Dead And Divine: “Tobin’s Recipe”

Growing up, every spaghetti and meatball night, at 11:30PM my uncle would get home from work and start frying up his dinner. The smell would fill every room in the house. I would literally float through the air tethered to the aroma of spaghetti and meatballs. What a midnight snack.

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Matt Tobin: Growing up, my Dad was always my role model.

Truth.Explosion.Magazine: In what ways?

MT: He was someone I aimed to be like. He was someone I looked up to in every aspect of life. Sounds cheesy, but bare with me.

TEM: That doesn’t sound cheesy, I admire people who have parents as role models.

MT: When I was around 8 my parents divorced and times were difficult. I had moved over 10 times before I hit 1st grade.

TEM: Woah, 10 times before 1st grade! I can’t even imagine! How did your dad manage?

MT: At this time in particular, my dad was building his one-man flooring business, raising two small kids and working as a sexton at a Church (although we never went). A church that I might add owned a house on its property, to which my Dad rented and we occupied for a few years.

TEM: Sounds like a busy man!

MT: My Dad was working his ass off and never really had time to cook (or had a clue how to) and there wasn’t the widest selection of food in the house and we were tired of eating the same old microwaveable dinners. So one night, my Dad took notice. Once the frozen chicken fingers and President’s Choice Cor don Bleu had become scarce, it was time to improvise.

TEM: Oh no, this sounds like it could be a disaster! What did you guys make?

MT: He tried to make the best of it, and include myself and my baby sister in cooking some makeshift meal out of whatever we had left in the house.

TEM: Well at least it’s a family activity! So what did you guys do?

MT: He grabbed a large pot, and we went to town on the cupboards. We found a couple of boxes of Kraft Dinner, some red sauce, a couple frozen bacon/cheese burgers (Burgers with friggin’ bacon & cheese IN THEM) and what cheese/little stuff was left in the refrigerator.

TEM: And mixed it all up?

MT: Yep! We tossed it all in the pot and once it was all cooked/mixed in he said “Voila! Tobin’s Recipe.”

TEM: I don’t know if that sounds delicious or disgusting.

MT: We ate the hell out of it and it was delicious.

TEM: Well then your dad sounds like he knows what he’s doing!

MT: It was that moment when I realized that I wanted to be as great of a dad as he was…quite the epiphany for an 8 year old.

TEM: Quite an epiphany indeed! Are you still close with your dad now?

MT: Yep! My dad is my best friend. Always has been and will be. Things got better, my Dad remarried and his flooring business took off – but still, every year since then, on my birthday my Dad cooks “Tobin’s Recipe” for me. I wouldn’t prefer anything else.

TEM: Aww that’s cute! What’s the “truth” about Matt Tobin?

MT: The truth about me? Not believing in God hasn’t rendered me “okay” with the afterlife consisting of a dirt hole. I’m still terrified of dying.

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Interview and Intro by: Courtney Parkes