Ode to the Paterfamilias.

As I will be leaving on Sunday for the first of two big conferences and tomorrow Steve is going to give a paper at a conference that I will attend for a few moments to hear him deliver.  We are both hoping that after hearing his paper I will say "Oh! Interesting!" rather than "What?"

Due to the busy schedule of the blessed Father's Day weekend, we decided to serve up some food this eve and celebrate tonight.  More on that in a minute.

When I was at the grocery store, I asked the girls "What kind of ice cream does daddy like?" and we stood there stumped.  Next we were in the chips aisle and we asked ourselves "What kind of chips dos daddy like?" And then I started to cry because I realized that after nearly 13 years of marriage, my husband knows every detail about me.  He knows that my favorite ice cream is something with lots of chocolate.  He knows that my favorite chips contain a hint of lime.  He probably even knows that 10/10 is it a green salsa over a red.

But him?  The only thing I know about his taste is that he likes everything we like.  He loves to make us happy.  And when he is thinking about what kind of ice cream he wants, he defaults to what will bring me the most joy: chocolate bits of something yummy.

Steve has been focused on my happiness since the day we met and he doesn't waiver, ever.  I had an opportunity to go to Spain to do some training in August (another post later) and rather than say "dude, you travel ALL the freaking time and you are gone for like two weeks already in August." He looked me in the eye and said "honey, I totally support you going to Spain, that is wonderful."

Most of all, I appreciate how much he loves the children he made me have.  I don't regret a single one and I appreciate that he takes care of them all the time so I don't remember why I didn't want to have them before they were born.


For these and a million other reasons, I am happily married to the most selfless and least materialistic person on the planet.

So since he is so easy to please, I made him what I have been wanting for dinner lately:

Aged Irish White Cheddar Cheese melted on Rosemary Olive Oil Bread. 

With some steak for good measure.

I didn't include a picture due to its grotesque nature, but I did throw in a little treat that was Steve-specific:  sauteed mushrooms. 


For dessert I stole a recipe from Paula Deen and made a summer fruit tart:

The fruit tart recipe was amazing, but I didn't have the glaze ingredients on hand, so I used instead a glaze that I modified from this site.  If you like fruit, cream cheese, and whipping cream, you would have been ecstatic to join our desserting crew tonight.


Finally, for a gift we decided to splurge and bought him a nice sports coat.  When he saw it he asked if we had taken his suit to the dry cleaners for a gift. 

So easy to please, this one.