I love it that OW whines and clearly your H hates it! Ha ha ha!
I have to say that the cooking thing has me a bit baffled. I suppose I was one of the lucky ones who got it in the genes or learned through osmosis when I was still at home, because I really didn't learn to cook until CJ and I got married...but I seemed to take to it right away.
Was your Mom a good cook? Mine was and even though I helped out only rarely (she was too much of a perfectionist then) I must have picked up a lot without realizing it.
One thing that helped a LOT is that CJ isn't fussy, he NEVER complained about anything I cooked, and got miffed when I would make negative comments about my own cooking.
In this respect you remind me of my friend H, who's husbands main love language appears to be FOOD...the man is always hungry, but won't lift a finger to feed himself!
As if that's not bad enough, he's spit food onto the floor and walked away when things don't taste right for him.
This has obviously erroded H's desire to cook! Heck I was worried about the salad I brought out there the other night...me! A primo chef!
I have to agree with the earlier poster who suggested simple recipes (on line or in the cheap aisle of any book store). Forget the gourmet meals with 10 ingredients you've never heard of and hours of preparation.
Here's one that you cannot go wrong with: Shiny's double baked potatoes
Ingredients:
4 nice large baker potatoes 6 strips of extra-crisp bacon for crumbling (we do this one when we have bacon left over from breakfast) 1 cup (or more) grated cheddar cheese (we use the old sharp stuff) Butter (about a tablespoon) Non fat butter milk (you can use sour cream or regular milk too...it's just to mash the potatoes and make it creamy). green onion or chives (one or two green onions will do...I tend to use only the green part) Paprika
I poke a few holes with a fork and then nuke the potatoes on high for 4 min...spin them around and give them 4 more minutes. Then into the toaster oven (or regular oven) at 400. Bake until a fork goes easily through...about 30-50 min depending on the size of the taters. (it's fine if the skins are a bit resistant...nice chew!...but the potatoe inside must be sooooft)
Grab each potato with an oven mit and cut in half lengthwise.
Scoop out the potato with a spoon into a bowl. try to get as much potato out as you can without poking through the skin...even then you can patch it up with the filling.
Set the skins on a baking pan.
Sprinkle a little cheese into each skin.
In the bowl...mash it up good (must be done when the potatoes are hot so the cheese will melt)..add the cheese and continue mashing
Then mix in the milk/buttermilk/sour cream...it's probably about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Add the bacon and onion/chives stirring them in with a fork. Add little salt and pepper to taste (meaning pinch a bit and taste it!)...
Spoon the filling back into the potato skins, sprinkle the tops with paprika (it's more for the colour than the taste and not essential).
At this point...you can store these puppies away for a later dinner...
and when ready just place your oven rack to the spot above middle (not the top spot), and turn on the broiler.
In my oven the tops starts to brown in about 5 minutes. I set the microwave timer so I don't forget them in there!
If you've done these much earlier and refrigerated them, I'd suggest nuking them a bit, or warming them in the oven for 10 min or so at 350 before broiling.
These potatoes are to DIE FOR...we eat them with just a side of fresh sauteed mushrooms in honey garlic sauce.
