Joe “Vecipe”

When I met my step-son at the tender age of almost 11, I am sure he didn’t know what to think of me.  Sure, his Dad dated women after he got divorced and when Joe was littler, but I was one of only a few to actually meet Joe.  Smart man Tony was.  I can’t tell you how many of my friends had kids and then divorced, and would bring dates around, their kids would get attached, and then the mom would move on.  It messed those kids up.

This picture of Joe was taken merely three weeks after Tony and I met.  It was taken at an office summer outing.  Joe put this picture on Facebook last week telling Tony that he was sorry that he wouldn’t be seeing him for Papa Day this year.

One of the first things I did with Hannah and Joe together was to make cookies.  When I asked Joe if he wanted to make cookies he said “yes!” and immediately went to the refrigerator in search of store bought cookie dough rolls while Hannah went searching for  the flour and sugar.  Turns out Tony would buy two tubes of the cookie dough, apparently one for Joe to eat raw and the other one to bake!  He was a picky eater back then – he had his Dad even peel the skins of the hot dogs and I had to cut the skins off of apples for him to eat them.

So much has changed!  Now we’ll see on Instagram that he and his wife enjoyed mahi mahi for dinner and Tony and I both look at each other can can’t believe it.  I guess your palate can change from age 11 to 24!

When he first moved out on his own at 18 he learned to cook for himself.  Um, turns out his Mom was kind of a hamburger helper kind of cook – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think that Joe definitely picked up the cooking bug from both me and his Dad.  He would call us with a Joe “Vecipe.”  Since V is the start of his last name it just became a Vecipe instead of a recipe!  He would call me and say “Biz, there is this seasoning by McCormick called Montreal Steak Seasoning – but don’t be fooled by that name because it’s great on chicken too!”

So this past week he put up a picture of a home cooked dinner he made for his wife – a manicotti of sorts – he stuffed his shells with rice and beef and made a tomato sauce – not a truly Italian version sans the ricotta cheese, but he could have easily picked up a Stouffer’s frozen dinner – so proud of his cooking skills!

And I have to show off his other pics on Facebook – OMG, his dogs are so fricken cute!!  The white one is called Cinnamon Bun:

And the black one is called Taquito:

I am so happy that he and his wife are going strong – they only met and moved to Texas within three months of knowing each other, but somehow I think they knew it was true love – especially when Lizz made this for Joe!

Ah, true love!  “You’re my cup of coffee.”  Natalie – did you take that picture??

So I hope you keep on cooking and loving each other – all the rest doesn’t matter in the whole grand scheme of things.

Hope you had a great weekend!  (p.s. – you’ll have to follow me on Instagram to see pics of my weekend and my weigh in! – follow me at mybizzykitchen)  Make it a great day!