I had meager cooking skills when Shane and I married in 1984. My experience consisted of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, a cake I poked holes in and poured jello over, and scrambled eggs with lots of cheese. I had no idea what we would eat after we married, but who needs food when you are in love.
For probably the first year of marriage, we had regularly scheduled weekend meal plans. Shane picked up pizza Friday nights on his way home from work, and we visited our favorite fast food restaurant for bacon cheeseburgers on Saturdays. Shane’s grandma invited us for Sunday lunch and generously sent left-overs home with us, bless her soul.
Weekday lunches worked out well for Shane and me. He worked in the town where his aforementioned grandma lived, so he ate lunch with her. My parents lived near my job, so I usually ate lunch with them. Moochers.
Thank goodness we had a home cooked meal at lunch since nightly meals were up to me. I don’t know why I bought a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook before we got married; I surely never opened it. We had received a Fry Daddy for a wedding gift. If I couldn’t fry “it” in the Fry Daddy, we would not be eating it. Oh the delicacies we consumed. It is surprising how many foods can be fried in a Fry Daddy.
In 1984, we didn’t hear how fried foods aren’t the healthiest of diet choices. It never occurred to me that fried food might not be good for us every night of the week. And when you are 20 years old, it is amazing what your stomach can endure.
Even today when I look closely into the mirror, I am reminded of the “deep frying queen” I once was. One evening as I was dropping food into the hot grease, a drop of grease popped into my eye, leaving a permanent broken vein in a red circle on the white of my left eye. It reminds me of my humble beginnings in the kitchen and how far I’ve come. I’m no professional chef but I have learned to cook and bake, and rarely fry a thing.
My husband has eaten my cooking for well over 30 years now and has yet to complain about anything I have ever cooked. God knew I needed a very patient man with a strong stomach, and thankfully, He found me one. My husband’s marriage vows could have begun with, “I take you and your Fry Daddy.”
I fondly remember the quality time I spent with my Fry Daddy, though I am happy to say we have parted ways.
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