I came up with the idea for this blog post this past week. It was about 5:50am and I was up and in the kitchen, where you can find me every weekday morning at this time. My husband’s alarm for work goes off at 5:40am. He gets up and starts the coffee before he gets ready to start his day. I lie there for a few minutes, internally whining about not wanting to get up, then I drag myself downstairs to make his lunch for the day. I complain about “having” to do this all the time. Truth be told, even though I am far from a morning person, he and I both enjoy spending the first few grumpy minutes of the day together. And, since he had a health scare a few years ago, this is a way that I can ensure that he is not eating garbage for breakfast and lunch.
So, about peanut butter and jelly. Each morning, I ask him what he wants for lunchbox. For breakfast, I pack granola and fresh yogurt from the dairy or homemade oatmeal. Snacks are usually fresh fruit or veggies with hummus. Sometimes lunch is leftovers that he can heat up in the microwave. Other times, it’s a big salad with lots of protein like chicken and hard-boiled eggs along with olives, cheese, carrots, and whatever else I have on hand. There are days where it’s a ham and cheese on Dave’s Killer Bread. But some days, he just wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich…Jif crunchy peanut butter and Welch’s grape jelly. Matt loves almost everything I cook, but sometimes, he just craves simplicity. I could spend hours in the kitchen, busting out specialty equipment, making a 5-star meal. His response? “It tastes really good, but I’d be just as happy with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” I die a little inside each time he says that. And he totally gets this from his father. I love my father-in-law, who we affectionately call “Hoppy.” Hoppy is a super-picky eater. His stance on food is this: “I could eat hot dogs every day. As long as you put a different topping on it, it’s a different meal.”
Then, on the flip side, there’s me. I love unique and complex dishes. Eating should be an experience, not just a step in the process to fuel your body. My idea of peanut butter and jelly is a culinary experience that Matt and I had a few months ago. We went to dinner at Bolete, by James Beard award-nominated chef Lee Chezmar. I ordered their Bone Marrow appetizer, which was roasted bone marrow served with their own cherry jelly, homemade chunky peanut butter, and garnished with sourdough toast and peanut brittle. It sounds like a lot of craziness mixed together, but I promise you, it was AMAZING!!! The meaty richness of the bone marrow, cut with the sweet cherries and the salty peanut butter was perfection. My words do it no justice, you just have to taste it.
Despite Matt’s sometimes very basic palette and my crazy food tastes and cravings, we are able to find balance. I try to limit my culinary gymnastics to a few nights a week or on the weekends. He indulges me when I tear up the kitchen or spend hours pouring over recipes. I accommodate his needs for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, spaghetti with sauce from a jar, and boxed macaroni and cheese. We have one kid that is a total foodie like me (he wanted to go to an authentic Ramen house for his birthday dinner last year) and one that is just like Hoppy (a love for buttered noodles, dry sandwiches and hot dogs). We embrace it all around here…and it definitely keeps my kitchen skills sharp!
Jar sauce!!!!
LOL!