particularities and murphy's law

hubby-to-be: "i wish we had more fish"

when i met hubby-to-be he was not an eater.

of course he ate, but he was limited.

somewhere along the way i decided that if you don't like a particular food it's simply because you haven't had it prepared the right way. {don't ask me when my mind opened to food. i was raised eating a lot of the same things over and over - never too adventurous. even now i couldn't convince momma to eat something as benign as lamb.} my food dislike is olives. i try them over and over and over. green, black, kalamata. in oil, in brine, buried deep in other food. so far no good. but i press on.

for at least the first year hubby-to-be was hardly open to my "just try it" approach. more often than not the scene at our table would include him backing away from my fork in protest. "just put it on my plate, i'll try it later." there was a 50/50 chance the bite would be consumed.

once he realized that it was better just to take the bite then listen to my pestering (and later, irritation that he wouldn't even try it) he started realizing how much food is out there.

the most frustrating hurtle: fish.

one of the greatest early causes of his resistance, he could eventually admit it was good "but i couldn't eat a whole meal of it."

four years in, on a trip to jamaica, he finished my plate of red snapper. highly uncharacteristic. a few nights later he ordered his own. he was a convert.

he continues to surprise me.

while it's been two years since he converted to the piscatory penchant, i still never felt he quite shared my enthusiasm for fish as the protein of choice.

we've made fish at home in the past and he's enjoyed it. recently, he ordered shrimp as part of his meal at a japanese steakhouse. i nearly fell off my chair. {i've even been particularly sensitive to fishy-taste recently where he hasn't minded at all}

then last weekend i told him red snapper was on sale at the grocery and asked if he wanted to pick some up. his answer was an emphatic, if not over-zealous, yes.

halloween-eve hubby-to-be was scheduled to work late (7:30p). i had the perfect plan to surprise him. after my unusually late afternoon trip to the gym i would make my post, shower, slip into my pirate costume a la early dating, clean up the kitchen from the weekend, and prep dinner so i could throw it all on to be done in minutes when he got home.

as i finished my post my phone rang. hubby-to-be. "i'm on my way home." ack. i searched my closest for the halloween costume and determined it was buried in the storage closet. oh well, at least i can be clean and maybe i'll think of an alternative. barely out of the shower and he was walking in the front door. kitchen untidy. food unprepped. surprise foiled.

murphy's law or poor planning. you choose.

together we whipped up a dinner of potato and herb crusted snapper with mashed potatoes and green beans with mustard sauce. a yummy french pinot gris.

as he rounded the corner to the end of his fish he shocked me again.

"i wish we had more fish."

maybe next week we will.