he’s confused about something I’m doing.

Me: I’m seeing if the butcher can cut the Boston pork butt into chunks for me.
Him: Are you kidding?
Me: (seriously confused) No, he might do it. You don’t know.
Him: (leading me away from the counter) C’mon, we can cut it ourselves.
Me: I don’t know, Roya says cutting the pork butt is a serious job, you like need a nice butcher’s knife and stuff.
Him: We have a nice butcher knife.

Another thing I’m rather adept at is not noticing or remembering the things that we already have in the house, which CH noted with a resigned shake of the head as he moved aside the two jars of still good crushed and chopped garlic to make room for the duplicate jars of crushed and chopped garlic that we had just bought.

I get the feeling that after this week is over, we’re going back to Fresh and Easy.

Tomorrow: The first dish, which I think might be Pork Adobo, peas, and Pornagraphically Good Mac & Cheese.

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Photo Credit: prettywar-stl/flickr.com