Creamy Cheddar-Green Onion Grits with Creole-Style Shrimp

Really Domestic | Shrimp & Grits

I love Ina Garten. I love her simple yet elegant approach to cooking. I love that her laughs always come from deep within her belly, and how, despite her obvious wealth (hello brand new barn in the Hamptons!) she is so gosh-darn unpretentious. I love how she still giggles when her husband, Jeffrey,  is around, and that she dedicates every one of her cookbooks to him. On that note, I love how she is pretty much incapable of writing a bad cookbook.

Yes, Ina is my cooking idol, except for one teensy, tiny little problem: sometimes, I think she is trying to kill me.
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Ancho-Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese

Really Domestic | Ancho-Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese

My husband, Matt, is not childish. He’s steadfast, logical, and patient. Oh Lord, is he patient.

He often spends thirty minutes trying to convince me to come to bed when I’ve fallen asleep on the couch after a long week at work. Then he spends the first 30 minutes of the next morning trying to convince me to get out of that bed. We’re stuck in a very lethargic version of Groundhog Day most weekends, and where I would give up after five minutes, he keeps trying. We’ve been together for five years, and he still keeps trying. And he does this without even raising his voice. The man doesn’t even swear about it, whereas in the past I’ve cursed – probably more than once – over dropping a bobby pin.

Compared to him, I’m the poster child for childish irrationality. After all, when I’m tired, I can’t be convinced to gather up the energy to walk the fifteen steps it takes to reach our bed. And yet. And yet! He hates vegetables with a passion more commonly found among toddlers. Hates! Try to sneak just a little raw tomato into his meal and he’ll look at you like you fed him just a little arsenic.

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