Thanks for the Memories: An Open Kitchen Cookbook & Travelogue

By John P. Roach Jr.

Deborah J. Johnson
John P. Roach Jr.

Debbie and John have traveled around the world together experiencing the cuisine from more than 100 countries. This book contains some of their favorite regional and ethnic recipes that can be prepared simply and served with elegance.

They coined the phrase Open Kitchen where guests were invited to use Debbies kitchen to demonstrate their culinary skills as part of an evening of entertainment and delectable cuisine.

Throughout this intrepid home cooking adventure that starts on the shores of Lake Champlain, Vermont and progresses to an even more functional home kitchen in La Jolla, California one can easily get caught up in the joy of entertaining.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467031134

John P. Roach Jr.

John P. Roach Jr. Brought up in Glen Rock, NJ and attained a Liberal Arts Education through study of the Classics, Philosophy and Political Science at St. Michael's College in Vermont. He went on to take additional study on campus in his fields of interest at Seton Hall University, USC University of Southern California, Notre Dame University and Fairleigh Dickinson University for Psychology, University of Vermont for Music and most recently Screenwriting at UCLA. Currently residing in San Diego, CA. The author has traveled the world and completed many screenplays and books on such diverse subjects as classical music, art, psychology, history, archeology, philosophy, opera, science, bigotry, politics, love and war.

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Contents

DEDICATION

I

Falling in Love

II

The Open Kitchen

III

The Cook Book

Hors d’Oeuvres

Appetizers

French Cuisine

English Cuisine

Italian Cuisine

Mexican Cuisine

Canadian Cuisine

American Cuisine

German Cuisine

Chinese Cuisine

Near East Cuisine

Greek Cuisine

Ukrainian Cuisine

Australian Cuisine

Russian Cuisine

Spanish Cuisine

Cuisine of Brazil

Asian and Pacific Rim Cuisine

Cocktails and Deserts

BOOK IV

TRAVELOGUE

Works of John P. Roach Jr.

Historical Novels

Mt. Soledad Love Story (Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas)

CALIFORNIA, The First 100 Years (Padre Serra to the Golden Spike)

Biographical Novels

The Fourteenth State (Ethan Allen)

Triumph of the Swan (Richard Wagner and King Ludwig II of Bavaria)

Absinthe (Edgar Degas, A Leader in the Impressionist Revolution)

The Mighty Kuchka (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and The Russian Five.)

Inspirational Books

Serial Monogamy (A quest for finding Success, Happiness and Love)

Around the World in a Wheelchair (a motivational book for the disabled)

Thanks for the Memories Cookbook (Deborah J. Johnson and Friends)

Travel

Experience America’s Finest City on the San Diego Trolley

Science Fiction

Inquiring Minds (Teens challenge education system)

Biographical Screenplays

The Swan (Opera composer Richard Wagner and King Ludwig II)

Degas (Edgar Degas and the Impressionist Revolution in Art)

The Russian Five (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the Russian Five)

Vermont (Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.)

Mt. Soledad Love Story (Film version available to producers)

Serial Monogamy (An Award Winning Screenplay.)

WEBSITE

www.JPRoach.org

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to Deborah J. Johnson (1952-2010)

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.

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Our First Date: Lakefront condo, Burlington, Vermont

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Lakefront condo, Burlington, VT

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Surprise Visit

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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.

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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