Be My Valentine! Nix the Asparagus.

My husband and I have been married almost nine years (gasp), and prior to our marriage we had been together for 7 years. You can do the math, but basically at 31 years of age, I have been with my husband in life longer than I have been without.

On the eve of Valentine's Day (a day I could do without), I decided I did not want to cook dinner as I would probably do something semi-special for dinner the next night. I opened the freezer and fished out some Mulligan Stew that I had made about a month ago. After I finished washing up Jack, my youngest son, and getting Cole ready for bed, I popped the rubbermaid into the microwave to start the elaborate re-cooking process.

Dinner at my house is sort of a joke lately as my husband is working pretty long days at the local hospital's pediatric ward. For us adults, dinner gets eaten when he gets home. Sometimes that is at a normal hour, sometimes it's at nine o'clock.

Last night he rolled in about 7 o'clock. I had the crackers and the stew ready to go. He took one look at it and scowled. The conversation that proceeded went like this:

Husband: "Is that the stew you made last month from whatever we had left in the refrigerator? What did you call it again?"
Me: "Yes, and...I called it Mulligan Stew. Why?"
Husband: "Hmm. Well, I used my meal chit to eat free at the hospital, so I'm good."
Me: "Okay, what did you have?"
Husband: "Chicken salad....why?"
Me: "You're good??" (I ask this because my husband was the original "stove top" stuffing poster boy. In high school he could score at least 2 complete dinners a night by cleverly scheduling visits to selected friends' homes.)
Husband: "Well...I mean...Yeah...well, maybe I will have a peanut butter sandwich."
Me: "Why not stew? There is plenty."
Husband: "Yeah, I remember. Does it still have those asparagus stalks that you had saved in it?"
Me: "Yes, unless they mysteriously jumped out of the stew sometime between last month and now."
Husband: "So...No, I don't want that stew. Don't be offended [clear indicator that I will] but the stalks were pretty stick-like. They kinda hurt."
Me: "Okay, I get it. Next time I will puree them before I add them in."
Husband: "I don't think that would have helped. They would just be littler sticks."

I am not cooking dinner tonight either.

There is still some stew left.