Cooking, part three (conclusion)

So after a year-and-a-half, I broke up with that latest girlfriend, and I was on my own for a couple of years, licking my wounds and expanding my cooking repertoire to suit my new palate for meat. A friend gave me a George Foreman grill she wasn't using, and I started grilling chicken breasts and turkey burgers and other things on there once a week or so.

In addition, one of my favorite quick meals became making a dressed up frozen Amy's soy pizza. I would sautee mushrooms, bell pepper and sometimes onions, slice up a chicken sausage, put all that on top of the frozen pizza, sometimes put extra soy mozzarella cheese on if it need it, and bake that in the oven. That would make a very filling meal, especially if I paired it with a nice Belgian ale. I was really getting into drinking beer - after a trip to Belgium in 2007 and subsequent trips to Monks Alehouse in Philadelphia, I was getting spoiled and very particular about what beer I would drink. Mostly, if I was going to drink beer, I only wanted to drink the best.

A year and a half ago, I met Therese, whose love of food equals my own. So of course being together with her means I have gotten to expand my cooking repertoire further than it ever has been before. I have made all the things I've done before for her: chicken pot pies, Thanksgiving side dishes, pasta w/mushrooms and cheesy tomato sauce, baked my famous amazing cookies. And I've done lots of new things. Some have been inspired by things we have seen on the Food Network, like baking Tart Tatin after seeing Jamie Oliver make it over an open fire in France. Some have been inspired by things I love that I've always wanted to make, like paella, which I've now made three times, most recently for Therese's daughter's birthday. Some have come from recipes that Therese has clipped from magazines, like a Moroccan style chicken with cinnamon. And often, now when I want to get an idea of how to cook something, I look it up on the Food Network's website to see how Emeril and Rachel and Pat Burrel, etc. would do it, and then I adapt it to my own tastes!

Therese and I have different philosophies for cooking. Therese is more into feel and adding things as she goes along, and not following a recipe or using the timer to determine when something is done. She lets her nose tell her when a dish is ready. I like to have a recipe and exact measurements and timings as the basis for what I am going to do. Which doesn't mean I am inflexible and will not let myself be inspired to do something that suits me. I just want to make sure that the result is going to be not just tasty, but memorable. Because if a dish comes out tasting really extraordinary, then that is something I will add to my rotating repertoire, and we are going to have it again soon!