As the Mild Fiancée likes to remind me, I am a rule follower. Sure, there are minor deviations here and there, like jaywalking. But for the most part, I read instructions, follow directions, and color within the lines. It's served me well enough all these years, so it's just how I roll.
The Mild Fiancée, however, is not as rigid about the rule following. In fact, that's why it came up in the first place: I expressed some concern about not following the rules exactly, and she proclaimed, in semi-exasperation, that I was a such a rule follower. I don't even remember what the discussion was at that point, but I do remember the subsequent commentary. It had that distinct ring of truth to it, and I could only nod along.
One of the places where this starts to show itself is when we cook. We like to try new recipes (like that healthy mac n cheese recipe from a while back), so that means we're often reading ingredient lists or watching some YouTube video for what to do. As a rule follower, I tend to do what the instructions tell me to do. That goes doubly so because some of those recipes tone down the spices in an effort to appeal to more people. That's right up me and my matabang cooking's alley.
You can probably guess where this is going: the Mild Fiancée, having much more experience in the kitchen than I do, can often tell in advance when the dish is missing something. Much like my mom's intuition allowed her to declare a recipe from a Chinese cookbook had been translated incorrectly, the Mild Fiancée can tell that the recipe needs more onions, or less cream, or some other alteration to the recipe. She's almost always right about these things, because, again, she has skills.
Me being me, though, I always poke fun about her breaking the rules. In fact, I've taken to calling her a rebel without a cause because of all these adjustments to recipes. She usually has two retorts when this comes up. One is that I cook the food all matabang anyway. I've already written about that one, but basically she says that I don't stray enough from the recipe when it's warranted (there is quite a bit of truth to this, for the record). The second common retort, though, is my favorite: "no, I'm a rebel with a palette." She spit it right out, too, with no hesitation whatsoever. You should've seen me laugh (incidentally, the fact that she can make me laugh like that is quite closely related to why we're engaged).
Rebel with a palette, indeed (I actually thought about making that the title of this post, but I didn't want to ruin the punch line).
The Mild Fiancée, however, is not as rigid about the rule following. In fact, that's why it came up in the first place: I expressed some concern about not following the rules exactly, and she proclaimed, in semi-exasperation, that I was a such a rule follower. I don't even remember what the discussion was at that point, but I do remember the subsequent commentary. It had that distinct ring of truth to it, and I could only nod along.
One of the places where this starts to show itself is when we cook. We like to try new recipes (like that healthy mac n cheese recipe from a while back), so that means we're often reading ingredient lists or watching some YouTube video for what to do. As a rule follower, I tend to do what the instructions tell me to do. That goes doubly so because some of those recipes tone down the spices in an effort to appeal to more people. That's right up me and my matabang cooking's alley.
You can probably guess where this is going: the Mild Fiancée, having much more experience in the kitchen than I do, can often tell in advance when the dish is missing something. Much like my mom's intuition allowed her to declare a recipe from a Chinese cookbook had been translated incorrectly, the Mild Fiancée can tell that the recipe needs more onions, or less cream, or some other alteration to the recipe. She's almost always right about these things, because, again, she has skills.
Me being me, though, I always poke fun about her breaking the rules. In fact, I've taken to calling her a rebel without a cause because of all these adjustments to recipes. She usually has two retorts when this comes up. One is that I cook the food all matabang anyway. I've already written about that one, but basically she says that I don't stray enough from the recipe when it's warranted (there is quite a bit of truth to this, for the record). The second common retort, though, is my favorite: "no, I'm a rebel with a palette." She spit it right out, too, with no hesitation whatsoever. You should've seen me laugh (incidentally, the fact that she can make me laugh like that is quite closely related to why we're engaged).
Rebel with a palette, indeed (I actually thought about making that the title of this post, but I didn't want to ruin the punch line).
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