Surprise It Is Casserole Again

Casserole, beggar’s stew. Surprise All three of these words cause my husband to cringe. When we were first married I put everything we ate into the pot on Friday. All the sweet and sour fixings from the week – corn, radishes, brown sugar. It mattered not, it went into the pot. What is this? He would ask after taking a bite that turned his face green. Casserole! I would sing out loud and proudly until he started refusing to eat casserole. Then I renamed my Friday concoction beggar’s stew. No one was begging for it, believe me. Now I call it “surprise” but he always begs me to go out on Friday nights. We have a lovely dinner, which, surprise, was my tactic all along. I just did not know it.