Last night, I whipped up another stovetop dinner from scratch. While the wife and I were enjoying it, I asked her if she realized she’d married a cook. She countered by asking if I realized I was a cook. “Not a clue!” I replied, and it’s true. This whole blind cooking, successfully, really started to happen in just the last six months.

I could always use recipes before (though not always perfectly), and often still do. Yet I’m becoming very skilled at just whipping things up. Give me a protein, a starch, and a few odds and ends and I’m making tasty dinners for two, with a little leftover for Cathy’s lunch, consistently. Plus, they are getting better, simply by what I’m learning about flavor combinations from following other recipes. For example, I was making a dish last night, and knowing what I knew from a recent recipe, I added a proper amount of properly reduced tequila and butter to add that extra wow factor.

Tonight, I followed a recipe, with a few adjustments based on ingredients at hand, and made a killer shrimp and avocado salad, with pear lime vinaigrette. I didn’t have “sweet onions”, so I grilled the chopped onion a bit to make it sweeter. So very “yumptious”. That’s right, it was good enough for me to invent a new word.

I have no idea what doors this new ability will open up. I want to keep growing and trying new things. For now, I have a happy wife. Maybe soon, my friends will get to taste what I’m doing in the kitchen and be happy, too. Either way, I know I never ate this good at home when I let Hamburger Helper decide what went in the pot. I’m actually excited to get into the kitchen. I can’t wait to experience what I discover next. Enjoy!