OT: I'm Learning To Cook

[Carrie]

Hoop, think about this - if you were to go to a restaurant with your wife, it would take you much longer than 15 minutes to eat. Probably more like an hour. (Eating a whole meal in 15 min. isn't good for you anyway!)

So what are you doing differently?
Much of the time in a restaurant is spent eating while having great conversation. But when you're cooking at home, you usually talk *while* you're preparing the meal. So there's nothing left to talk about by the time you sit down to eat. (I'm guessing here.)

Maybe if you made the preparation & cooking time go quicker, the actual enjoyment of it would last longer. Try looking over the recipe the night or morning before and seeing if there's anything you can prepare in advance and stick in the fridge. Then you just whip it out when it's needed and add it to the mix (chopped onions & vegetables, desserts, etc) and the cooking time goes much quicker, leaving more time for conversation over dinner.

Purposefully getting the wife out of the kitchen and giving her something to do might help also, like having her straighten up the dining room, set out the nice plates, turn the lights down and light candles, get the wine ready etc.

I think it's really great that you're doing this, btw! Must be very romantic as well as fun