I aim to become a tolerable cook

   

Pork Tenders with Corn Salsa, from "Cooking for Two" by JoAnna Lund.

    My husband and I will be married 33 years at the end of this month and for 99 percent of this time, he's been the Chief Cook and I have been the Bottle Washer.

    I happily clean up, most anytime and anything. Steve loves to cook, watches several shows on the Food Network, and slowly browses the aisles when in grocery stores. His interest in food is several times higher than mine. In fact, his grandmother had a restaurant at one time in Wilton, Iowa.

    Several weeks ago he announced he's a bit tired of cooking. Well! It is 2020, a year where we have been home for a record number of days. After hem-hawing for some time, and listening to comments from my spouse on needing a break, I finally looked up my cookbooks (yes, I own several!).

    I settled on "Cooking for Two" by JoAnna Lund, a Healthy Exchanges cookbook out of DeWitt, Iowa.     

    So far this is the best thing I've found for two empty-nesters who try to eat well and healthfully.

    The 2006 book contains soups, salads, vegetable combos, side dishes, and main dishes. There are desserts, for two, and imaginative ideas on a duo dining experience. 

    I suggest anyone in our position in life to look up this book and purchase it.

    My aim is to come up with four, or so, recipes, that I can easily make about once a week. So far, Steve really enjoys the dishes that use 4-ounce pork tenderloins. Recently we had Pork Tenders with Corn Salsa, and he raved about the meal. 

    Cooking, for me, is a lot more fun when it's successful!

    One not-so-successful main dish was a combination of black beans and white rice. This is not in Lund's cookbook, but it does combine two items that I really like. Unfortunately Steve announced he does not like black beans, and I didn't remember that he also doesn't like white rice. 

    That meal was not a success! (However, I had leftovers for lunch a few days.)

    I do like to take on challenges, and to succeed when possible. I also stay busy keeping the house very, very clean during this COVID-19 year. 

    I wasn't too excited about adding cooking to my daily duties but it's growing on me ... with the help of a fine cookbook author who died in 2006. This "Cooking for Two" might well be her last cookbook.

    Would you like to learn more about the entrepreneurial Lund? Following is an excerpt from a story by Alma Gaul, printed in a 2007 edition of the Quad-City Times titled: "Lund to sell 'Healthy Exchanges' business to employee." 

JoAnna Lund began her (Healthy Exchanges) newsletter in 1992, after a nearly 100-pound weight loss brought on by a life-changing crisis. About a year earlier, she had sent her daughter, son-in-law and son off to service during the Persian Gulf War, and she realized she either could drown her worries in doughnuts or pray for the strength to eat healthy.

She began developing low-fat, low-sugar recipes that even Cliff (her husband) enjoyed eating. In late 1991, she self-published a cookbook, and she launched the newsletter several months later. That led to a multifaceted, wildly successful and highly improbable business.

Through the years, Lund created a line of spices; opened and then closed a restaurant and catering business; landed a multi-book deal with G.P. Putnam’s Sons of New York that led to about 30 books; was seen by millions on the QVC shopping network selling cookbooks; appeared on two Public Broadcasting System cooking shows; conducted countless live cooking demonstrations for groups and led tours, along with Cliff, to travel destinations.

Many times, Lund said, she had to pinch herself to believe that it was all happening to a housewife from DeWitt. But it didn’t happen by accident. Lund was a self-described workaholic who had a strong faith in God and was never afraid to promote her business.

Steve and I in the National Petrified Forest, Arizona.