My wife says my cooking is like Netflix. Here’s why.

This is NOT a complaint about Netflix that I’m posting to a cooking subreddit. My wife and I are both night owls who love to cook but have different styles. I’m a “project” cook who likes to mess around with recipes that take some time, like a soufflé, prime rib, or homemade pasta. She’s an “everyday” cook who makes hearty meals that are easy to put together, like stir-fries, braises, or a chicken/salad/shepherd’s pie. We both enjoy cooking and value our time in the kitchen. We both produce great food that we love to eat. But we both have different “speeds”.<br><br>This is all fine, but there are some downsides. If I’m cooking, she will finish her meal and head to bed. If she’s cooking, I won’t be hungry until she’s asleep. We both really miss having a dinner together. We were thinking of ways to fix this. I thought maybe I could make the “project meal” earlier in the day and serve it at night. I was a bit hesitant, because I always felt that you eat when you’re hungry. It was just something we never did.<br><br>One night I decided to make carbonara when I got home from work. It was an especially “project-y” recipe because I made the pasta and the guanciale from scratch. After I finished, I put it in the refrigerator and went to bed. The next night I heated it up, and it was honestly still really delicious. It was such a nice feeling having dinner together. We decided to do this a few nights a week, and it ended up working really well. After work, I’ll make dinner. Then I’ll portion it, cool it, and put it in an airtight container. At night, we just throw it in a pan with a bit of water, and it’s still really tasty. I was surprised that soups like creamy broths and stews actually hold up pretty well, too.<br><br>I think the most important thing we learned is that it’s better to eat together than to eat when you’re hungry. Maybe this isn’t a revelation for everyone, but for us it was. I’ve always believed that you should eat when you’re hungry. Keep yourself satisfied. Don’t wait until night. But I’m now convinced that eating together every night is more important than eating when you’re hungry. My wife and I have always been an odd couple, but we were starting to feel like Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. When we started eating together, we started talking together. We were more connected. Which brings me to Netflix.<br><br>My wife was joking that my cooking is like Netflix. We don’t watch Netflix anymore because Netflix changed how it delivered its content. In the past, you got a bunch of shows and movies all at once. Maybe you didn’t want to watch them right away, but you could watch them whenever you wanted. Now Netflix releases a few episodes of a show at a time. Once you finish those episodes, you have to wait a month to watch the next few. My wife and I got so annoyed by this. We’d finish the first few episodes of a show, but then forget what happened by the time the next few episodes came out. We’d have to watch the first few episodes again to remember what was happening. Or we’d finish a show, and we couldn’t remember what happened in the first few episodes. It’s frustrating, and we don’t enjoy watching Netflix anymore.<br><br>She said that’s like what happens when I cook. I make something delicious. A month later I promise to make it again, but then I never do. It’s frustrating, because she was really looking forward to that dish. And when I do eventually promise to make it again, I might not remember what I did the first time, and it won’t come out as good. She was joking, but there was a lot of truth to what she said. Once I started cooking earlier in the day, I was able to make some dishes that I never would have had time for at night. It’s nice to have a mix of both Netflixes and DVDs.<br><br>Sorry if this was too long. I might have overdone it on the subject, but Netflix is a big part of the story. I thought this was an interesting perspective on cooking. Maybe some of you have experienced it. Maybe some of you haven’t. I still think that food should be eaten when it’s fresh, but I learned that sometimes it’s more important to eat together. This has been a really valuable lesson for me, and I hope it can be helpful to someone else.<br><br>Edit: This was a tough one to title, because it’s a pretty nuanced concept. I really wish I could convey it better. I don’t want to imply that I’m surprised Netflix releases its episodes slowly. This I fully expected. What I’m saying is that I was surprised at how much this would bother us. We honestly hadn’t noticed it before, but Netflix was always releasing episodes slowly. When we did finally notice, we had such a strong negative reaction to it. I was truly amazed at how much we disliked this new format. And I was just as amazed as to why we disliked it so much. It really didn’t seem like a big deal until we experienced it firsthand.