Bon Vivant: One Woman's Exploration of the Culinary Landscape: My Husband . . . I Think I'll Keep Him

A new ritual has found its way into our home. Every Sunday night, my husband cooks dinner for us. It didn’t used to be this way. He came upon this great epiphany one evening when, riddled with guilt at not having prepared a meal for me in eons—and opening a can of Progresso soup, heating on the stove and presenting it in a bowl with a “Ta-dah!” flourish just didn’t cut it—he concluded that getting in the kitchen and whipping together a culinary delight was the least he could do.

There are a few exceptions to this “Sunday Night Soiree at the Albardas” tradition:

My husband doesn’t cook on the Sunday nights when he’s just returned from an overseas trip. Jet lag and all . . .
If we’re out visiting friends or relatives, we don’t dare let him anywhere near their kitchen
When he leaves for a business trip on a Sunday, he pre-empts his own rule and will cook—sometimes—on Saturday night instead.

Tonight, my husband leaves for Sao Paulo, Brazil so, as my consolation prize, he prepared dinner last night. It’s probably at about this time that you’re wondering if his cooking is, in fact, any good. Well, we haven’t had to make any mad dashes to the ER so far, so that’s a good sign, right?

His dishes have actually been pretty good. While not culinary feats of magic, I would keep most of his creations in rotation in my kitchen.

He usually starts by scouring the internet or our cookbooks for new recipes to try out. What this essentially means is that I’m his guinea pig. I don’t have a problem with this as I have used him on countless occasions—not to mention various dinner guests and friends, as well—as my culinary guinea pigs for years. Turnabout is fair play.

Once the madness begins in the kitchen, I am banned from coming within a ten foot perimeter. But it’s okay for the dog to wander around in the kitchen. Go figure.

The end result is a meal that warrants praise, we lick our lips and it’s a done deal. Sometimes we talk about it afterwards, other times we just retire to the sofa and watch episodes of Hustle on DVD.

But last nights’ meal . . . this was a-whole-nother story altogether. And I mean that in the absolute best way possible. Ladies and gentlemen, my husband cooked his ass off last night! He turned three large pieces of tilapia, mango, fresh herbs and spices into a fantabulous dish that had me nearly licking my plate dry in the end.

This is what my plate looked like BEFORE I ate . . .

Last night, he turned to one of my favorite recipe sites, AllRecipes. Over the years this site has served me well and produced quite a few “keeperpes” (recipes that are keepers) that I still use to this day. I can only imagine what his search criteria was on the site. Whatever it was, he did something right. The end result was Grilled Tilapia with Mango Salsa (see full recipe on Bon Vivant’s Recipe of the Week page).

. . . it was as aesthetically pleasing to look at as it was to eat . . .

While he did modify the recipe slightly (oven baked the tilapia as opposed to grilling, and omitting the jalapeno pepper), it was delicious nonetheless. You would think that three rather generously-sized tilapia filets served with a side of roasted asparagus would be enough for two people, but noooo . . . we are nothing if not greedy. Honestly, had there been more I certainly would have eaten more.

The flavors of the mango and red pepper blended together in such a harmonious fashion, you would think they were born together. The fish was firm and tender, yet yielded to the fork with no problem. And the juices that flowed with each bite were just the unexpected icing on the cake. I just can’t say enough good things about this dish.