Welcome, to Mike's Cooking !

This is Trish, wife of an extraordinary cook, Michael. A good friend at my workplace (a university) corrected me once when I said that Michael was a "student of food". Rather, Josh says "No, he is a scholar of food". I agree, and just like other scholars who endeavor in their field for years, Michael just keeps getting better.
Usually it's dinner. Most nights I find myself saying: "I wish ______could taste this!" Michael is fine with cooking for two, but he loves to please anyone who can taste the difference. Sometimes we are filling that blank with "Mom". Sometimes it is another relative or friend. But I am usually the only recipient of his extraordinary meals that are the culmination of his: studying countless recipes for probably hours and hours every week, buying cook books and scouring each for possibly the only 1 or 2 "good" recipes, studying websites and cooking magazines for recipes and techniques, continuously researching and updating his kitchen tool chest (pans, pots, knives, sharpeners, garlic presses, green bean Frenchers), faithfully shopping at our farmer's markets for the best produce every week for the last decade, growing all the herbs required for most dishes, growing summertime vegetables, shopping selectively for the best chicken, finding the best butcher for meats, learning where to find the best olive oil (now by internet shopping), discovering the best Italian canned tomatoes and learning where to find them locally, buying candidate bread loaves at local artisan bakeries (and using them for fresh breadcrumbs if they're not his favorite for toast or croutons), keeping several loaded lemon trees a few steps from our kitchen courtyard.....The list is so long, but we get the picture: Michael is devoted to good ingredients in good food. He doesn't have blanket disclaimers like "fresh" or "only organic" or "natural" or "gourmet". No, it just has to be "good" in his world, to qualify. He knows by reading a recipe what works. Sometimes he's fooled, but rarely. He loves to be the generator of a sigh of satisfaction, but he never gloats and doesn't expect any accolades. He is happily on a continuous quest for facilitating the eating pleasures of those he loves. Oh, and I should not forget that he does eat out, with just as much selectivity and verve that guides his cooking. Everyone knows: if you want to know where to find good food, just ask "Mike".
So, enough of the entree. This blog is to record, some of the experiences we have with Mike's cooking. My role in cooking with him is mainly being his sous chef, and washing many, many plates and pans, and also (!) frequently being the only "guest" at his table. Over the years, I have developed opinions and favorites. But they keep shifting because he grows, continuously. Here, I just want to provide a forum where others can read about his latest fantastic flavors. An occasional restaurant review may float in.