If you go to a restaurant and . . . .

. . . . they brought your food out and your meat was dripping in grease and your veggies were hard like they cooked them with no liquid then when you took a bite of your food there was little to no seasoning on anything, what would you do? Would you just eat it and not say a thing or would you send it back to the kitchen?

I ran into that very scenario Sunday. My wife and I alternate cooking nights. She'll cook one day and I'll cook the next. This way neither of us as to do all the cooking. Yes, there is a major difference between how my wife and I cook or prepare meals. She's gonna do the bare minimum just to get it done. I like prepping the day before making sure I have everything I need and will even start working on the meal. I have never in my life seen someone who just doesn't care about anything. It was my wife's turn to cook this past Sun.
Now in the past when it's her turn to cook on Sundays that's usually one of our bigger meals of the week and while we're out on Sat I'll ask "hey, what do you have planned for dinner tomorrow" or "do you have everything you need for dinner?" That's usually met with "I'm so sick and tired or you asking me that, don't worry about what I'm cooking." Even when it's my turn to do a Sun meal I'm already thinking about it the Mon prior because I know I want to do something different or extra. All that week I'm checking our cabinets to see what we have and making sure I have all the ingredients so come Sat I can get what we need if we don't have it. AND, I'll even start prepping my meal on Sat night. Chopping veggies and putting them in Tupperware bowls so that's one less thing I'll have to do on Sun, or even seasoning up whatever meat I plan to cook and sticking it in the fridge. Again, that' sjust me and how I do things. In no way am I saying that everyone has to do it the way I do it. Well, this past Sat we had a meeting at church for a few hours then we went and picked up one of the grandbabies and did a little running around. Even ended up at Walmart. I didn't open my mouth. Then Sunday morning came and we were getting ready for church. Around 9 AM my wife takes a big pack of thick cut pork chops out of the freezer and sat them in a sink full of water. Mind you, these are thick cut pork chops. When we got home from church she fixes dinner and brings me my plate. I looked down at the pork shops and you know how when you fry them the ends tend to turn up sort of creating a bowl. I looked at the pork chops and grease was pooling right in the middle of the meat. I looked at the peas and they were so dry and shriveled up like raisins. The only descent thing was the corn on the cob. I guess it's hard to screw up corn on the cob. I literally take the pork chops and stand it up on end and grease was just pouring out onto my plate. I took the plate back to the kitchen and asked my wife did she drain it or at least sit it on a paper towel before fixing my plate. She said no. She just took them straight out of the deep frier and put it on my plate. Then I asked about the peas, which were a bag of frozen peas I had in the freezer and asked her if she put any water in the pot. They were so tough and rubbery. She said no but she cooked them for 7 minutes per the instructions on the bag. When you open a can of peas aren't they floating in water? I guess my wife thought since they were frozen there's enough water in them so that would be fine. But to cook a bag of frozen peas per the instructions on the bag to me is totally ridiculous. Then when she patted the pork dry I cut into it and the meat was still pink in the middle. I guess she had the deep fryer on it's highest setting so when the outside was nice and brown she took it out of the grease thinking the center was done too. I've heard of people having the pan so high until the outside burns before the center is done. I took a bite and it was so bland, no flavor. I asked her what spices she used and she wouldn't tell me but she did say the seasoned the flour. Ok, so the flour was seasoned but not the meat. It pissed her off that I even questioned her cooking but this is what set her off. I told her that you can't take pork out of the freezer at 9 AM that morning thinking it's gonna be seasoned and ready to eat by 1:30 PM. I told her cooking isn't hard to do but you need to plan and take your time. I told her she should have taken the meat out the freezer Sat morning to thaw out. Season them Sat night then bread them Sun and slow fry them in a pan on the stove and not the deep fry them on high. No, she's not going to do that because that means she's gotta think about food all the time. Last week I made arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). I prepped that a week in advance. Looking at recipes, making sure I had all my spices, buying what we didn't have. And it turned out really well. I have to cook this coming Sun and I'm already thinking about what I plan on making. Thinking takes little to no time. You can do that in while the commercials are playing on your favorite show, or while sitting at the stop light. Her feelings were hurt so bad until these words came out of her mouth, "do you want a divorce?" Really? Divorcing over pork chops! But I guess the real reason is her not knowing what to do and then having someone else tell her what to do or even just show her or make suggestions on how to do it differently the next time.

Yes, I love cooking and throwing things together. When I was a single dad I had to cook for both me and my daughter or we'd starve so that was just a part of who I was. My wife, on the other hand, would rather just pull out her card and go get fast food every night. Cooking is not her thing. However, she refuses to take anyone's (my) advice on how to do things simply because she is a woman and feel that as a woman you don't question her on her cooking. When she does cook a meal and has to chop anything she'll usually have me do that because she hates chopping veggies or anything that involves using a knife. There have been many of times I'd go in the kitchen and she was stirring one of our teflon pans with a big metal spoon and I'll hand her a wooden one and she gets pissed off because now I'm telling her how to cook. I wasn't, I just didn't want the teflon pan scrapped up with the metal spoon. That's wat the wooden ones are for. My wife didn't even know we had a food processor even though it's one of the biggest things sitting about 3 feet from the stove on our counter. Several years ago she had a pot luck on her job and she wanted to make some sort of corn casserole and the directions said to puree the corn in a food processor or blender, which we have also. I walked into the kitchen and my wife had the corn in the bowl of our Kitchenaid mixer with the whisk attachment installed and was wondering why it wasn't doing anything. This is how my wife thinks. When I asked her why she was using the mixer this was her answer. "Because I just wanted to use it."

I'm a firm believer in someone staying in their lane. If you know more about a particular thing I'm doing and you offer your advice or help I'm not going to argue with you about it. I'm going to listen and take the advice. That way the next time I'll know a little more on that topic. My wife argues with you on everything and doesn't like being told what to do.

So again, my original question: If you go to a restaurant and receive bad food do you send it back or do you just eat it and not say a word? And with that being said, do you not tell your spouse when something they cook is not that good or do you again just keep your mouth shut and eat it?