Food, life

My Husband is IBM

Lori

No the title does not mean that my husband works for IBM. Nor does it have anything to do with any sort of irritable bowl issue. According to him, IBM stands for something else.

Italian By Marriage.

My husband is as white as a white boy can be, and I’m not talking about skin color. I mean his upbringing. Please don’t tell the rest of the world though, because I worry he will be tarred and feathered for being an American white male.

Raised in a small Indiana town with a mom who mostly cooked meat and potatoes for her four sons, he wasn’t exposed to much ethnicity. When we started dating, my mom would offer to “make him a plate,” and that’s when he became hooked by Italian food and passion. I think he’s more infatuated with the whole Italian way of life than he ever has been with me.

Ever since we met, he’s wanted to learn how to cook like Italians. So, when we first moved back to my hometown, mom gave him a lesson in making pasta. Over this past weekend, he decided to take it upon himself to make ravioli from scratch.


It’s a tedious chore to do alone, so I joined him in the kitchen.


We were surprised that we didn’t get into one argument through the entire process. He’s learned well (Padawan) and didn’t need my usual bossy instructions. I kept my mouth shut as we worked, and we got along great!

My mom brought over her homemade pasta sauce, meatballs, and fried pork tenderloin for a feast on Sunday. Just like the ones I remember growing up, except football used to be in the equation (written about in my short stories).


We told my husband that after making pasta from scratch twice now, he is no longer IBM. We have deemed him officially Italian.

Shh, don’t tell him we were just humoring him. He still hasn’t learned to speak loud and jump into the middle of heated discussions to actually become one of us. But, he has begun to use our Italian sign language.


What did you do over the weekend? Was it as flavorful as mine?

 

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Published by Lori

Observer, thinker, learner, analyzer, and author. Love dogs. Enjoy cooking, laughing and spiritual centering.

25 thoughts on “My Husband is IBM”

  3. I almost missed the ravioli part of this. I think I hadn’t scrolled down far enough the first time I looked at it. I love making pasta of all kinds. Wish I could have been there to “help.”

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    1. There certainly is food that can transport us back home. Now you’ve got me curious as to those dishes you named. Thanks for sharing, Z Lady.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Yep, IBM is the term bandied about everytime another cousin, second cousin, niece, nephew, sibling, grandsomething or other gets married into the Family! I knew right away what this was gonna be about…yum!
    😉

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      1. Tons…mostly all via cooking alongside Ma, GranMa(s), Zia(s) etc….nothing written, except for my own notes. I’ve done the same with my kiddos and if we ever have grandkiddos, well…it will continue!

        A few specifics: Aunt Rose is credited for her fantastic biscotti, GranMa for most everything else, including ravioli that my own Ma specialized in, and Aunt Betty’s lasagne (even though that was more of an Italian-American thing) and of course GrandMa’s hot Calabrese sausage recipe that ended up being used in the original Geno’s Pizza chain started by my Uncle Al in Chicago during the ’50’s (it has long since changed hands as has the recipes…)
        Myriad of others as I’m sure you have a family goldmine as well.
        Mangia!

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    1. Ha. That’s great that Derek does the cooking. I really enjoy cooking and would miss it if Gary took over. However, now that he’s getting better at it, I know that when I want a break, he can take over. 🙂

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    1. Hi Carrie. I don’t eat pasta much anymore, so I save it for get-togethers with Mom. It’s always well worth it for food made from scratch. Chef Anne Burrell has the closest recipes to our homemade pasta. Her recipes are online, in case you’re ever interested. 😉

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  8. I LOVE Italian food. I didn’t have pizza until I was in high school. Spaghetti just a few years earlier. We were Austrian-Hungarian and we didn’t eat Italian at all! I still have to have some sort of pizza once a week or I go into withdrawal and pasta with sauce is one of my comfort foods! Still like the ethnic food I grew up with but branching out was good. As a matter of fact I made from scratch cabbage strudel this past weekend for a family reunion and it was fabulous!

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    1. So that’s what you made that you referred to on your blog, cabbage strudel. Seems like we both had involved, traditional cooking projects that were well-worth it over the weekend.

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  9. It was in a different way – I was at a garden party where we dined on lots of backyard and locally grown produce and steak. Quite yummy. But your husband looks experienced with the pasta machine and it also looks like you had a lovely feast. 🙂 Italians can be very expressive and I like that quality. 🙂 On the other hand, we French can be kind of snooty. 😉

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    1. Hi Lynette. Yeah, I picked up that Italian expressive gene, in case you couldn’t tell. 😉

      A garden party in that scenery where you live sounds lovely, and good, local food is nice and fresh. Glad you enjoyed your weekend.

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