Shoutout


Honey's traveling a bunch lately: nine weeks out of 11. Since his work starts at 6 AM and mine ends at 11 PM, actual talking can be haphazard. When I got out of work at 11 and saw that his last call was 40 minutes prior, I assumed that Honey was asleep.


When I was at GSU, we didn't get to spend much time together. My decision to work in the kitchen rather than the newsroom meant that our catch-as-catch-can lifestyle didn't end with my graduation. I wasn't exactly evasive about this: every time Honey praised my cooking, my ambition, or my dedication I was quick to remind him that we wouldn't have Friday date nights, I wouldn't be home to make a hot meal during the week, and I'd probably become a work-obsessed, insufferable grinch. And yet we're still together.


About two years ago, we decided to go modest with our birthday gifts for each other: we went to Borders, and he gave me a choice between On Cooking and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. I can't remember exactly why, but I picked OFaC, and have been calling it the Bible ever since. And for 18 months, he patiently put aside what he was doing so I could read him whatever excerpt was enlightening me at the time.


I read it cover to cover. The knowledge demystified so much of cooking for me, and I'm occasionally surprised by how much I can recall. When I posted the link to the Menu for Hope 4 earlier today, I was thinking of wine, Vosges chocolates, salumi, and other hedonistic little things. I saw the lunch with Harold McGee, and dinner with Heston Blumenthal, but figured the demand would be so great for prizes like those that my paltry $10 ticket stood next to no chance of winning. I figured I'd give myself a day or two to think it over, and see what I still wanted.


When I got home, I saw this message in my inbox:

"I saw your blog post on my Google Reader. I donated $100 - and all of the raffle tickets were to get you to lunch with Mr McGee. If you win I'll worry about the plane ticket to San Francisco then (I want to go too) :) We'll see January 9th. Otherwise, the UN World Food Programme has an extra hundred dollars on our account."

Then he called, and we got to chat for 30 whole minutes.

So I'm giving a shoutout to Honey, who puts up with this insanity and encourages it, apparently just because it makes me happy. I couldn't ask for anyone better.