Dinners, past, present, and... future?

• I love to cook!! One of the many things I've learned from my amazing Mother-in-law is how to cook for a crowd... Today I am making short ribs for two. I have a large slow cooker and the four small ribs look pathetic floating alone in the pot. Part of moving forward, for me, is learning how to change my recipes to accommodate just the two of us. 

• Flashback
The first year of our marriage I was just so excited to cook for two. My mother never let me near our kitchen at home and although I wanted to learn to cook, for me it was on the job training. Salads for two, baked potatoes, broiled steaks and even dessert. This was short lived though, mostly because of morning sickness that, for me, lasted all day. 

• The following Christmas, with baby in arms, we went to the in-law's home for dinner. Talk about intimidating! Appetizers included stuffed artichoke hearts, something I had never heard of before but my husband grew up with them (only at holidays of course... very Italian.  There were  a number of other appetizer bites that would take too long to list. Did I mention that I am not Italian and had at that time had a very limited access to foods of other cultures? We did, however, have our own dishes growing up that no one but another French Canadian would recognize, but that is another story. Back to that Christmas... When it was time to sit down to dinner, first course was homemade chicken noodle soup. Yummy!! Next came out the lasagna. Hmmm, is this what Italians eat at Christmas?!?!? Oh no, next came out the turkey and ALL the fixings and I'm already full!!! Room for dessert anyone???? I don't want to offend my new family, sure give me some.  

• Flash forward

Today, I laugh at that memory as I have hosted many of those same large dinners in my own home. Today I am learning to cook all over again, experimenting with spices and flavors, stripping it down for two. Here we go again... am I getting too old for this? I don't think so.