I was at a day-long impro workshop on Sunday when someone asked me, "Where's Jess today?" I realized how strange it would sound before I answered. "She's at home making my dinner."

Jess and I have been busy people lately, which means we haven't had much time to spice things up. In the kitchen, I mean. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Well, with a couple of days off this week, Jess took the initiative and went prowling through a couple of the cookbooks I keep on the shelf (gotta keep up appearances, you know).

Together we picked out four dishes and added all the exotic ingredients (potatoes, ooh!) to the shopping list.

On Sunday, Jess made us potato and corn chowder just like mom used to make... only with prawns. Can't say I relished the addition of seafood to a perfectly good carb-fest, but it was my nod to the adventurous spirit of the undertaking. Then on Monday night she cooked up this magnificent tortilla pie.

Look, I'm as progressively-minded a guy as you're likely to find, so yes, I'm feeling a mite guilty that Jess is suddenly cooking all the meals single-handedly. But I'm rationalizing it as a week-long celebration around my birthday. Next week, I'll be only too happy to step up at dinner time and defrost some fish sticks, or open a lovely can of chunky soup. Yum!