Does your man cook?

[suzilightning]

Don't have a current BF, but can definitely relate dear old Dad's cooking here... we don't let him cook, because we wouldn't get our food until the following morning. Seriously. If the recipe says 1/4-inch dice for the onions, Dad's there with the ruler making sure all of the pieces are 1/4 inch. We let him make the cranberry relish last year for Thanksgiving and it took about 3 hours. With my sister's help. And like, 30 different utensils.

is he an engineer?

johnnybird is and he is the same way. he once made dinner for me - chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, green beans, chocolate mousse. he started at 10am and we ate at 730pm - just. and dirtied almost every pot in the house.

just before we went to vermont he asked me to show him how to make the blueberry breakfast cake he likes. i pulled out the bowls and said to him " ok- first read the recipe" he did and started to reach for the first ingredient. there followed the lecture about mise en place - for your ingredients and your hardware.

he started to get the knack though he still doesn't get that you can rinse and pick over the fruit BEFORE you start creaming the butter. " well, if they wanted me to do that why didn't they write the recipe in that order?" - told you he's an engineer.

though he does make lovely toast dope

[JennyUptown]

My [apparently-soon-to-be-ex] boyfriend is a great cook although 1. he puts a lot of garlic in just about every dish and 2. he says breakfast is "women's work."

I think he uses cooking to try to make up for areas where he falls short. You know, emotional capacity.

One of my [many] fears about being out on the dating scene again is that my next relationship will be with a guy who is very engaged emotionally, but absent from my kitchen.

[nessa]

My man? Cook?

Lets go with no. Nor does he grill, Mr. Al Dente.

He does, however, gracefully allow me to serve him what I cook, grill or barbecue. For the most part. Indian's out. More for me.

[bleachboy]

...though he does make lovely toast dope

I prefer my dope smoked. *rim shot*

[TJHarris]

I am my wife's man and I cook. In fact, I cook 90% of the evening meals and all the meals when I am off work. I also do laundry, wash dishes, clean the bathroom, mow the lawn, take out the garbage, maintain the autos, care for the children, hold down a job, coach peewee baseball, volunteer.....

No wonder my wife is happily married!!!

[Monica Bhide]

I am my wife's man and I cook. In fact, I cook 90% of the evening meals and all the meals when I am off work. I also do laundry, wash dishes, clean the bathroom, mow the lawn, take out the garbage, maintain the autos, care for the children, hold down a job, coach peewee baseball, volunteer.....

No wonder my wife is happily married!!!

[Monica Bhide]

For the most part. Indian's out.

Hmmm - Nessa we need to fix this

[phaelon56]

And women doing a man's laundry? Weird.

That's how I feel yet most every woman I've dated in the past 15 years has routinely offered to do my laundry... usually something along the lines of "I'm already doing laundry for myself and (the kids... my son... etc)... it's no big deal to throw a few things of yours in with it." Maybe I'm too independent but I just can't get with that. I've been doing my own laundry for aboutthe past 35 years just fine thanks.

Now we move to the present - my current GF actually gets offended if she offers to do my laundry and I decline (I"m only there on visits at present until I relocate). So, in the interest of harmony, I give in. But she always wants me to do the grilling.

[Al_Dente]

But she always wants me to do the grilling.

They'd be lost without us, wouldn't they?

[fimbul]

And women doing a man's laundry? Weird.

That's how I feel yet most every woman I've dated in the past 15 years has routinely offered to do my laundry... usually something along the lines of "I'm already doing laundry for myself and (the kids... my son... etc)... it's no big deal to throw a few things of yours in with it." Maybe I'm too independent but I just can't get with that. I've been doing my own laundry for aboutthe past 35 years just fine thanks.

Now we move to the present - my current GF actually gets offended if she offers to do my laundry and I decline (I"m only there on visits at present until I relocate). So, in the interest of harmony, I give in. But she always wants me to do the grilling.

Hunh. The conversation in my house usually runs, "I was just going to do a load of laundry, do y-"

"YES! HERE! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

The first speaker is then buried in a morass of dirty linen and abandoned.

We alternate filling the above roles. Doing laundry is something we both abhore, not really a matter of principle. It may make a difference, though, that we were both born in 1975 -- any notions of domestic roles we might have inherited are so muddled, we just make up our own rules. I'm okay with this, and so is she.

[phaelon56]

But she always wants me to do the grilling.

They'd be lost without us, wouldn't they?

Well I am good for more than grilling (and cooking)

[Daddy-A]

- my current GF actually gets offended if she offers to do my laundry and I decline

Hunh. The conversation in my house usually runs, "I was just going to do a load of laundry, do y-"

"YES! HERE! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

The first speaker is then buried in a morass of dirty linen and abandoned.

We alternate filling the above roles.

Well I'm glad our's is not the home where laundry is an area of discussion. My wife REFUSES to let me do her laundry ... probably a smart move. Having each of us do our own laundry seems assinine to me, in addition to being wastefull, so she does it all. It's not like I won't do it, she just won't let me. However, I do FOLD everything, and do it much better than she could.

Cooking is split 50-50, with the non-cooking partner doing the clean-up. I swear she takes advantage of this rule, as I have never seen anyone create as big a mess while cooking! Do you really need 4 bowls, 2 measuring cups & the mandoline to make soup & grilled cheese??

DA

[suzilightning]

And women doing a man's laundry? Weird.

That's how I feel yet most every woman I've dated in the past 15 years has routinely offered to do my laundry... usually something along the lines of "I'm already doing laundry for myself and (the kids... my son... etc)... it's no big deal to throw a few things of yours in with it." Maybe I'm too independent but I just can't get with that. I've been doing my own laundry for aboutthe past 35 years just fine thanks.

owen -

the ONE and ONLY time johnnybird did his own *regular* laundry - as opposed to those pieces of extremely expensive cloth he uses when he goes camping and then has to get the burned wood smell out of- he was back from syracuse(esf) and walked into the laundromat with me. he then proceeded to dump a large, black garbage sack of all kinds of clothes into the largest washer there was and let 'er rip. i have done the laundry ever since.

to get this on topic again, though:

he still makes lovely toast dope which he is now using the blueberry cake i taught him how to make

[nessa]

  For the most part.   Indian's out. 

Hmmm - Nessa we need to fix this

Monica, Its a work in progress, thats for sure.

He will eat spicy roti, some fusiony Indian food, most fried Indian food.

Two weeks ago he grabbed something from the "frozen for work" stash. He forgot the cardinal rule. Little container = nessa's. Big container = his. He got the last of my channa dal. He made enough sad faces at work that the girls there offered to buy him dinner.

After eating it, he said it "wasn't bad". >snarl< He is getting more adventerous, and everyone is entitled to their preferences, I suppose.

Although, how he can't be in love with Indian food as I am is really quite beyond my comprehension.

As for laundry... I do it.

I cook, I clean, I even do windows. At least once a year, anyway.

[davidthomas8779]

Where is the [good natured] outrage from men on this thread?

If we let the girls feel superior, they'll cook more stuff for us, right?

FYI--I can cook my ass off, but usually just cook on the weekend b/c I'm not home early enough to properly feed the kids if I were to cook during the week.

[tanabutler]

I can cook my ass off

Doesn't that hurt?

[maggiethecat]

All my men cook.

[dumplin]

My husband cooks. He made grilled cheese before we got married, and he wanted to learn other things so we cooked together. He has natural talent and loves gourmet ingredients. He can now cook about anything he wants to. Every once in a while he asks about a certain technique or if the meat is done, etc. He also helps clean up the dishes, etc. His favorite job is chopping. That's fine with me because I can't do it without bloodshed. I miss my big kitchen with room for two cooks. Its hard for two people to cook in a teeny tiny kitchen. Its very comical at times. We do enjoy cooking together.

[My Confusing Horoscope]

We have a strict division of labor at our house: I buy the beer, she buys the wine, except of course when the roles are reversed. What was the question?

Oh. We cook together usually. She's a great taster, knowing just when to add the right thing. I am glad she bakes because that is a mystery to me. I am too sloppy with my measurements. I don't know if that's because I am a man or a typical Scorpiaricorn.

[rlm]

Ten years ago when I moved in with the man who is now my husband, we made a deal that he would do all of the laundry and I would do all of the cooking. Seeing as how his finest culinary moments usually involve a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in some capacity, this was not a difficult deal to broker. He appreciates fine dining, but has no clue about the process that results in the Coq au Vin landing on his table.

[Bond Girl]

One of my [many] fears about being out on the dating scene again is that my next relationship will be with a guy who is very engaged emotionally, but absent from my kitchen.

I'll take emotionally enagaged over MIA in the kitchen. Judging from the cooking skills of the men I dated over the past 20 years, I rather that they stay out of my kitchen.

[jsolomon]

One of my [many] fears about being out on the dating scene again is that my next relationship will be with a guy who is very engaged emotionally, but absent from my kitchen.

Feh. You think that is difficult... I've been in the dating scene [repeatedly] over the past few years and finding a woman who bloody EATS is damned near enough to make me discorporate.

All the time I hear, "that's weird" or "no mushrooms" or "tongue--which I've never actually tried--is gross". Sorry ladies. Things like that will get you evicted from my kitchen and my affections because food is a HUGE amount of how I identify myself.

But, how can you justify that someone who cooks his SO homemade alfredo with homemade garlic bread (on yesterday's fresh-from-his-kitchen-bread) emotionally absent? Hell, I've even been known to do the dishes, too.

So... the question to Jason and Steven is...

Where are the eG personals?

[bergerka]

Since moving in with Slkinsey on October 18, 1996, I have cooked perhaps five times, and he was out of town for four of them.

So yes, he cooks, and the stairmaster is the only way I avoid buying a whole new wardrobe in a whole new size every few months. He even roasts the coffee beans for our morning cappuccino.

I do dishes and clean the house and remind him where his watch and keys are when he loses them (at least once a day), but the nice laundromat around the corner does our laundry and folds it. I do put it away, though.

The only problem I foresee is getting him to understand that I have a brand-new interest in learning to cook - and I don't want him to teach me because he'll just end up doing it FOR me, which doesn't teach me anything!

He grills, too, AD. I must say, that's not a form of cooking in which I have any interest (in the process - the PRODUCT is ALWAYS interesting, especially sliced on my plate). Must not be a chick thing.

Oh, and Jsolomon...you're dating the wrong women. The single ladies I know would faint over your described alfredo dinner.

K

[winesonoma]

If I did not cook my SO would leave me. My ex wife said it was the only thing that I did right in our marriage. Hell sometimes I even do the dishes. And I always do the dinner shopping so I always get what I want. Suggestions are always appreciated. She has to work and at the present time i don't.

[NulloModo]

Hmmm, while I was growing up living with my parents my mom cooked most mundane weekday meals (which often was just hamburger helper or other frozen stuff made unfrozen) and my dad would do the cooking when it came to big things and his specialities: chili, baked beans, collard greens, thanksgiving dinner, pot roasts, sunday breakfast, etc.

Each had their own specialties which sometimes came up, but my dad is a master at things that take forever to cook, and can be completed in one pot. So, naturally I became interested in what he made, and can mock up versions of most of those dishes. Incidentally both of my parents actively taught my sisters to cook, while I sort of was just allowed to watch and figure things out, so they learned the more mundane things like how to measure and how important mise is and all that good stuff ;) I just watched and improvised.

Now, I cook virtually all of my own meals and thanks to egullet am figuring out some of the instruction I missed out on. Perhaps it is just because I am only 23 but no girl I have ever dated has had any vague idea about how to cook much of anything past making frozen things unfrozen. I would gladly cook for someone I was dating, in fact, I enjoy it, and I like to get the feedback on how things are as I typically am the only one who eats what I make...