The Married Guy Cook

So the wife wants a divorce.

Ironically, my having the interest and aptitude for cooking that she lacked and was beyond thrilled to outsource as the Big Thing I’d do besides attempting to earn money led to the sheer volume of cooking and experimenting I did, which led to this topical blog, inspired by Jeff Soyer’s short-lived Single Guy Cook blog. I might never have gone so into cooking without her. In retrospect, I could have eaten better and saved a lot of money when single, knowing what I do now.

Obviously I have not kept up on having new things to say here. There’s been a malaise for a long time, between finances and worries, cooking becoming a burden and symbolic of some of our troubles, and allergies in our youngest. Blogging in general became less common and accepted for me. Ironic that it should lead to not insignificant money after I all but gave it up.

I could have and meant to post some about eating frugally, and about dealing with allergies. I may yet, here or somewhere, as it’s not like that’s gone away, and I don’t mean to lose cooking as an avocation. Sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling.

Anyway, it’s a great domain. But if I am no longer married? Keep the domain, strike out married and call it, say, Daddy Guy Cook? Since my kids have become the main target, and driver of what I serve, and will always be of prime importance. Incorporate food stuff back into a solo blog that’s not of any specific focus? New blog, new domain, same focus?

Good question. I haven’t really decided.

The archives here will remain indefinitely, as I have ad commitments to fulfill, and prefer to keep the domain. The bulk of that revenue, however, does not accrue to me, and gives me incentive to create content and build potential elsewhere that will be under my control. Any work I do adding content to the site going forward pays me nothing extra, where that effort might pay if applied elsewhere.

Chances are, as a practical matter, I will take it elsewhere. This is preliminary notice, then, that things can be expected to change.

I have updated my resume page. Eliminated beta and scratch stuff and added a link to the current blogging resume in Word format.

I have a backlog of things to post here, but getting enough money to buy food and all that is kind of the priority.

You would never know it by the Middleboro PTA’s current online calendar, but there will be a craft fair this Saturday, December 1st, at the Burkland School cafeteria. The school is on Mayflower Avenue, which is right off the main drag of route 105, near the lights at route 28. SouthCoastToday.com actually does have mention of it buried here:

HOLLY DAYS CRAFT FAIR: Sponsored by the Middleboro Elementary P.T.A., 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Burkland School cafeteria. Proceeds from the fair and sales of the ornaments made by the children will be used to purchase books for the elementary schools libraries.

Deb will be in it, so if you’re local enough, you should go buy stuff from her there. Heck, you might see stuff you like at one of the other tables too. The proceeds they mention above are the table fees. We’d love to make back the table fee (which is an amusing term given that you have to supply your own table), though that shouldn’t be that hard.

If you’re not local, now is the time for Christmas shopping online. Deb has created the coolest snowmen to put in the shop, including so far Kris K. Snowperson and Monica Snowperson, with more to come. Including Jeremy Snowperson, who came to life while I was typing this post.

Bookmarks make great little gifts. So do her popular coasters. There are also dishcloths and towels, facecloths, creatures and aliens in addition to the snowpeople, coin purses and card wallets, and you can make a gift card extra special by using a gift card cozy (holder).

Deb has made a pile of awesome stuff you won’t see in the online shop unless it doesn’t sell in the fair, after which it will filter onto the site. Some of what is currently in the shop may be available at the fair.

It’s worth remembering that Deb does custom orders or variants on existing products. For instance, this tic-tac-toe game was inspired by the original. This drawstring pouch was inspired by this blue drawstring pouch and this small rainbow drawstring pouch. This custom set of eight coasters was inspired by other coasters done in sets of four. I know I’m showing you a lot of sold items, but they are great examples of what is possible.

So if you are in the area Saturday, come on by the fair and see some of Deb’s cool stuff in person, but otherwise check it out online.

Crossposted from Blogblivion.

I made the best chili yet yesterday.

While my mother-in-law was here, I made the best refried beans yet.

The secret to both seems to have been unusually large quantities of fresh garlic, which surprised me.

I could go on at length about how I made this particular batch of chili, just as I could write something about each time, as all are different. Trouble is, and part - but only part - of the lack of posting has been the boring sameness of the overall diet. How many times can I write about cooking refried beans, chili, beef stew, roast chicken, and various taco, burrito or similar concoctions before it gets ridiculous? So I started spicing the beans earlier. So I added a tiny amount of real maple syrup. So I made it beefier than normal. So I was out of tomato paste and used ketchup only, as opposed to paste and ketchup or tomato soup and ketchup, plus some paprika mainly for color. So I used far less chili powder than normal, more black pepper, and some white pepper for the first time ever. It remains yet another batch of chili.

Part of it has been the hecticness of the new baby, having another person in the house, and pecking at tasks associated with closing down an old business and office, and organizing my home office and seeking new business or work before this can turn into a blog about pinching food pennies until they melt from the pressure-induced heat. Still, I can at least try to post some of the more generic content I’ve had in mind, like brand and store matters, and repost some old recipes or experiments. I shall try to keep on it better.

My mother in law enjoyed her stay, not having to cook much. On a cool day, I made a roast chicken by special request. That was good. We had chicken burritos, then had them again by special request before she left. We had plain old cheeseburgers a couple times. We had pasta. It all got raves. We also had some takeout, introducing her to the D’Angelos Number 9 sub, which is steak, cheese, pepper, onion and mushroom, and to Papa Ginos pizza. We always order a Rustic style meat combo and a large cheese in the traditional style, which feeds us at least two meals worth and satisfies everyone. We had pizza a second time by special request. Oh! I remember; I made barbecue shredded beef, which came out especially good. Another request. And another thing I don’t really need to write up over and over.

I also need to fix this blog. It needs a blogroll and such, and that needs to be on all the pages. The template this is based on is hard to modify, so it’ll be back to the drawing board. Getting all the blogs right is on my master list of stuff to do, and has more connection with making a living than is immediately obvious. People see them and it reflects on me if they look better. Looks impact traffic. Where there is search traffic to individual posts, cross-links to things like Deb’s shop and the business and our other blogs increases everything’s potential. More traffic on the blogs means ads are more likely someday. While I’m not a “do anything to boost the traffic and create a true blog empire” person, I’m not going to turn down money for blogging I’d do anyway.

Stay tuned. I’ll try to keep up better with posting, but there’s not likely to be a lot of experimenting. On the other hand, we will soon be getting into cooler season foods…

I hadn’t thought of taking recipe submissions until an excellent former blogger asked where to send one. What a cool idea!

So I’ve created an e-mail address for the purpose: recipes @ this domain.

I reserve the right not to publish submissions, to edit them, to publish them when I get around to it, and so on and so forth.

Look for the first guest recipe, coming soon.

Because it’s dreadfully hot, which makes remembering I have a crockpot a Good Thing, I’m striving against boredom, and I had five pork loin steak thingies in the freezer, I am trying this recipe today. I’m not sure I’ll even adulterate it to speak of. I just happen to have a can of enchilada sauce I bout on the idea I’d make chicken enchiladas sometime, or else use it in something else. Something else it is! We also have leftover flour tortillas. An 8-pack does us for about three meals of burritos or whatnot, which isn’t bad for $1.69 plus the price of whatever ingredients.

I’ll have to report on how it comes out.

We’re about to have leftovers from last night, which is another post, once the pictures are off the camera. I had corn on the cob, Valerie’s first ever and boy did she enjoy it, so I was going to make random chicken, some rice and maybe a second vegetable. Even though I didn’t use them, the presence of egg noodles on the counter made me think of trying a chicken/gravy dish along the lines of my beef/gravy dishes I make periodically. The result was excellent - perhaps slightly overflavored - with what I thought of as a traditional chicken flavor to it. Now I know why, since Deb noted that I’d basically made chicken pot pie filling. Add the carrots and maybe other veggies and it wouldn’t be overflavored. It’s not a recipe, unfortunately, but I’ll decribe what I did. It’s definitely a keeper. Stay tuned…

Just a short note about my writing conventions here. You will see me say “spices” generically to mean both herbs and spices, which are technically two different things. However, they are both flavoring or taste enhancing ingredients used in cooking or embellishing food, achieving the same result. So please bear with me when I shorthand them, much as I might say “his” to mean “his or hers” or “people’s” generically.

This place needs work! I’m busy right now, to the point where starting a new blog might be silly, but it’ll get there. This default template is odd in that replacing the header graphic with one of the same dimensions leads to overhang at the edges. I’ll change that when I can.

Anyway, The Married Guy Cook was inspired by Jeff Soyer’s secondary blog, The Single Guy Cook.

I’ve always done a fair number of food posts, generally findable via the category at AV and the category at BB. I wouldn’t mind doing more, and it was a good candidate to become a distinct brand in the accidentally verbose blogging empire.

While I’m sure I’ll post recipes and descriptions, I anticipate going way beyond that here. I especially want to see a lot of reader interaction, and many posts will be little more than open invitations to discuss food or cooking topics. I figure I have a lot to learn. I also have things to share. While this is called Married Guy Cook, in light of my status and the fact I really got into cooking after I had a family to cook for, I may have advice in retrospect for singles. Cooking for one can be a drag. It will probably show in my posts that I like to keep costs down.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and return regularly. I’ll try to update the appearance and content within the next week, rather than letting it drag before I get back here.