While it’s true that I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and the condition is fairly disabling, EDS has nothing to do with why I started cooking.
This is the real reason. This is a photograph of my husband, John, taken by me in 1993. Back then, he was my boyfriend.
My very skinny boyfriend. At 5’7 inches tall, John weighed 90 pounds–just 40 kilos.
John was not anorexic. His emaciation was partly due to Becker Muscular Dystrophy. It was also to due adolescent appetite. Shortly after this photograph was taken, we moved in together. And I began cooking.
We did not discuss division of household tasks or even how we’d deal with finances. We just tossed our collected 52 cents into the same pot and set up house. And I cooked.
Not that I had any kitchen skills to speak of. But I had an appreciative eater, the best possible motivation for a nascent cook.
Those early meals weren’t very good: pork chops or chicken breasts plastered in “bread crumbs” resembling the cardboard tube they came from, cooked to death in lakes of olive oil. I served these chops with frozen potatoes.
One evening John politely asked why I never bought fresh vegetables. A Michigan native, I knew nothing of fresh produce. Vegetables came in frozen blocks or out of cans. Bewildered, I wandered into the local market’s produce aisle, where the Brussels sprouts, all miniature cabbage perfection, caught my eye. I filled a bag, brought them back to our apartment, and consulted Joy Of Cooking. I duly trimmed, boiled, and served them with a little butter. We found them delightful.
In short order John began gaining weight. I was shocked to find I enjoyed providing the meals responsible for that gain. That the food tasted good–that is, that I had the makings of a good cook–was even more shocking, because until we moved in together, I hadn’t the faintest interest in food beyond eating it.
By the time we married, three years later, John looked like this:
photo credit: Christine Pierce
Yes, that’s a cane. Muscular Dystrophy is relentless. In 1998, John went into a wheelchair.
MD blows.
John ultimately gained 50 pounds, or 22 kilos. Today, he looks like this:
John plays and coaches a sport called power soccer–hence the jersey. It’s a form of soccer modified for power wheelchair users, and not for the faint of heart. Or their wives. He’s also an intrepid eater, a good thing since we’re a long way from fake bread crumbs and frozen vegetables.