Cooking Together

Boil water, originally uploaded by ilmungo.

If you have any culinary leanings a fun date night can be spent indoors, cooking together. You get to have fun doing an activity together, being creative, lots of opportunities for good conversation, and it gives you a nice chance to see how you can work together and get along. And if you don't mesh well from the start, don't panic! My husband and I were awful when we started cooking together. We each had our particular ways of doing things and didn't like the others habits. But over time we learned each others ways and where and when to compromise and now we love to cook together. He's usually in charge of meat (since I have a tendency to burn!) items while I do veggies or noodles or whatever else we're having. It works great with us.

If you're new to cooking start with something simple. Go to the store and get a box of spaghetti noodles, a jar of tomato sauce (Ragu Traditional is nice for starters), and a package of ground beef (lean!). Optional items are crusty Italian bread, Parmesan cheese, a nice aged cheddar cheese, and a bottle of semi-sweet red wine. When you're both ready to cook one of you can boil the water and be in charge of cooking the noodles (they're done when you throw one at the wall and it sticks) while the other browns the hamburger meat and then adds the jar of sauce. All the while you can be nibbling the aged cheddar and bread as appetizers and sipping your wine. (I love to do this while I cook spaghetti. It feels very decadent and sexy. If I'm not having wine, I'm having a Coke with lemon.) When the noodles are done, strain the water off, put on a plate and top with sauce and Parmesan cheese. Eat and enjoy! This is one of the easiest meals to prepare and was the first thing I learned to cook back when my Granny was first teaching me. I'd say I was about 9 or 10 when I mastered this recipe. Cook it enough and soon you'll be adding extra veggies to the sauce (fresh mushrooms and black olives! Delicious!) and then making your own sauce from scratch and then maybe even your own noodles if you get really brave.

Other great recipes that aren't too hard: Lasagna, Tacos (especially if you get one of those box meals), and stir fry!