Blame it on Travels in Booland

This post reminded me of...

Three years ago Mr. Spock and I watched the Nero Wolfe Mysteries every Sunday on A&E. I have read and loved many of the books and MS and I were in love with the show, which is just as clever and witty as the books. Because we got such a kick out of the cook in the series, Fritz, and his relationship with Nero Wolfe and Nero's relationship with food (a good one, Nero is one-seventh of a ton), I went looking on the web to see if the Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout and Fritz Brenner, had come back into print. It had. I bought it for MS for our sixth anniversary and was very smug about how I would surprise him by getting him something I was sure he didn't even know the existence of. On the night before our anniversary, MS apologized for the fact that the present he ordered for me would not come on time.
"I only found out about the existence of this today." he said. I felt a strange eerie sensation.
"Did you buy it from Amazon.com?" I asked.
"Yes."
"From off my wish list?"
"No." My eerie feeling grew. I knew. Beyond the shadow of a doubt I knew.
"I think we got each other the same thing" I said.
"No we didn't."
"Yes, I'm pretty sure we did."
"Fiction or non-fiction?" was the question he threw at me, like a fastball.
"Yes." I tossed back. There was a pause.
"Is one of the authors a fictional character?" tentatively.
"Yes." Giggling. I got up and ran to get the box and gave it to MS.
"Happy Anniversary to us!" We had indeed each bought the other The Nero Wolfe Cookbook.

We ate corn-on-the-cob cooked as Nero insists it should be done - in the husk in a very hot oven, served with husk and silk still on the ear. You peel back the husk and the silk just comes right off. As Nero says, "With butter and salt, nothing else, it is ambrosia".