Travels with The Rayman

Today I awoke with a cold-like bug and this sent me immediately to the chair in my pajamas.  Only one problem.  I had a dental appointment, a dinner party and a pedicure scheduled.  The dental appoint and dinner party and the pedicure were cancelled.  Would not want this bug wandering.

In the course of canceling the dinner, my friend, Janise told me that Cook’s Extra Dry champagne will cure the cold…if you catch it in time.  I was way past time, I can tell you that with certainty.  However, there is a good, no, excellent possibility that the Rayman will be next in line to catch the bug so I added Cook’s Extra Dry champagne to the grocery list.  Thinking it was  for me, he went here and there looking for cold Cook’s Extra Dry champagne.  What a sweetie.   Oh, well, at least we have the champagne cure in case he comes down with this thing in , say, the next hour or so.

The next job for him was to finish the black bean chili I had started.  Last night I soaked the beans and that meant that they requiring cooking today.  Unwilling to do the cooking, I delegated the task to Rayman (did not want to infect the dish).  That is when all hell broke loose.

First, there was a requirement to find the oregano and the cumin.  That I did.  Then there was the requirement to chop the onions and the bells and open the can of tomatoes.  Then there was the requirement to toast the cumin and the oregano.  Oh, lordy, lordy.

My dear cousin, Susie, had enticed me to buy a new contraption that chops

veggies.  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/professional-multi-chopper/?pkey=cvegetable-tools&cm_src=vegetable-tools||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_–_-  Additionally, I bought a new can opener that opens the can in such as way that there are no sharp edges.  Both these things came into play today.  Before he cut himself, he could not figure out how the new can opener worked.  He tried, he grunted, he groaned.  I finally looked up pictures on the internet.  “OH, I tried it every way but that way” he demurred.  To be honest, the can opener is counter intuitive and I would not have figured it out either.  We both hope we can remember how it works next time we need it.

Rayman is precise.  He is literal.  These are good characteristics if you are fixing something.  But when you add those characteristics to not reading directions, a problem arises in cooking.  Rayman may be a typical man in that he doesn’t favor directions.  He intuitively tries to figure it out.  And that is how he cut his finger.  With the can opener that eliminates sharp edges, he manages to cut himself.  “Gxd d*(mn it”, he shouts.  He actually had good luck with the chopper but he did read the directions.

 

The house now smells of cumin and oregano.  Suggesting that they smell burnt, he replies, “Too bad.  They are already in the dish.”  Rayman is so funny.  Then he stated, “Im trying to do a good job over here.  Don’t f*&k with me please.”

And so it goes in the Jackson kitchen this day.

p.s.  The above picture is the Rayman last thanksgiving.    Cooking.  In the kitchen with Bob.