They were young newlyweds, but he was already wise enough to be quiet.

She grew up a daddy’s girl, a tomboy in every way. She could fish, feed cows, bail hay, but at the time, she couldn’t make toast in a toaster to save her life!

She decided to make her groom a special supper of some of his favorite foods, including cabbage.  She’d never eaten cabbage before, much less cooked it.  Nonetheless, she wanted to be a “good wife” and learn how.

In life, hindsight is always 20/20.  Looking back now she laughs saying she should’ve asked a few questions, read a recipe, something!  But then again, how hard could it be to cook cabbage?

She carefully picked through the heads of cabbage at the grocery store.  Trouble was, she was actually buying a head of iceberg lettuce!

Cabbage comes in a head, that much she knew, so it made perfect sense to her to cook the “cabbage” by boiling the whole head, without cutting it, in the biggest pot she could find.

She started boiling it at Noon. Surely it would be done by supper if she boiled it on high all afternoon!?

The next four hours the head of lettuce bubbled away on high. No salt. No seasoning. No butter. No nothing. Just a head of iceberg lettuce boiling in tap water!

When her husband came home from work, she was so excited to express her love in such a tangible way!  She had worked hard on this meal, and not just any meal, this was his favorite things meal!!

She greeted her handsome husband with a smile, kiss and … a peculiar smell.

The young bride was antsy to show off her home cooking and proudly displayed the fruit of her labor.

As she told him all about the feast she prepared, which showcased his favorite, boiled “cabbage”, amusement, wrapped in a blanket of love, twinkled from his eyes!

Sounds like a “recipe” for disaster, right?

Not. At. All!

He didn’t laugh. He didn’t scoff. He didn’t tease. Didn’t make fun. He ate it!

In fact, he didn’t tell her for months that she had boiled lettuce, not cabbage! He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and besides, you never know where a good idea for a new dish may come from!

On the other hand, the night she cooked “cabbage” for the first time she decided she would try it too.  She didn’t like cabbage, at all. Not one teensy bit!

One night not long after that she opened a can of corn and dumped it in a boiling pot. She put black pepper on it, but couldn’t see it, so she put in more. You can’t see black pepper in a boiling pot, but after half a can, she began to see a little!

He tried his best to eat the corn too, but just couldn’t do it!

They laugh about it now, and in the midst of snorting laughter, she added that one night early in their marriage he had to go to the emergency room with stomach problems!

The doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  Her husband knew!

That was 37 years ago….

We were traveling with six other couples last week when she told her cooking story.  With great gusto, she laughed the entire way through, causing everyone else to slap their knee and laugh hysterically with her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her husband smiling as she told the story. He quietly sipped a cup of coffee with amusement still twinkling in his eyes, wrapped more deeply than ever in a blanket of love!

Her sense of humor made me laugh. His sense of wisdom made me smile.

That’s the real deal! Not even boiled lettuce can fake that kind of cabbage!