Love is grand, but eating is something we do three times a day. 

I know, I eat frequently and cook my own meals.  You may have noticed that lots of husbands are good cooks.

There are two reasons for that:

1. Before marriage, men lived alone and had to eat. So, they began to cook;

2. “Home Economics” is no longer taught in high school and many women whose mothers are terrible cooks, never learned.

Love is grand, but eating comes first, and if you want to remain happily married, you must learn to cook.

Don’t be insulted. A husband expects to eat a good meal at least five days a week. If you can’t deliver that, YOU are in deep Doo-Doo. 

Men have divorced their wives for less, so why tempt fate!

I am a husband who values other more important aspects of matrimony. But I am a terrific cook. On a scale of 1-10 with a 10 is a cook in a first-class restaurant in New York or Paris, I’m a 6.

So brilliant repartee is preferred to Roast Duck or Salmon cooked over charcoal on Cedar Planks and seasoned to perfection. But not everyone is a voracious reader who finds modern America oh so, how do you say, boring!!

When hungry, a man wants to eat.

Which is why I write about the joy of making someone happy by serving meals that will keep him at home and liking you—in addition to loving you.

I know something about cooking from my father and mother’s family. Each had a unique cuisine that they inherited from their families. 

On my mother’s side there were pork chops, roasted chicken and turkey and delicious stuffing. An Aunt made the best desserts that alerted her son to her dementia when she made a blueberry pie for him that was terrible. But before her advanced age, her pies were famous including an apple pie with a strip of cheddar cheese on top.

On my father’s side there was yoghurt, feta cheese, lamb chops and kabobs, rice pilaf and rice pudding, and a salad made without lettuce. 

And don’t forget coffee!

I inherited a love for strong coffee and adore “Gold Coast” at Starbucks! Once I went into a bar around 8:00 pm and instead of ordering a cocktail or glass of wine, I ordered coffee. 

Wow! It was great! 

It seems that the owner’s son organized the purchase of coffee beans from Colombia, processed them and shipped them to the United States for marketing!

I can’t do that with the dishes I learned to cook from the kitchens of my German and Armenian grandparents.

And I am not a wife cooking for her husband.

I am a husband and father, a novelist, essayist, former university president and author of books you will never read.

That explains why I published a first novel and am working on this guide to cooking. I’m tired of writing scholarly books that few read or understand.

I want to be read by ordinary people!

If I can do that and help my readers to take cooking seriously, I’ll be a happy man.

My fiancé made the mistake of asking what I would like her to cook for me. Immediately I said roast of lamb and carrot soup. 

She is from the mid-west where people eat pork and carrots are used in stews. 

But lamb? 

Carrot soup? 

She knew I was not joking, so off she went to a local grocer who offered good cuts of beef, veal and even lamb. He sold her lamb for roasting and gave her instructions in how to prepare it.

I had always done some cooking, but my first wife didn’t know how or what to cook. One Thanksgiving she served turkey sandwiches! So, for most of that marriage I prepared the meals. After a while, I became a single father. 

I was on my own and doing well, but my income was not steady enough to continue paying tuition at a private school.  I had become friends with another former academic whose first marriage had ended in divorce and asked him for advice on where in Virginia—close enough to daily commute to DC—that had good public schools. 

He recommended Great Falls, at the time a little town, far from city life, where families kept horses and dogs and was located near a beautiful waterfall. 

So, there I was, alone, with two kids in the Langley school district.

We had to eat and I was responsible for preparing meals. 

My daughter tells me that she ate lots of “Shake and Bake” chicken, but I remember making dishes that my grandmothers made, and began to build a repertoire of meals that all people who cook for their families will want to prepare for their children, husbands. wives and partners.

I began writing a book about cooking when a terrible Pandemic closed most restaurant dining and, even if I wanted to dine out, I couldn’t.

Well, now I’m fully vaccinated and beginning to write about good cooking.

The title I’ve chosen is “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Her Husband’s Stomach.”