her husband cooks.

For the first few months of my cooking experience, I never ventured away from Allrecipes. I cannot stress how much I love that site. It's such a simple concept that could never really be realized before the Internet age. A big searchable database of recipes with member reviews. And that's all it is. I think it probably has other features - you can create a shopping list or a recipe box, but that's all just gravy. All you need is the recipes and the reviews. The latter gives real-life helpful hints on things to make the recipe easier or better or more healthy or whatever you might want. Also, they tell which recipes are just crappy to begin with. And the database is gigantic. Only once have I searched for something and been unable to find a recipe for it, and that was for an obscure Indian dessert I had at a restaurant.

Now I've branched out a bit and discovered food blogs. I have sisters who are faithful devotees to The Pioneer Woman. I confess that I have not yet been converted, though I'm sure I will soon. Lately, I've become a disciple of My Husband Cooks.

The guy who makes the food here is quite an adventurer. He's the type to find a recipe and then change it to make it better. I'm coming to realize that I'm not one of those people. I'm not an idea man. So I may be stuck following other people's recipes for my whole life. However, as long as there are people out there like this guy to make up the recipes in the first place, I'll be just fine. I can still make crazy yummy food.

Now, I've made five things off his site so far. I trust him now. Some of the things are a little beyond my skill, and some recipes require equipment or ingredients that I don't have or am unwilling to get for cost reasons (someday I will break down and buy a stupid ice cream maker, just to try one of the many recipes he's posted). But there are lots of things on there that I can do.

Rather than reprint any of the recipes here, I just added links.

What I've done so far:
Cincinnati Chili - we made chili dogs with this using Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, the official hot dog of The Ladybug Picnic. They were incredibly not healthy and oh-so-yummy. This makes quite a bit of chili, so I froze a bunch of it. In fact, it's frozen right next to the two packs of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs that I bought when they went on sale.

Pickled Grapes - it was so easy and intriguing that I had to try it. You can only eat about one at a time, though it's better with a little cheese. Don't eat any while lying on your back or you will regret it as you'll get vinegar in the back of your throat. I probably won't ever pickle grapes again, but I bet the fact that I have will be a great ice-breaker at parties.

Shrimp and Grits - Since I first tried the dish at a restaurant where I worked in college, I've been on a search to find the best shrimp and grits. I think this one is much better than the previous one I was using. Josh likes the old one better, but says maybe we just need to add tomatoes to the new one. This is not to say that I will stop looking for a shrimp and grits recipe. I will note that you should not add the salt to the water/chicken stock when making the grits. I'm not sure if I misunderstood the recipe, but we did that and had to throw out that pot of grits because it was making our tongues swell. After we fixed that, this was really yummy.

Tomato and Artichoke Pasta - When I started cooking, I was pretty much amazed any time something came out right. Since then, I've sort of gotten used to the idea that I have the ability to put a whole meal on the table. However, I made this last week, and all that old amazement was back. I took a bite and said to myself, "I made this?! Me? I could charge $15 for this! I should charge $15 for this."

Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie - I made this for Josh's birthday. He was like, you can't make chess pie. And I was like, yes-huh. And he was all, nuh-uh. But then I did make chess pie, and Josh promised to love me forever. I still don't know what chess pie is, but it's pretty yummy.

Even if you have no interest in cooking, the pictures on the site are worth a visit. I've tried to take pictures of food before, and it's harder than you might think to make the subject look appetizing. Or at least not blurry.