#11 Allow me to present...Chef Jack

Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it! I wanted Jack to help me in the kitchen. We moved to Oregon back in 1991, took 2½ years to build our home, and somewhere in between, I went back to work.

So there I was, in our lovely kitchen...alone. That is, until the meal was ready to be served, then Jack would magically appear. I finally told him I wanted his help since he was retired. I gave him choices: you may wash dishes, (no dishwasher), chop veggies, stir the pots, take turns cooking, make up the weekly menus so I didn't have to be the one to decide what WE would eat all the time, do the marketing or just sit and chat with me as I fixed dinners. His choice? None of the above! So I put my kitchen on strike. I wouldn't cook a THING for him. I'd cook for myself. Period.

He would cook for himself....eggs, sandwiches or cereal. After one full year of this, he entered the living room one night and said, "I'm going to make an omelette, would you like one?" I said, "Yes, thank you, I'd love one." The following night, I said to him, "I'm going to make pasta, would you like some?" He said, "Yes please." From there, it has evolved. Oh has it EVER evolved.

He kept cutting out recipes and asking me to make this or that. Finally, I told him I'd teach him how to read a recipe so he could make whatever his little heart desired. Now? He cooks all the time and it isn't always a simple meal. Sometimes, it involves all the pots and pans....and I am the dishwasher and kitchen clean up "crew" because I'm the shortest! (I had him build my counter tops low to the ground because I was tired of standing on tiptoe in my last kitchen!) The other down side is the recipe book. OMG.....I'll have to photograph it tomorrow....and I think I'm the only one who understands organization in the kitchen so I get to file them!

I'm really not complaining because it is such a joy to come home to great smells greeting me the minute I step inside. The dish in these pics was one of the best ever. He found it on a cooking show called "Blaine's Low Carb Kitchen". It is tofu, sliced very thin, spiced up with paprika and some chili pepper, sauteed in olive oil till crispy. Remove from heat. Then in the same oil, add chopped scallions or green onions and a whole head of garlic. Saute till almost tender, add soy sauce (we use Bragg's Amino Acids), simmer and this is the topping for the tofu. It was to die for! This is definitely a keeper....and so is Jack, by the way!