I’ll be the first to admit, cooking has never really been my forte. Though to be fair, my cooking has gotten much better in recent years, “much better” meaning that I’m actually making an attempt to cook for myself and can successfully make toast that doesn’t crumble in my hands. Still, I’m convinced that I could live off cereal and peanut butter and jelly, or anything else that excludes cooking.

Untill there comes a day when there’s a market for the all exclusive cereal and peanut butter and jelly bar, I never pictured myself toiling at the grill of a small scale diner during the busy weekday lunch hours.

Yet toil I did in an afternoon working at the Caboose Diner on East Main Street in Norwich, thanks to the hospitality – and patience – of the diner’s owner and sole operator Kristina Passafiume. Passafiume awarded me the opportunity to work with her, side by side (and a little in the way) on a sunny Thursday afternoon, and generously overlooked the worst case scenario of me running out her customers and accidentally burning down her restaurant. I trekked the approximate 200 yards from the comfort of my cubicle at The Evening Sun office to the eatery housed by the unmistakable 100-year-old freight train caboose on East Main.