Does your partner cook?

Mountain Cat said:
I seldom went with my parents when they grocery shopped. I do know they had a list, and that there were impulse buys. The seafood department was usually impulse buys as you don't know what is really fresh, or what might be different the day you are shopping. They'd shop at two or three places partially because one was exclusively Asian, and they were big on Asian, and the other usual two would have either better deals, or the one would simply have better produce (with practically no housecleaning things) and so they'd go to both. I think they largely strolled around together, with Dad perhaps going off to the seafood area often by himself.



Dad took early retirement at 25 years of employment at his company. However, he went into business partnership with a fellow in Philadelphia, conducting business by phone and snail mail, and with some business trips. Prior to retirement, he cooked on Saturdays and Sundays (and holidays). Once he was in a partnership, he could make his own hours and almost always was able to work from home. (Mom became his typist. I became his periodic Spanish to English translator, and occasionally, with dictionary at hand, his English to Spanish translator, for some of the contract letters sent back and forth.) During the 25 years of his first employment, he didn't do the regular shopping, but he WOULD make time to go to Chinatown and to Little Italy in New York City on weekends - because cooking was his hobby. Mom always went with him, and we kids usually as well.
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I am beginning to understand where your cooking talent comes from. :okay:
 
medtran49 said:
Mother cooked. Daddy didn't very much. He managed to actually melt a pot and caused a small fire when he was boiling water for something when I was very young. Even after he lived on his own after the divorce, he didn't cook much, either went out or heated up frozen dinners.
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As someone who once blew up three hard boiled eggs into the overhead fan - that I allowed the water to evaporate while I got lost on the Internet in another room... I really can't cast aspersions on your Dad's cooking prowess.
 
I loved reading this thread. Too funny and close to home. My spouse cannot do ANYTHING but make an egg sandwich. He saw me do an egg in the microwave now and does it that way if he wants it plain. Then I'm stuck with wiping out the dish. Otherwise, he will fry some onions, peppers and maybe half a cooked potato and scramble an egg. Add some baby spinach that he's addicted to on whole wheat bread and he's good to go. That's IT. He will not grill. He does not cook anything else. He does not food prep any other way. I told him he should go on Oprah as the only man who will not grill in America and make us have our 3 days of fame, LOL. He does not help me unless I instruct him to and it's only the simplest of tasks. Like bring the dish HERE. I truly don't believe that he cannot cook but do believe he will not.
 
TastyReuben said:
I'm the opposite. Just like cooking, I want to do my shopping solo. I'm a very single-minded shopper when I have a list, and I usually have a list, and I just have a quick nature anyway.

MrsTasty does not. She's a plodder, and a browser, and she has no issue with starting in aisle 9, then moving over to aisle 2, then on to aisle 3, then back over to aisle 9...it's maddening.

When we shop together, she likes to push the cart, and I'll be sort of in the front, getting things, then putting them in the cart. When it's time to move to another section, like dairy, I'll say, "Ok, we need milk," and I'll take off, get to the milk case, load my arms with milk, half-and-half, buttermilk, whatever else I need from the case, turn around...and she's nowhere to be seen.

Then I have to try and find her while carrying all this stuff, and you'd think, how hard is it to find someone in a grocery store, but I won't be able to find her, so I have to put everything down, then call or text her, but her phone will be buried in her bag, so she won't hear it, and by the time I do find her, I'm ready to murder her, so yeah, it's best I go by myself.

Also, when she goes, half the food order is Oreos, Cap'n Crunch, Pringles, peanut butter M&M's, and the like. :laugh:
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When we were first married, I thought it would be great to go food shopping together. That ended quickly. He was impatient, annoying and bought all this stuff expensive so called 'healthy' stuff that he did not eat and we would have to throw it. I prefer to do it alone and now with one of my DD's.
 
JASOH1 said:
My husband likes Cheetos. I buy them for him in mass quantities when they are on sale. He doesn't putter, he is impatient and wants to get in and out. I go through the store in order and I do have a list, but sometimes I ponder on which package of meat I want to buy, comparing different ones until I find the steaks with the best marbling/least amount of gristle or whatever, and there are times where I see something not on my list and I get it (especially when they discontinue and mark down things like a good shampoo or conditioner, then I grab a bunch).

I can't send him to the store without a very specific list because he tends to overbuy. If I ask for 1 avocado, he will get 3, then 1 or both of them go bad because I only wanted one. He's not good at picking produce and meat, and he will get stuff not on my list that I don't want and he ends up not eating, so he can't go unsupervised unless it's something simple, LOL.

You should give her specific instructions regarding the phone thing, tell her to have her phone in her hand because you will be calling her or texting her most likely. At least we have that much worked out. If we get separated in a store (I will usually send him to a specific part of the store to get something for me to make it faster) we will text. Or, we have a specific plan worked out where we both take carts and meet at the register.

But all that is to the wayside until a vaccine is created, since now I do all my shopping online for curbside pickup and he no longer has to worry about me sending him to the store to get things.
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If I send my DH to the store, it's just to buy generic things like OJ, eggs, milk, trash bags. He still manages every time to purchase from stores that charge top dollar. Before the pandemic? I need trash bags and OJ. OK.....he gets trash bags for $10 and pays $5 for a 1/2 gallon of OJ from some convenience store. With the pandemic, I have sent him to Rite Aide to purchase milk and eggs. At least I know the over inflated prices there. He will not wait in line and money is not an object. uuuuughhh.
 
KitKat said:
I loved reading this thread. Too funny and close to home. My spouse cannot do ANYTHING but make an egg sandwich. He saw me do an egg in the microwave now and does it that way if he wants it plain. Then I'm stuck with wiping out the dish. Otherwise, he will fry some onions, peppers and maybe half a cooked potato and scramble an egg. Add some baby spinach that he's addicted to on whole wheat bread and he's good to go. That's IT. He will not grill. He does not cook anything else. He does not food prep any other way. I told him he should go on Oprah as the only man who will not grill in America and make us have our 3 days of fame, LOL. He does not help me unless I instruct him to and it's only the simplest of tasks. Like bring the dish HERE. I truly don't believe that he cannot cook but do believe he will not.
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Won't grill? That's points against his man-card. :thumbsdown:

CD
 
KitKat said:
I told him he should go on Oprah as the only man who will not grill in America and make us have our 3 days of fame, LOL.
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We're out there. Maybe we need a support group. :laugh:

I hate grilling. Hate it. All I think when I'm grilling is, "Why am I out here in the GD heat, in front of a device radiating 650F, when I could be in my air conditioned kitchen, out of the sun?"

My wife likes grilling; that is to say, she likes the end product of grilling, she does no grilling herself. Otherwise, I'd happily push my grill out to the curb, tape $20 to it, and a sign that says, "It works, it's free, and here's some cash for hauling it away for me!"

You can also add my dad to non-grilling men. We never grilled growing up. The first time we had a grill, Dad brought home a kettle grill that he'd gotten from work, and I thought, "That's interesting, I guess we'll be grilling some stuff."

Nope. We used to raise chickens, and he ended up using the dome of the kettle grill to clap over them after he cut their heads off. That was my job - stand there at the ready and pounce with the lid. Never used the grill.
 
Grilling and true BBQ (involves a smoker) are two of my passions. We are having grilled pizza this week. BTW, gassers are an abomination! Hardwood charcoal and wood splits are the way to go. Gas is only good for my crawfish boils and crab steaming. Don't do turkey frying.
 
CraigC said:
Grilling and true BBQ (involves a smoker) are two of my passions. We are having grilled pizza this week. BTW, gassers are an abomination! Hardwood charcoal and wood splits are the way to go. Gas is only good for my crawfish boils and crab steaming. Don't do turkey frying.
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I prefer charcoal and wood, but I have a gasser, too. It's just easier when I just want to cook up one burger patty, or some chicken to use in gumbo. I'll put in the extra time and effort of charcoal and wood for BBQ, or rotisserie grilling.

Growing up, my dad used a grill to ruin what was once perfectly good pieces of meat. It took time and practice for me to master (mostly) the grill and smoker.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I prefer charcoal and wood, but I have a gasser, too. It's just easier when I just want to cook up one burger patty, or some chicken to use in gumbo. I'll put in the extra time and effort of charcoal and wood for BBQ, or rotisserie grilling.

Growing up, my dad used a grill to ruin what was once perfectly good pieces of meat. It took time and practice for me to master (mostly) the grill and smoker.

CD
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I just use my chimney starter with the center grate from one of my Weber grates. Doesn't take much charcoal and is ready in 5 minutes or so.
 
DD and her SO are having an argument about getting a grill. He has never grilled and doesn't really cook (baby boy in a large family) other than just a couple of things. She wants a charcoal grill because she loves grilled pizzas and grilled steaks. He wants a gas grill because he thinks it will be easier to cook on. She wants him to do the grilling to give her a break sometimes from cooking. She's not big on cooking either because she just doesn't like to do it, but she will. They eat a good bit of fast food and a lot of frozen prepared stuff. I told her about the chimney and that Craig would help them when and if they got the charcoal grill. We'll see.
 
KitKat said:
If I send my DH to the store, it's just to buy generic things like OJ, eggs, milk, trash bags. He still manages every time to purchase from stores that charge top dollar. Before the pandemic? I need trash bags and OJ. OK.....he gets trash bags for $10 and pays $5 for a 1/2 gallon of OJ from some convenience store. With the pandemic, I have sent him to Rite Aide to purchase milk and eggs. At least I know the over inflated prices there. He will not wait in line and money is not an object. uuuuughhh.
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Well at least I can get him to go to the right store. I write it at the top of the list in large letters. But he invariably will come back with stuff not on the list, or extra of the stuff on the list that we don't need (and is perishable).
 
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