First ( and hopefully not last) meal

[foodie52]

I've been married a long, long time. The first meal I ever cooked for my boyfriend, now husband was liver and onions! We met in Edinburgh and I was on a poor student budget. There was a butcher shop downstairs from my flat. The butcher ( who looked like a pirate, I remember ) sold me 1/2 pound of liver, as opposed to the usual 1/4 lb that I usually bought. He leared at me suggestively and waggled his eyebrows! Turns out he was right! My boyfriend loved the liver and onions and the rest is history!

What did you cook for your husband/wife/ partner, the first time you cooked for him/her?

[Mayhaw Man]

Fried Sac a Lait (crappie, white perch, whatever) that we caught (I took her fishing on our first date. Pretty romantic, no?)

Hush Puppies

Okra and Tomatoes with Basil

Peach Cobbler

She asked me to marry her shortly thereafter (really, she did. She is a very smart woman).

Edited to say that twenty years later she still likes to fish and she still lets me do the cooking.

[Suzanne F]

An absolutely ghastly "beef stew," with supermarket cut-up meat of indeterminate location, and a can of Campbell's vegetarian vegetable soup. At least, that's the earliest one I remember. You have to understand, though, he was home with mono, so he was grateful for anything I came and cooked for him. (Oh, and it was my birthday -- I went out to dinner by myself later. At Barbetta, I think.)

[donk79]

Our first New Year's eve while we were dating.

(Prepped in the dorm kitchen at college)

Boneless Skinless chicken breast stuffed with Stovetop w/ chopped button mushrooms added

Button mushrooms stuffed with aforementioned adjusted stovetop

Button mushrooms poached in chicken bullion

sugar peas stir fried in butter

Served with some kind of peach wine, probably Boone's Mills or something like that.

dessert, Tapioca pudding with too much peach schnapps added (I still liked it though)

Haute cuisine it weren't but much nobler that most of my previous efforts (dwelling in the kippered herring and cream cheese on hard roll range). In all honesty, however, it was a meal built towards her taste preferences (chicken, mushrooms, peaches, snow peas), and she enjoyed it much more than more educated but less successful efforts since.

[bloviatrix]

Blovie and I knew each other for about 8 months before we started dating. So, the first meal he ever ate that I cooked was as part of big group shabbat meal that my apartment-mate and I hosted for 10 people. The only thing I remember making from that meal was chili rubbed chicken wings as the appetizer.

[Susan in FL]

My first husband... we grilled steaks and drank terrible wine the first time we cooked together/for each other.

My current husband... it was oysters (and good wine) that he fixed at about 2:00 AM one late night, followed by a delicious breakfast, twenty-some years ago.

[balmagowry]

Pasta with clam sauce, of course. At my parents' house, and in their presence. Oy, was I nervous.

[Dana]

I was VERY young when we married, and the first meal I cooked for us was fried chicken. I had fried many chickens at home in my mom's fry pan, and was confident that all would go well. I used an electric skillet that was a wedding gift. During the frying, everything seemed to be fine, however, when Steve took the first bite of his drumstick, blood dripped out. He was aghast, as was I. He razzed me about that for many years. I guess I've made up for it, he hasn't mentioned it for a long time!!!!

[RBloom03]

My husband says I captured his heart when I made him pizza bagels -- bagels, canned pizza sauce, and mozza. He choked his way through the next meal (cube steaks, mashed potatoes) in hopes that I'd make pizza bagels again!!

[divina]

I had moved to Florence... didn't speak Italian.. began studying cooking on my own with magazines... finally after a year.. met this great guy and offered to cook for him..

I made Pasta with Amatriciana sauce... he pushed it away and walked out of the room...we have been together for 18 years now.. and I teach cooking!

I later found out he wouldn't eat it because the pancetta had been BOILED in the tomato sauce... and not left crispy... AND I hadn't salted the pasta water enough!

Now I teach cooking... so have gotten better

[liamsaunt]

My first meal for my now husband was really bad, I admit. Hey, it was a long time ago, and I was really young, so please don't make fun of my menu! I had extremely limited cooking experience, so I just picked a menu from one of the cookbooks I owned at the time, and prepared the entire suggested menu. I now own about 300+ cookbooks, but I have always kept this book, one of the first I bought, because it reminds me of the first meal, bad as it was, that I cooked for him. Here is the menu:

Split Pea and Rice Soup: Well, he ate it with a smile, despite the fact that it was underseasoned and undercooked. What a sport.

Romanian Marinated Mushrooms: seemed fine

Fettuccini with Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce: sounds good, right? I guess I have to admit that neither of us had ever had gorgonzola before, and we both found the taste overwhelming. He still ate it. Good man. Also, I suppose I should mention that I undercooked the pasta, and also did not know the trick of thinning sauces with pasta cooking water.

Fassoulia (green beans). Fine.

Dessert: Trifle. This he ate a lot of.

Oh well. I think the 'experience' of this meal helped us both become much, much, better cooks. Believe me, the meals are 'much' better now!

[marie-louise]

I don't remember the first meal I cooked for him but hey, we've been together 29 years!

I do, however, vividly remember the first meal he cooked for me: Stir-Fried Beef w/ Black Mushrooms from the Craig Claiborne/ Virginia Lee Chinese cookbook. He was an intern, and had been on call and up all night the night before our date. Before he took a nap, he drove across town to SF's Chinatown to get dried shiitakes, then to another store for the meat, etc. First of all it was very good, but more important, how could I not fell in love with someone who deferred sleeping after working over 24 hours straight because he wanted to cook me something special?

He didn't get much sleep that night, either.

[winesonoma]

She had just moved into her new condo and her Mother & boyfriend age 70's were visiting and wanted to do leftovers in instead of going out to meet me. So I did a tomato basil fresh mozzarella with anchovies on the side. and Shrimp Scampi with pasta and fresh tomato sauce. Bought cheesecake for dessert. This was on 1/2 hours notice. She still loves me 5 years later. Her sister hates me for that.

[Mudpuppie]

Just to give credence to all the good-cooking-makes-good-relationships theories....

My EX first cooked me a stir-fry. It contained curry powder, oregano, Bragg's liquid aminos, and tomato paste.

Ahem.

[StInGeR]

My wife and I weren't going out yet - we were just going through the friendship stage. She lived in Caldwell NJ and I was across on vacation from Australia and staying with her. That morning she left for work, and ten minutes later I headed down to Shoprite ..... she came home to a huge pot of Manhattan clam chowder, fresh bread rolls that I'd made and a green salad. The meal was an absolute success and she froze the rest of the chowder for when I'd left.

On the other hand the first meal she cooked for me was eggplant parmajana (spelling) - we ended up ordering pizza in that night

Tom

[s'kat]

The first meal my husband cooked for me. . . flattened herbed chicken breasts seared, with black olives, cherry tomatoes, a bit of feta. Served on pasta. Nice big, green salad. Plenty o'wine. It was very sexy, watching him throw together this whole meal in 30 minutes, while resisting any help I tried to give, and plying me with wine.

The first meal I cooked for him is probably forgettable for a reason. Let's just say that I've come a long way, baby.

Edited March 17, 2004 by s'kat (log)

[Kim WB]

Red meat. I just fed 'em red meat. Lots of it. Rare.

And bullshots for breakfast... The steak just primed him, the bullshot hooked him.

Edited March 17, 2004 by Kim WB (log)

[Cusina]

Hmmm... we met in college and I'm sure the first meal I made for him was something with pasta and no cook bars for dessert. I can't remember.

Things that I do remember serving to him though that probably helped sealed the deal:

1) Cheese Fondue with crusty french bread. In a candle lit dorm room, seated on the floor and served on my Dad's old college trunk covered with a pillowcase for a tablecloth. Wine (not bad really, considering) bought with a fake i.d. Eclairs for dessert.

2) Cinnamon coffee cake. Made with Bisquick in a ring mold, with a caramel glaze. He LOVED these and made me make them often.

3) Apple Pie - made in London as a slightly homesick/hungover student. I looked like a magician pulling that out of the air for almost no money in our tiny flat kitchenette. And it was good too. So good he ate most of it while I wasn't looking!

[FistFullaRoux]

The first meal I ever made for my wife was chicken and dumplings. I cheated on the dumplings and used Bisquick. She loved it and was hooked then.

The first meal I made for her as husband and wife was a very oversalted tortilla soup (trying to replicate one that we had in San Antonio on our honeymoon).

I'm glad it happened in that order.

The first meal she cooked for me was Hamburger Helper, at her parent's house. Her dad accused me of putting red pepper in it. Said it made his eyes burn. Like I walk around with a little tube of cayenne to dump in unsuspecting skillets. Lord knows I didn't find red pepper (or any pepper) in his house.

[chickenlady]

The first thing I cooked for my now husband was swordfish with a basil/papaya (or mango--I can't remeber now) sauce topped with crispy fried shallots. The fish was dreadfully overcooked and about as flavorful as a shoe, but the sauce was insanely good. He brought the wine, which he promptly dropped on my front stairs, breaking the bottle. I ran out with a pitcher and we filtered it through the paper bag. It had a decidedly "fibrous" quality that I couldn't quite pinpoint...

The first thing he cooked for me was the Hungarian Mushroom soup from the Moosewood cookbook. I was taking late-night SCUBA lessons and he actually broke into my apartment and had it ready when I got home at midnight. I'd say that's when I knew he was the man for me, but I knew the first instant I saw him.

[hannahcooks]

Roast chicken. It was also my first roast chicken!

[balmagowry]

Just to give credence to all the good-cooking-makes-good-relationships theories....

My EX first cooked me a stir-fry. It contained curry powder, oregano, Bragg's liquid aminos, and tomato paste.

Ahem.

OK, but just to demonstrate that good cooking by itself ain't necessarily enough - you've just reminded me that the last civil interchange between me and my ex, at the end of 15+ years of marriage, was the week just before he was scheduled to move out, during which he asked me to teach him how to cook some of the things I used to make for him. Spose it will sound petty (only because it is... but not without reason!), but in light of what's passed since then I have to admit that I kind of resent the thought that he may now be making MY vinaigrette, MY chicken soup, and (worst of all) MY kotlietkis for Wife # 4! (Can't remember what else he persuaded me to teach him, but those were first on the list. Oh - schtchav, too, but at least it wasn't from scratch!)

[foodie52]

I'm sorry...

[balmagowry]

I'm sorry...

Oh good heavens, please don't be. It's the best possible riddance of bad rubbish, and I got plenty out of it and am blessedly free of it. Funny how you can distort your own meaning in the course of a post, though - here all I meant to do was write a humorous counterpoint to Mudpuppie's scathing remarks about her ex (Gawd, if the liquid aminos don't just say it all!), and in my own head I had done exactly that, and I never even noticed that all the ironic little eyebrow-lifts were missing, let alone that it would therefore come across sounding bitter. Ooooops! Nah, he's welcome to those recipes, and my escape is cheap at the price. Besides, I'm a good teacher but I'm not that good a teacher - I very much doubt that those few days made a cook out of someone with no instinct and too much baggage. I'm sure he's tried to reproduce those recipes, and I'm sure he failed, and I'm sure he blamed me, and I don't give a damn because I'll never have to hear about it. Now I'm cooking for someone who appreciates my cooking - and me - without hanging a lot of hidden booby-traps all over his approval. This is the life.

And it all started with clam sauce, which (as I later learned) scared the hell out of him because he'd never had it before!

[foodie52]

Well hey! All's well that ends well, as some famous person once said!!!

(Just a suggestion, but maybe you should consider using those goofy emoticons - is that word even in the dictionary??) when you post.

Just kidding......( no emotiocon necessary.....)