I
FALLING IN LOVE
This book looks
like a cookbook but reading between the lines it is clearly a LOVE STORY, of two people who shared their lives for 21 years.
It will become apparent that Deborah Johnson is not just the woman I love but the woman everybody who knew her loves
as well.
This book started out as a family cookbook to record
recipes passed down through the ages from Irish immigrants to survivors of the Civil War, but as friends saw the first family
addition they all wanted to use our kitchen to demonstrate their culinary skills.
Debbie and I did have some fantastic kitchens, some overlooking Lake Champlain in Vermont, and others the blue
Pacific in La Jolla, CA and the busy shipping activity of San Diego Bay. Friends from all parts of the
country would visit and we would turn over our kitchen to them and let them create and show us their culinary delights.
Our kitchen was always filled with laughter as I give you an example of
the background on how this adventure started.
Debbie, a fashion
model trained at John Powers Modeling School in Ft. Lauderdale Florida became the Manager of Nan Patrick’s one of Burlington,
Vermont’ s finest woman’s fashion stores.
I met Deborah Johnson and her girlfriend Jean Bluto at a restaurant across the street from Nan Patrick’s
and invited them both to dinner at my lakefront condo in Burlington for some California cuisine. They accepted
and the three of us had a good time as I prepared the Baja California Fish recipe in this book.
Both women loved my creation and Debbie was familiarizing herself with the kitchen and offered to cook the next
time.
Officially the next time would become our first date
alone with each other.
“What are you going to cook?” I asked.
“Steak and Lobster”, was her reply.
“Great!
Tuesday?”
“Tuesday after work is fine.”
Debbie arrived
with all the ingredients and took over the kitchen,
“Do you need help?” I asked.
“No,
just open the wine, let it breathe and pour it when dinner is served.”
So I poured the wine as she sat down and took her photo.
“What are you doing,” she asked.
“You
are so beautiful; I want to record our first date,”
“Sort of corny, don’t you think?”
“Time will tell!”
Debbie just smiled.
It was a wonderful evening. Her candlelight presentation
of steak and lobster was unique (see her recipe) accompanied by Caesar Salad, classical music and a roaring fireplace overlooking
a Lake Champlain sunset. It was an evening never to forget.
The following Saturday was our second date. Debbie insisted on cooking again.
“What
are we going to have?” I asked,
“Lobster and Steak,” was her reply.
I
laughed and laughed because I got the picture, and Debbie laughed right along with me.
“That’s your only recipe, right?”
Yes,
I never cooked, we often had maids, but you do like both my Lobster and Steak and my Steak and Lobster, don’t
you?”
“Of course I do, we will learn to cook together, if that is all right with
you?”
Debbie burst out laughing as well and said:
“Yes,
I would love it.”
I took her photo in front of the fireplace and she
asked:
“Are you recording our second date?”
“Yes, and I am sure there will be many more.”
Photo of Our First Date: Lakefront condo, Burlington, Vermont
Photo
of Lakefront condo, Burlington, VT
Photo of
Surprise Visit
Photo, Our second date: Lakefront
condo, Burlington, Vermont
Debbie smiled and laughed. That
evening we discussed how we will learn to cook together whatever came to our minds for dinner.
Prior to meeting Debbie, I was a bachelor for a year and had to cook for myself. I had a few
cookbooks and simple recipes on 3 x 5 cards that I could teach Debbie the basics of cooking with. The first
time we cooked together we prepared the simple Quebequoise Chicken recipe in this book.
This roast chicken became one of Debbie’s favorites and she prepared
it for me often. Her confidence in cooking grew strong from this point on as we cooked together so many
different specialties.
Living in Burlington, Vermont we were only 90 miles
from Montreal which we visited often and dined in so many of their fantastic restaurants.
I had previously driven across the United States helping move my son from
Daytona Beach, Florida to La Jolla, CA. I intended to move there myself until I met Debbie and did let
my son know it might take me an extra year to move because of her.
I let Debbie know that I promised my son Mike that I would move to La Jolla, CA by August 13, 1980 and that was
nearly a year away.
In February, Debbie’s father passed away so
Debbie kept her own apartment as well as stay with me in my lakefront condo in the event her mother needed her.
Debbie and I had a wonderful year and spent a lot of time with Patty and
Sam my daughter and son-in-law. I took the three of them to their first opera, La Boheme and too
many ballets and symphonies. They were smitten with the classics.
We often go the 90 miles to Montreal for Expo baseball games, the symphony,
concerts and dinner. Live performances ranged from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade ballet
at Place des Arts to the Follies at Chateau Champlain.
The Mozart festival held in various places throughout Vermont was also a regular part of our venue.
I made preparations for my move to La Jolla, California, and made sure
Debbie knew that I wanted her to come with me forever. She was indecisive and concerned that her mother
needed her.
On August
12, I had my moving van parked outside Debbie’s apartment in case she chose to have her furniture included in my move
to California. The van left the next morning and so did I. Debbie surprised me by showing
up at the airport to say good-bye again.
I arrived in
La Jolla, CA by 4:00 pm and stayed at my son’s home. At 7:00 pm the telephone rang and the call was
for me.
“Hello.”
“It’s me!”
“Debbie?”
“I’m, coming!”
“When?”
“After Christmas.” “WAIT FOR ME!”
“Of
course, I love you!”
“I will visit you in the meantime at your son Michael‘s.“
And so it was, we truly loved each other, even if it cost me two moving vans and no steak and lobster for four
months.
The day after Christmas Debbie left Burlington, Vermont
forever at 20 below zero with her raccoon coat and arrived at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field at 80 degrees still wearing
her fur coat with 100 degrees difference in temperature.
I
met Debbie at the airport looking like an idiot with a giant bouquet of six, four foot long Bird of Paradise.
She arrived with a big smile and taking the flowers said:
“You
always do things is such a big way. Huge!”
Standing with luggage at the curb she sees a stretch limo and jokingly says:
“Ha! I suppose that
is for me?
“It is!” I responded.
“You’re kidding?” She said.
“No!
It is for you.”
“Where are we going?”
“To
Charlie’s Oceanfront dining in Cardiff up the coast. You will enjoy the scenic ride through Torrey
Pines beach and Del Mar. We can have lunch on the deck and you can leave your fur coat
in the limo as it is 80 degrees and the driver will stand by and wait for us.”
“Then what?”
“We will be home at last together to our La Jolla oceanfront apartment
where you can sleep tonight to the sound of the surf pounding against our front deck.”
In early January, Debbie and I were invited for a weekend to the Sands Resort in Las Vegas by my father and mother.
As we walked in Debbie asked:
“Is that your mother over there in a crowd of people”?
I said, “Yes, how
did you know.”
“She looks like you” was her reply.
My
mom Alberta Roach loved to entertain guests at her home in New Jersey and immediately welcomed Debbie into the Roach family.
The two of them were inseparable the entire weekend. Alberta would become Debbie’s new mother
as they both had the same sense of humor and desire to perfect the art of entertaining.
Dad and I watched play-off football while the two women enjoyed each other’s company. Alberta
and Debbie became friends for life. It was a sad day for both of us when they imploded the Sands
Resort in Las Vegas, because we all had fond memories of Debbie’s first meeting with my parents and her being so warmly
welcomed into the Roach family.
Back in La Jolla
Debbie let my son Michael know that she would cook him anything he wanted at least once a week. So, every
Friday night Mike was there for dinner, which further sharpened Debbie’s culinary skills.
A giant of a man moved in next door, his name is Duncan Edwards and is a good friend to this day.
Duncan was the tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers right up to the year of the start of the Pittsburgh dynasty.
Duncan could smell Debbie’s cooking and often invited himself to dinner.
Steak and Lobster was out of the question because Duncan and my son could
eat a lot! I am not rich so thank goodness our recipe book was growing.
Duncan, like my son also became a regular invitee to Debbie’s experimental cooking.
Debbie and I had season tickets to the San Diego Opera, San Diego Chargers and San Diego Padres and occasional
tickets to San Diego Symphony. So between her cooking and all this activity she was a very busy lady.
Tailgating at outdoor events further expanded Debbie’s culinary versatility.
Photo, Debbie enjoys oceanfront living.
II
THE OPEN KITCHEN
The open kitchen is a place where friends of my common law wife Deborah
Johnson and I gather to turn out works of culinary art to share with each other.
After two years of ocean front living Debbie starting getting ear infections. The doctor claimed
it was typical for people living too close to the ocean, so we moved to a four bedroom home near the top of Mt. Soledad in
La Jolla.
From ocean front to mountain top with a much larger
kitchen and huge deck with a hot tub overlooking the Pacific Ocean is true bliss.
Lots of room for Debbie to entertain guests. My daughter Patty and her husband Sam visited from
Vermont as did , my Mom and Dad from their Florida home, Debbie’s brothers and sister from Vermont and my sister and
niece from Naples Florida were the early visitors.
Debbie’s
best friend and confidant was Suzanne Benoit, wife of garlicky Gary who owned a Pak Mail two blocks from where we lived.
The four of us had a routine for pizza and beer at Pacific Beach weekly. Gary and Suzanne
eventually sold their business and moved back to Ontario, Canada.
Our four bedrooms
home attracted a multitude of guests, Debbie’s old boss Nan Patrick, many of Debbie’s loyal customers from the
fashion business and her closest Vermont pal Jean Bluto who stayed a week.
Debbie like Alberta became known as the great entertainer and she loved this new role and enjoyed every minute
of it.
My mom and dad eventually moved to Boynton Beach,
Florida and visited us often in La Jolla, CA. Alberta turned over many of her hor d’ oeuvres and
appetizer recipes to Debbie on a set of 3 x 5 cards she made especially for Debbie.
In Vermont and our many trips to nearby Montreal, Debbie was exposed to the French Canadian influence that gave
her so many of the French and Canadian recipes in this book. Now living in Southern California we both
acquired a taste for Mexican food so a new challenge was before us.
Friends like Richard and Shirley Lopez, Adriana Rodriguez, and Joe Vasquez spent time in Debbie’s kitchen
showing her the various techniques of Mexican cooking. Eventually Debbie could hold her own in preparing
Mexican cuisine.
Richard Lopez took pride in saying:
“If my salsa doesn’t make you cry, it is no good!”
Kathie Derby lives in Tampa, FL and met Debbie on one of our trips to
Las Vegas. Kathie is so proud of her Italian heritage that she contributed not only Italian recipes but
some of her Italian humor to this book as well.
When it comes to exotic recipes, Debbie was lucky to have a La Jolla restaurant owner visit us often and teach
her the use of the many spices. Meera Chenai eventually left La Jolla to take care of her ailing
mother in India. Meera is such a dear friend that we visited her on our last trip to India in 2007 where
she asked:
“What can I make you?’
“Meera’s eggs, like you taught me in my own kitchen,” Debbie
replied.
Meera laughed and once again and prepared this wonderful
champagne brunch.
My only experience with vegetarian recipes was with
Pat Penoyer who would cook separate meat meals for me and tofu recipes for herself until my son Michael married Lori Colt
who contributed many vegetarian recipes to this book.
Debbie always
reciprocated with vegetarian cooking when she was aware of a vegetarian guest.
Still others made contributions, Cecilia Clauss from Squim, Washington, Marlene
Pollock from Montreal, Canada, Ted Labbe from Maine, Cathy Johnson from Vermont and so many others.
Special mention of Stella Frenette nearing her 100 birthday on July 2nd and her daughter
Jacqueline Travis for their contributions as well and Micheline Tremblay near Chicoutimi, Canada and so many others from San
Diego, CA.
The cast of characters named in each recipe are our
good friends who encouraged and contributed to this book are also those that Debbie and I would like to say “Thanks
for the Memories”.
The surprise came one day in our
third year when Debbie announced to me:
“Out of the Kitchen! This is my territory, I have earned it.”
“Yes, you have,” I said. “Congratulations!”
“Should
I help with the dishes?”
“No, never! The Kitchen is my territory”
“I love you Debbie.”
“I
know it. I love you too. Go back to painting or writing screenplays
and books, I now have my own art form.”
And
so it was, Debbie became an accomplished artist in her own right.
We dedicated our lives to each other and I sure benefited from her fantastic cooking and
tender love.
As
recently as October 2010 our conversations would go like this; after breakfast each morning Debbie would approach me while
I am writing and say the following:
“What would you like for lunch?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about for dinner?”
“Ha! I can’t even decide lunch and you are asking me about dinner?”
So I would give her a hug
and a kiss, stop writing and go into the living room with her to relax.
“For lunch why don’t you surprise
me and for dinner let’s either go to a restaurant out or pick something from your cookbook.“
“I’d rather cook. You take me out too much. I like just the two of
us at home.”
“How about Steak au Poivre?” I asked.
“You always say that, you just had that
two days ago.”
“What’s in the freezer?”
“Just about everything, beef, chicken, lamb, fish and those baseball sized meat balls
you like so much.”
“Great, just like they serve at that great Italian restaurant Rao’s in
Las Vegas and in the Bronx, New York. Sure lets do it, Spaghetti and meatballs, real basic but a delicious
favorite.”
“Do you want antipasto, garlic bread and Chianti wine?
“Sure! Give me a hug,
I love you so much!”
“I love you too.”
I had booked a cruise to Europe again for 2011 for
Debbie and I and am writing this book on that cruise after lots of encouragement from friends that I should go anyway after
losing Debbie to God on November 4, 2010.
The cruise allowed me time to reflect on our wonderful 21 years together and pray to remind her that now it’s
time for you, Debbie to:
“WAIT FOR ME!”
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "Thanks for
the Memories, An Open Kitchen Cookbook and Travelogue".
Photo Debbie and John