Above is a photo of my wife handing off “Black Bean Soup” to me midstream, as she leaves for work in the morning. With me working nights, we’ve developed a system that leverages the benefits of tag-team cooking even when we can’t work on a meal together, and, as in this case, when we don’t even see each other in the morning because our waking schedules don’t overlap.

She and I each like to cook well enough on our own, but it’s way more enjoyable cooking together. Cooking together also allows us to take on more complex recipes, in part because the total number of tasks is cut in half. And since our cooking skills and preferences are so different from one another, I usually get to trade away my least favorite culinary chores in exchange for one’s my wife despises but I enjoy.

(Recipe from Cooking, Chic Simple)