The Strait of Gibraltar

I have three fundamental beliefs about marriage. The first is that the couple who cooks together stays together. Every once in a while we become so low on groceries that it becomes a challenge to see if we can actually make a meal with what we have. This was one of those weeks. We had culinary masterpieces such as tuna salad with dinner rolls (out of bread), waffles and scrambled eggs (out of meat), and a surprisingly good casserole made of potatoes, leftover cheese, a few slices of bacon, and some half & half. So, after this kind of week, we decided to step it up for Friday and make the Paella that we've been planning to make for about a week. It was really nice to redeem our faith in America's Test Kitchens after last weeks pesto failure, as they provided an excellent paella recipe. The only things we changed from the recipe was the omission of mussels (the process of debearding and scrubbing kinda freaks us out) and 1/4 teaspoon of saffron threads - because we have no idea what those are. Since we had spent some time cleaning up earlier, one of the best things about the paella was that it all cooks in one skillet so you can enjoy your dinner in a clean kitchen (to me this is an automatic plus for a dish - minimal dishes :). Needless to say, after a week of weak dishes, it was nice to put a win in the books.


The paella was delicious and actually made it into the book. We decided to pair it with a new Chianti, Villa Vitale. We usually don't drink Chianti, but I felt like this was a great introduction as it was not too dry and tart. It was a good pair for the spicy paella and overall was quite enjoyable. The fact that it was $7 at World Market is also notable.

The rest of the evening brings me to my second fundamental belief about marriage: you and your spouse should share several similar embarrassing interests. Ross and I record Jeopardy AND Wheel of Fortune every single day. This week we have been busy (I now officially have graduate hours), so we actually spent our Friday night watching two recorded hours of game shows. Our Jeopardy skills vary based on how many categories deal with War and history versus how many deal with medicine and pop culture. On the other hand, my Wheel skills are directly related to how many glasses of wine I've had -- so much so that Ross decided if I ever go on Wheel of Fortune, he will make certain that I have at least half a bottle of wine first. After my two large glasses of Chianti, I was able to guess "The Strait of Gibraltar" with only the r's and t's. Needless to say, I do not have these skills when I've been drinking diet coke. My third fundamental belief is that if you're in a happy marriage you can be happy not going out and doing something, and sometimes prefer to watch game shows in your jammies and go to bed before midnight.