Not just for the guys in the locker room, but for me too. For months, I’d been trying to win over my girlfriend’s dad. I cracked jokes. I shoveled snow off. I even covered the bill one evening at dinner, and nothing! I was racking my brain when it finally hit me… it was so simple, how had I not thought of it before?

I arrived at his house for the Big Game with a cast iron pan, a bag of his favorite tortilla chips, and all the fixin’s for my Mom’s famous Grilled Cast Iron Nachos. It was halftime when I pulled them off the grill. Minutes later, I saw him hovering over the skillet, peeling away layer after layer of cheesy nachos–the same way I was peeling away layer after layer of his cold outer shell. He still didn’t speak much that day, but I could tell by the look in his eye… I had earned his respect.