Men hear in a different language than women speak.

Any woman who has been in, or is in, a relationship, knows that men cannot hear the language that we speak to them. Whether your first language is English, Spanish, French, Arabic, etc; our men will hear something completely different.

Take, for example, this morning at my home. The phone is plugged into the electrical outlet; it's digital, has caller id, and an answering machine within it. To keep all the settings safe, if the electric goes out, there is a 9 volt battery in it. The low battery light was on:

Me - hunny, the phone needs a new battery
Hubby - the phone has a battery?
Me - yeah, in case the electric goes out, we won't lose our settings
Hubby - it's electric, why would it need a battery?
Me - *frustrated sigh* so we won't lose the settings if the electric goes out
Hubby - I don't understand, if the phone is plugged into the outlet, why would we need a battery too?
Me - $%#*&^% ((*&^%$#&^ that's why
Hubby - oh, do we have any extra batteries?
Me - look in the box labeled batteries
Hubby - we have a box full of batteries?
Me - nevermind
Hubby - don't get pissed, I'll do it sometime today, or tomorrow, or over the weekend
Me - whatever

Sound familiar? Basically, while I was speaking English, he was hearing Hebrew which is weird, since he has never learned Hebrew, nor ever really heard it; and I do not know the language myself at all. Can you feel my eyes crossing in my head as I go insane?

So, in honor of foreign languages, here's a recipe for Swiss Steak:

Swiss Steak

Ingredients:

2 lbs cubed steak
1 tsp each garlic powder, ground black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt
1/ 2 cup flour
1/3 cup canola oil or peanut oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 large onion, slivered
1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 cup beef broth

Preparation:

Season both sides of steak with garlic powder, pepper and salt; lightly dust with flour. Heat oil, on high, in a large skillet; lightly brown both sides of steak; set on paper towels to remove excess oil.

Spray a 4-5 qt crock pot with non-stick spray. Place steaks in pot with garlic, onion, bell pepper and mushrooms on top. Spread diced tomatoes evenly over vegetables; pour broth over tomatoes. Set on low; cook for 6-8 hours, until meat is very tender.

Serve over noodles or rice.

Makes 6 servings.

Mary Cokenour