Cinco, a little thing about the cooking...I know I do not usually speak about how really *good* my ex-h was...a good person, father and overall, a good husband...I don't talk about it, not because he wasn't good, but because it is painful for me to think about all the sad things that happened between us. :0(
But just right now, I had the thought that I should say this about my ex-h to you, as it may be a little gem for you...
My ex-h was an EXCELLENT cook, and I am not so much of a cook but a "I will gather food and put it out for you to eat" person. So in our home, HE always cooked if we ate at home, because he himself wanted to eat his own good home-cooking versus my cans-and-jars dinners. I was so lucky. We ate so well, hearty and delicious. He made this fried chicken that was just .... ugh...my mouth still waters thinking about it.
The other day my son was over here at my house and my fiance was here too and we were joking and chatting. Somehow the subject of fried chicken came up, and my fiance stated how it is difficult to find any good fried chicken around here and therefore we never have it. (I still have not become proficient at cooking and although I do prepare our meals for fiance and I, they are mostly salads and easy things. I have never attempted to fry chicken in my life...boiled, baked, other ways of cooking it, but fried chicken seems really hard to me so I avoid it so I won't fail at it).
After my fiance had left the room, I had a sweet memory of the wonderful fried chicken we used to eat in that same room my son and I were standing in. So I leaned over and whispered to him "your dad's fried chicken, now THAT was good"...and my son agreed quietly, "yeah, dad has got his cookin' down, doesn't he?"
Cooking for me and for our family was the one way my ex-h supported me consistently, and consistently well. My friends and their spouses would come over for one of his special swiss-steak nights. We used to joke to each other that his "gravy was so good people would come for miles just to taste it", to which the kids, when they were little would squeak questions like ... "really mommy? do people really come fwum miles just to eat daddy's gwavy?" And we'd say "yep! He's got awards and trophies for how good his gravy is!!!" (wink)
Anyway...cooking can be a very intimate act of service, if the recipient of the cooking is a happy partner who adores it...
Think more and more about this, Cinco...seriously, my mouth is still drooling for that man's chicken - 5 years later...
