Dianne-Jianne

 When we were in college dating, Jack was a man-ny for a woman named Diane and her three sons. We also had a close friend (who was totally crazy) named Diane who lived in a mansion with a sauna, drove her 4x4 up on sidewalks, and talk about car-dongs a lot.

Jianne

To differentiate, we called our crazy friend Jianne. Again, I have no idea where she is now, but I am sure she is the life of the party, wherever she calls home.

We had some great adventures together!

We were at "the mansion" (we affectionately called it) one Sunday and trying to scramble together a Sunday dinner of sorts. We were all college students so in spite of it being a mansion, the cupboards were usually bare (with the exception of Mexican hot chocolate, it was her thing-insert interrobang). We managed to scrap most of a meal together to begin cooking and then Jianne announced we should have scalloped potatoes with dinner. I went to the cupboard and no shock, this was not there:

I told her we would have to think of something else because we did not have a box. She said, "I have potatoes so we could make them from scratch." Then comes the line I will never live down when I replied, "But we don't have the cheese packet. How will we make it without the packet?" Of course, in unison everyone replied, " With REAL cheese!"

Look! I even found a pic of her 4x4!

 That was that day I decided to learn how to cook. How to really cook. It took lots of trial and error (someday ask Jack about the split pea soup). Love her, but my mom doesn't love to cook. Doesn't even really like to cook. Plus, she worked full-time, and I am sure we complained whenever she did bother to cook something. We grew up on cereal, processed foods, and good old fashioned plain steak and potatoes. I had become a vegetarian (another story) so I lived on lots of cereal and boxed mixes. Cooking wasn't in my skill set.

Now I think I do pretty well. I don't keep truffle oil in my pantry and still use pans from college. I still use a cake mix when I need a quick batch of cookies and do not mind spaghetti sauce from a jar. But, as they say, "I've come a long way, baby!"

Thanks, Jianne for teaching me how to make scalloped potatoes.