Seven Year Palate

On December 31st I will have been married to other half, sometimes better half, Derrick for 7 years. I dedicate this, my first blog on recipebite, to him because instead of developing an itch, he has developed a palate.

When we met dear hubby was subsiting on Hamburger Helper, fast food, fizzy drinks and Twizzlers. He told me never to serve him onions, he hated them and would know immediately if they were in a dish. Ditto for garlic and oh by the way, he didn't care for salt. Garlic powder, tinned black pepper and Tony Chachere's seasoning were acceptable.

I proceeded to cook without my trusty aromatics which resulted in what I thought were painfully dull meals that he, interestingly enough, gobbled up. Then I went through several months of cooking 2 versions of everything, mine with the onions and garlic and his without. He would look at my dish, filled with fresh veg and herbs and ask "whats that?". I would tell him, ask if he wanted a taste and he would just smile and go back to his unseasoned food.

One day, fed up with all the work I decided to trick him into eating my way. I minced green onion until it was almost a paste and added it to a stir fry after a few months of him tolerating and then requesting that dried herbs be added to dishes. That night he ate with a fair amount of gusto and then suddenly put down his fork and said "what is the green herb in here?"

I started to laugh and told him I sneaked fresh onion into his food and to my delight he laughed and told me he liked it. I wasted no time introducing him to new tastes with the first order of business being replacing waxy Twizzlers with the much deeper flavored Red Vines!

Now other half eats everything, including salad, milder dark chocolate, fresh herbs, my beloved infused salt (even on ice cream) and craves local organic meat & veg. He even has a healthy appreciation for Wensleydale cheese.

Last week we were cooking together (his left handed chopping is pretty amazing to watch) when I realized what time of year it was and that our 7th annivesary was approaching. I realized my husband has an itch to experiement with food and grow his palate. I'm one lucky woman!