My Observations on Men & Cooking and Dad's Coffeecake Recipe

I have observed several different attitudes that men have about cooking:

1. A feigned or real ignorance - "Just bring me a plate."
2. Keep an omniscient distance - They think they know all about it and they'll tell you what you're doing wrong, but they won't be trapped into doing it.
3. Grill Master - It's like a Broadway production, the man and his grill have to be center stage, but he won't cook a thing in a kitchen. 
4. As needed - he will cook if he needs to and sometimes just because he wants to.

#4 is the most balanced, I think, and is the attitude of most of the men I know. And it's usually these men who have a secret talent for cooking!

My dad has always been a #4. He cooked for us because it was usually just the 2 of us. He has his specialties like creamed chip beef on toast (he was in the Navy and they called it SOS - *hit on a shingle). I would eat my weight in it on Saturday mornings! He was always on a quest to make peach cobbler just like his mother. After trial and error, he finally found a cobbler pan and was satisified that he had mastered it.

When I visited him, I took some fresh blueberries and he taught me how to make this simple coffee cake, though it's not really like a cake at all.

2 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
2 cans of crescent rolls
sugar (amount depends on how sweet you want it. Add, taste, adjust.)
fresh fruit of choice

Cream the cream cheese and sugar together.

Roll one can of crescent roll dough into the bottom of an ungreased shallow pan. I used metal because I was taking it to some friends.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough. Then layer the fresh fruit over the cream cheese.

Finally roll the second roll of dough on top of the blueberries. I tried to seal up the seams but it didn't work very well. I sprinkled a little sugar on the dough to give it a bit of sparkle. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

It was good, everyone enjoyed it.