A Recipe For Love

Once upon a time when BadDad and I were even younger than we are now, we first met each other. By a fortuitous coincidence, we had both gotten jobs at the same company and that company transferred the two of us, and one other new hire, to the same city.

There we found ourselves, new to town, new to our jobs, and far away from our homes. Naturally the three of us spent lots of time together, exploring our new environment, and we all became fast friends. Somewhere along the way, BadDad and I realized separately that our feelings for each other were developing into something more than friendship.

One spring day I decided to bake a cake and invite BadDad and his roommate over to share it with me. I baked a banana cake from a mix and frosted it with canned frosting. My culinary standards have come a long way since then.

It turned out that only BadDad was able to come over. He was properly awed by my cooking skills, I'm sure. I believe it was as we conversed over cake and coffee, that he first began to fall deeply in love with me, and I with him.

Months later, BadDad (by then my boyfriend) invited me over to his apartment, where he promised to cook dinner for me. I watched in horror fascination as he proceeded to heat pasta, dump it on a plate, and pour cold, jarred sauce on the top. His technique, he told me, had been learned in college from a fraternity brother. The theory was that the hot pasta would heat the cold sauce with no need for a second pan.

Right then and there I realized that I would have to handle most of the cooking. So I quickly became much better at it. He's quite good at the eating part. In retrospect, I think that's the way he planned it.

We were married a mere 14 months after we started dating and we've never looked back. We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, and I can honestly say that they've been the best years of my life. Life has handed us great sorrows and abundant joy, and we've faced it all together.

When my children grow older and ask me how to know when you've found the one I will tell them about our recipe for love. When you find someone that will eat your sub-par cooking and still look at you with love in their eyes, telling you that it's amazing...it's a good sign.

In the interests of complete disclosure, my hubby says this topic is far too corny for anyone to enjoy reading about. He doesn't enjoy chick flicks either, so I can't trust his opinion too much about this.