BOB THE KOOKY COOK

Bob is a kook. Bob can cook. That's exactly what happened last evening, Bob kooked and cooked.

FoodTV is often a source of recipes. Yesterday I found two that I thought were worth trying: Curried split pea soup (ala` Alton Brown) and Tuna Puttanesca (per Rachel Ray).

Here's almost everything laid out, ready to be used.
Cut-up kalamata olives are part of the puttanesca recipe. Rachel calls for a handful of the olives. She often does that. I'm never quite sure what a handful means other than it doesn't make any difference of how much of the ingredient you use.
Flat leaf parsley is used in the puttanesca, one of the last ingredients - along with lemon zest.
Then there's the cook's helper who snoozed on the carpet in my office while I slaved over a hot stove. Zeenie is a bundle of soft, soft fur and this photo shows just that.

Both recipes turned out well. The wife felt like a queen with me instead of her in the kitchen.

The recipes were good ones but not keepers. The puttanesca was much too rich for my liking, the curry split pea soup was lackluster. Both have been placed in the category of being close but no cigar.

For Bob, cooking is Zen, almost an out of body experience once I get wrapped up in the preparation of a nice meal.

I try not to get deeply into the Zen deal so that a finger or two is lost in the preparation process. That's nearly been accomplished - an index finger almost cut off while Bob was in his Zen cooking world. Lesson learned: Watch what you're doing!

All said, men can cook but with deep caution and with very dull knives.