Boy Cooking/Girl Cooking

I don't mean to be sexist, but there is a major difference in the meals that I cook and the meals that Wright cooks. And the difference is sooo typical. Take, for example, my previous post on using fresh lettuce to make a salad. I was in heaven eating the salad for dinner. Wright smiled during dinner but gobbled down pizza later.

Another example: my obsession with soups. Easy, simple, healthy - a perfect dinner, I think. Again, Wright smiles. He usually just makes sure there is a large enough cheese plate to avoid binge eating pizza when he finds himself starving around 11pm.

When Wright cooks, however, things are very different. First I should explain that he loves to cook, and would do so every night if he wasn't at work so late. When he's out of work in time, or if it's the weekend, though, he's all over it. And no, I have never seen him make a soup or salad.

Last night, for example, I was exhausted so he took over the cooking. He decided to make an entire Pork Tenderloin. On a Monday night. Just for the two of us. If I hadn't been so tired/confused about his thought process, I would have objected, but alas, he went on his merry way.

Wright has a gigantic cast-iron pan (seriously, it is about 2 feet in diameter) that he tends to use for what he calls "one pot meals." The basic pattern: he heats up the giant pan on the stove, sears a large piece of meat, usually covered in garlic and herbs (Pork Tenderloin, in last night's case), adds the vegetables (butternut squash and figs) and puts the whole thing in the oven to roast. Everything comes out steamy and delicious. The flavors all meld together and make a wonderful meal - I really have never seen him fail.



The meal, though, is SO different from what I usually cook. For one, there is always an enormous piece of meat. And, it is all rich, hot vegetables. Rarely are greens used (unless I insist on a light salad, which he usually avoids eating; note the addition of thyme sprigs for "greens" last night). We like to call it boy cooking. It's delicious and always elegantly plated (see last night's meal above), but boy is it different from girl cooking!

I love to laugh at him when his meals particularly boy-ish, just as he laughs at me when I put a salad in front of him. As embarrassing as it is to say, gender stereotypes always win in our kitchen.