Thanks for the Memories: An Open Kitchen Cookbook & Travelogue - Tapa dura

Home at last together to our la Jolla, CA oceanfront apartment where we 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 at 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 inseperable 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 others 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. During these years Duncan became construction superintendent of Barona Casino, one of San Diego's first casinos. Debbie and I saw the birth of San Diego's Indian Casino Industry with intimate detail through our pal Duncan. 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. After two years of ocean front living Debbie starting getting ear infections, the doctor claimed it was common 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.