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April 24, 2007

Win Her With Dinner

We celebrated Elaine's birthday this weekend, and, for her present, she asked that I "cook her something."

I've never been known as much of a chef - microwaving, boiling water, and heating pizza are the general extent of my Phat Culinary Kung Fu Skillz - so I dusted off some of the cookbooks on my shelf (bought with such high hopes, reliably consigned to obscurity behind the Hunter S. Thompson and Disney World history books) and, within a second, I knew I had my material: Win Her With Dinner.

(Of course, the damn thing is bright green with a black spine, so maybe that's got something to do with it.)

Win Her is a cookbook for single guys who'd like to impress a gal with their kitchen abilities (as opposed to their call-Pagliacci-abilities). The cover says it all:

"This book's premise is based on the simple truth that women like to see a guy put forth a little effort."

And it's true: women do. (Or at least, Elaine did.)

The book is divided into five core sections of recipes (Red Meat, White Meat, Sea Meat, No Meat, Desserts) with a liberal sprinkling of advice about wine, music, and how to clean your apartment before your date arrives:

"When you're having a woman over for dinner, a clean home/apartment is of the utmost importance. We really can't stress this enough. If your place looks gross, it probably is gross. And if your place is gross, your guest may conclude that you are gross and that your cooking, therefore, must also be gross. Don't let this happen to you!"

I had a lot of fun picking the recipe, selecting "Linguine with Tomato Concasse & Basil Chiffonade, Caesar Salad, & Pesto-Parmesan Crostini" (aka, Tomato-basil pasta, salad, and toast). I had fun shopping for the ingredients. And you know what? I had fun making the meal, too.

So many firsts in one evening: first time making homemade Caesar dressing, first time making homemade pasta sauce, first time dealing with the timing of three different dishes while chopping, de-seeding and seasoning to taste. The whole shootin' works took about an hour, start to finish, and tasted pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

So now I'm jazzed about cooking. The experiment was so successful - Lane really flipped - that I'm planning to do another one once we're all moved in to the new place.

Anyone wanna be a guinea pig?

(And seriously, fellas - get the book. Trust me.)

Posted by Gavin Shearer at April 24, 2007 9:50 PM. Posted to Cool.

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Posted by: Teri at April 25, 2007 4:38 PM

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