29 Jul
Spousal Quirks
When you only date for a year (which is quite a long time by Mormon standards) there are a lot of personality quirks and interesting preferences bound to be discovered in a new spouse. And bad habits. Oh the bad habits to be corrected in each other. Let’s talk about bad habits another time though, instead we’ll keep it light and happy with a focus on quirks and preferences.
That Husband is Polish, as you know and I like to blame his preferences on his nationality. Like how he doesn’t like me wearing red heels to church. Or the red lipstick I wore to That Sister’s wedding. Or driving with the top down because of the way it makes his eyes feel. Are those preferences due to the fact that the spent the first 19 years of his life in Poland? I’m not sure, but it sure is convenient to pretend it is.
Along with those preferences come the quirks. One of my quirks involves keeping a toothbrush and toothpaste in the shower, because I like feeling clean top to bottom whenever I step out of the bath.
One of his funniest quirks involves evaporated milk. But not just any kind of evaporated milk, Polish evaporated milk. Those Poles like their evaporated milk so much that they put it in a tube like a toothpaste tube and serve it up like candy. I’m not even joking. I don’t have a picture of it, but please imagine husband with a green and white tube in hand allowing me to place a single drop on my tongue. He likes it a whole lot so he’s usually only willing to share a few drops with me, unless I can claim to love it as much as he does. And I most definitely don’t love it. It’s not the taste, it’s the thought that I’m eating evaporated milk, which really freaks me out.
When we went to Poland over Christmas he brought home an entire can of the stuff.
And then proceeded to eat it with a spoon.
I love these little quirks of his, and tease him about them endlessly. What funny little things do you love most about your spouse?
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
My husband and I dated for 4 years before we got married and I am still learning new things about him on a daily basis. We often argue (jokingly) over the best way to fold a t-shirt, as if it really matters! I love that he makes tea every morning before going to work and leaves the kettle on the stove with a little water in it for me. I never use it, but he says it will save me a few steps if I ever change my mind and decide to make tea one day (which I probably never will and he knows it).
1this is so funny! my husband can’t sit still while on his phone. he paces from room to room incessantly - good thing we don’t have a huge house or lots of land - I may never find him again!
Cecy Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
My Dad loves it too, we call it “lait concentré sucré” at home. (Sweetened concentrated milk). I’m not a huge fan but back when I hiked in the mountains overnight with my dad I loved it in my tea in the morning or as a quick sugar fix for energy Nestle makes it in toothpaste like tube there too.
Quirks from him: talking about produces from home he refuses to buy anything but Sourwood honey and preferably from the store his best friend work at in their hometown.
He is a bit ocd and he is always cleaning up behind me, as in always.
And same as someone above he cannot be on the phone without pacing around like a tiger in a cage.
My quirks? Whenever I cook with flour you can be sure I’ll end up with some on my face.
I can never put something at the same place, so I’m always looking for my sunglasses, keys and who knows what else.
Wait….is that evaporated milk, or condensed milk? It looks pretty thick. Either way … it looks gross! Polish men and their quirks!
We’ve talked about this before … but my husband LOVES Kogel mogel which I think is horrifying.
3It’s an Eastern European thing. *shudders*
Ask TH if he likes “kefir”. I think it is a Russian thing, but I’m sure it’s around Poland too.
October12 Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I think kefir extends to other places as well. The Hoobs is half-egyptian (first nine years were spent in Cairo) and he digs the stuff. His mom used sweetened condensed milk in her coffee while they lived there, and to this day he will drink it out of the can if there is any in the house. It’s cute.
Kelli Nicole Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I LOVE kefir. I just discovered it last year but I drink it all the time for breakfast or put granola in it. It’s just like a yogurt drink.
Milk grosses me out so the evaporated milk is a whole other story.
Sean has tons of quirks. He has all of his highlighters lined up in a row and they have to be in a certain order. Everything has to be perfectly clean and he randomly stretches or does swats in the house. It’s really funny.
5You would get along with my husband in regards to the toothbrush thing - he also brushes his teeth in the shower (even flosses!). All of a sudden, his funny quirks are completely escaping me…I’ll post one as soon as a good one comes to me. He definately has them!
6Blech, I don’t like regular milk, much less milk you can eat with a spoon
7The way he folds laundry….nothing is ever turned right-side out and it’s more like a structured wad. It cracks me up. The best is the reverent way he treats the 65 mustang that lives in our basement. He speaks to it as if it were a horse, “easy girl” “whoa girl”, etc. etc. etc.
8hmmm… here’s something that makes me laugh every time i see it, but it’s been going on for years.
my hubby has course hair which he keeps cut veeery short. whenever he gets out of the shower and has time, he puts on a beanie (ya know, like you would wear in the snow) b/c he is convinced that wearing it makes his hair lay flat and not get poufy. which i find hilarious - i mean his hair is only like a 1/4 of an inch long anyways!
9that looks more like sweeten condensed milk
10This is too funny! Does he also open his cans from the bottom? I have a coworker that also loves evaporated milk and recently found her a squeeze bottle (which I found highly disgusting) of it at a Hispanic grocery store.
I’m getting married in a few month and really curious what sort of things pop up once we live together! I’ve already been warned about his sorting habits and he’s highly aware of my inability to ever close a cabinet. I’m sure there will be lots of surprises!
11I think your husband is eating “condensed milk” and not evaporated milk. We have Eagle Brand here in the states that is very good. My father’s family (Germans) used it on oatmeal. You should bake “Seven Layer Bars” for him, an easy cookie square recipe using condensed milk. If he loves condensed milk, he will love this dessert.
12Hmmm…I didn’t run into the evaporated milk thing when I went to Poland last summer. I did try and make smores, though (took us FOREVER to find something that resembled marshmallows) and they all refused to eat them.
They don’t know what they are missing
13I don’t know if I’ve ever had evaporated milk.
Once of Mr. Bean’s quirks is that he has to wash all plastic bags. I know it’s more environmentally friendly and cheaper to reuse bags, but after it’s been used twice, I throw it out. Whoops!
14My husband eats cereal without milk. Eww! So dry and bland.
15He also cannot use a Q-tip dry. He has to wet it first.
Dry cereal; wet Q-tips. I suppose somewhere this all makes sense. Not to me though. :o)
I’m still trying to understand the male need to cover every open counter space with something no matter how trivial it is.
Even if it’s just a bag that could be tossed my husband would much rather it sit on a once open and clean counter than put it away. I’m working on the theory that it’s a way to claim his territory and am going to get a few of those little flags they put in cupcakes to test this theory.
16I also think that looks like condensed milk, rather than evaporated milk. Unless this is one of those nationality things, where what you call evaporated milk IS what I call condensed milk (just like USa pancakes are not our pancakes). Anyway, my sister and I used to get tins of condensed milk and eat it with spoons, or (even better) cut a hole in the top with a tin opener and suck it out. Mmmmmm. I must admit it’s got a bit sweet for me lately, though. And it totally freaks my husband out if I do it!
I could also eat evaporated milk with a spoon. It’s less sweet, but quite rich, and is best when beaten up foamy and mixed with jelly. Jell-o. That.
I know I have quirks (yay for teeth-brushing in the shower! I even got my Dad doing it) but I can’t think of any of hubby’s right now (being untidy doesn’t count, I suppose).
17That is funny. I’d have to say a funny quirk of my husband is that he cannot for the LIFE of him put the blender away completely. He gets protein shakes every single morning and he will wash out the blender and then set it, upside down, tilted out (just so if it falls it can crash onto the floor). I have given up years ago getting him to actually DRY and set it on the motor. I used to even put the blender away. Yeah, I don’t do that anymore. LOL
18Oh my gosh, that makes me feel like gagging just looking at it!
19Lol, that totally cracked me up.
20try it on toast, yum. It’s totally an eastern european thing. In the US, you can buy it in the grocery store as sweetened condensed milk, I don’t think evaporated milk in the US has all the tasty sugar. Kinda like Mexican dulce de leche candies. Yum. Oooh, now I want tres leches cake….
21I don’t think I could handle sweetened condensed milk straight-up, either. But here are 2 tasty uses: (1) mixed with iced coffee, like the “Thai iced coffee” they serve in Thai/Vietnamese restaurants; (2) on graham crackers.
I have a really tasty recipe similar to the bars that Lindy mentioned and have been meaning to dig it up …. if I do, will be sure to email it your way!
22I’m Polish and that’s the first I’ve ever heard of an evaporated milk fetish. I think it’s one of TH’s lovable quirks.
23He leaves the dish cleaning brush in the sink to dry- I keep moving it to the sink ledge after him, but it just winds back up in the sink!
24And he always cleans the counter top with a sponge- I think it is not the cleanest way to get the countertop clean.
For me-> he crinkles his nose when I don’t put the cap on the toothpaste, or that I leave a little pile of my clothes on the bathroom floor. Always. But we love each other despite these quirks! :o)
Aw, this is such a cute post!
How much does TH eat of the can? Does he eat the whole thing?! I like condensed milk but only a little with my coffee.
25are you sure it’s not sweetened-condensed milk? That stuff is oh so good. It’s syrupy like your picture, too. The only evaporated milk I’ve ever used has the consistency of regular milk… :-/
26Oh there are so many: ice in milk, his obsession with picking up anything that is out of place in the morning (he can’t even talk to me with something out of place…his mind wanders to “must.put.away.shoes.” He sleeps on top of the covers and he likes to let the dog sleep in bed with him on Christmas Eve (which was interesting this first married Christmas as we have a 75 pound dog). He also loves to throw things away when he doesn’t know what they are (it’s a lintbrush, honey!) and puts anything of mine that is sitting out in one drawer where I will certainly never find it again. But thinking of all of that makes me smile!
27I seriously thought (after watching Martha Stewart cook ribs with liquid smoke!) that you would have evaporated milk over there. They sell tubes here too..and they’re yummy!
Mind you they also sell Vegemite in tubes but nobody would be eating that straight!
28I’m Polish and I do love sweetened condensed milk. I don’t eat it straight up though (ahem, anymore…). Really, you should try the 7 layer bars - yum, yum, yum.
Your husband is activating one of MY quirks, though. Why on earth would anyone open a can from the bottom? I only open packages right-side up. Although I can conceptualize that it makes absolutely no difference, it still makes me crazy to see someone open a bag of chips from the bottom.
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