Happy Birthday, Caleb and Barack Obama!!!

Today is not only the birthday of Our President, Barack Obama, it is also the birthday of my really quite wonderful husband of ten years, Caleb. Even before there were Two Dudes to cook for and with, he was the first Dude in my kitchen and has put up with a wife who is inclined to flights of fancy in the kitchen with general good humor, perhaps because he usually likes to eat what I'm cooking. A brief food-based history of my husband and I:

When we were dating, before they met him, my family suspected he was gay because of his willingness to go to the Farmer's Market with me and shop for fresh herbs, and more so when they heard of his appreciation of my pork tenderloin accompanied by plums ("Men," my older sister warned me, "don't understand meat with fruit.") He did a convincing imitation of enjoying cooking with me until we got married, at which point he abandoned the kitchen altogether. He learned to cook absolutely nothing from his mother, and spent his bachelor years eating frozen dinners and dried pasta with Newman's Own sauce, despite what is in fact a pretty discerning palate. He's a very private dude - this blog post is quite possibly his worst nightmare. I became very upset with him one summer when, after an entire month's worth of half-eaten pastries, he finally confessed that he "doesn't like pie after the first day." (this has changed, thank goodness.) He can actually cook anything he puts his mind to, including lasagna, but doesn't like to share the kitchen. He is also, as you can see above, cute as a sackful of puppies.

The dish you see my birthday-celebrating husband eating above is called Beef In Barolo, one of those recipes that transforms an inexpensive cut of beef into a delicious entree by cooking it for hours submerged in a pricey bottle of wine. Barolo, which I have never actually sipped from a glass, reportedly sells for $30 a bottle everywhere except for Trader Joe's, where it can be had for $13. Sadly, this is still on the spendy side for me when it comes to wine, but whenever they have it in stock at T.J.'s, I pick up a bottle to keep in reserve. If you have a bottle of Barolo in the pantry and a chuck roast in the freezer, you have a really lovely and presentable falling-apart-meat-and-sauce main course for your family or a cozy winter dinner party. If there is enough interest in this, I will post the recipe and then you can all rush down to Trader Joe's and ask for their $13 Barolo, which will create demand and subsequently a more consistent supply of cheap Barolo at all of their locations, hopefully including the one I shop at. Everybody wins!!!