Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 08, 2020

Hilarious disaster on the horizon.

Gunther is dead! Les and Bets killed him so they could have the make-out house all to themselves. Why else throw out good vegetables without first asking Gunther if he wants any? He’s the only one who cooks. Since they didn;’t ask him he must no longer exist. Gunther is dead!!!

Naah, Gunth is alive, and ready to walk in at the worst possible moment.

Hilarious disasters! How I have missed them in this comic strip. I hope that Leslie’s prediction comes true.

Gunther is off doing his homework when his real homework is in the kitchen wearing a red sweater.

omg, Les has definitely developed a sense of humor! Looks good on him. :-)

Santoku is coming to clown.

they’re going to have a lot to learn when it comes to making meals for themselves

So we’re doing a repeat of the “Luann makes beef stew” storyarc, huh?

Yep. SimpLe recipes always include complicated steps, weird tools, and fancy food names and words. Why? Why not keep them simple? Cheese Quesadilla? 1. A block of cheese. 2. A flour tortilla. Grate the cheese on the grater on the thicker slicer side. Spread the grated cheese across the diameter of the tortilla. Put it in the microwave oven. Press on the 30-seconds button. Let it cool for a minute before using a pizza slicer to cut into 4 strips. Done. Betcha there’s a fancy and complicated recipe out there for a cheese quesadilla. Or grilled cheese Sandwich. Or PBJ sandwich.

The Samurai Soup Kitchen

A couple people have speculated that “Gunther is dead.”

The last couple of days, speculation was that Les and Bets are about to become a “thing.”

Many have “dissed” Bets for not wanting to know how to cook.

All of this is possible but for one thing: Amnesia.

And methinks, that’s exactly where G&K are taking this.

The last Ann Eiffel arc dragged on so long that even G&K no longer remember that Les and Bets started out as oil and vinegar.

Speaking of which, with that batch of vegetables, they could use some oil and vinegar about now.

“Call any vegetable and the chances are good…that the vegetable will respond to you!”

Yes the soup might not turn out great – but they have an obligation to try.

Already the list of things that could go wrong has increased.

Mmmm veggie soup… don’t forget to throw in some well trimmed pork.. lol

Bets and Leslie Knox- oh my – Les is Tiffany’s platonic friend

I have over 500 cookbooks, most of them from 1896 to 1949, and not a one of them, not even the newer ones, mention sharpening your Santoku knife. Or any other kind of knife, machete, axe, or chain saw.

dadoctah replies to Brdshtt above about how those old cookbooks can’t be pulled up on a smartphone.

I have the same problem with my 1980 Herder Bible in German.

It’s why I have taken it upon myself to transcribe the work, strictly for the purpose of being able to call it up on my cellphone.

Mach Spaß!

Okay, then. Rusty scissors it is.

Bets, you’re gonna wish you never said that line; “what could go wrong?”——famous last words. NOTHING good ever happens in any movie or book once those words leave someone’s mouth.

Gunther will walk in and be shocked as they are making ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Soup.

Let’s see. Les and Bets making vegetable soup. Then they will have to make French bread to go with it. Then they will have to eat it by candlelight. All this while Gunther is in the bedroom doing homework. Right, what could go wrong.

Gunther will pop up once everything goes wrong. Just like I Love Lucy!

Didn’t the cat sit on those vegetables yesterday? I’ll bet they do stink a bit.

You guys, the CAT sat on that food, after walking all over it with his dirty litter-box paws. You have to throw it out now.

After reading the line, “Sharpen your Santoku knife,” I am seriously worry for these two, I hope I can get some sleep tonight! (~_~)

My first attempt at soup was hilarious disaster. I boiled it and needed to add water. Then it was too watery and I boiled it some more. I repeated this several times. LOL!

Is there some fantastically sublime point to all this?

Why throw out perfectly good food?!

Something’s cooking between Les and Bets all right…

I’ve got a baaaad feeling that when Les and “Bets” are trying to cook, some kind of spark is gonna happen between them and Gunther is going to walk in. Like, Les and “Bets” have flour on their faces and in their hair and one thing leads to another.

Did Les just break the fourth wall?

Wait for Gunther!

I’m getting bored with this. Are we going to spend the whole week talking about a box of vegetables?

It should be “what could possibly go wrong”, said in Jeremy Clarkson’s voice.

If you don’t have a santoku knife to sharpen, step one becomes: book a ticket to Japan. 1B/ locate a traditional sword smith and commission a knife. 1C/While you wait (days or weeks), discover local food and go practice chopping vegetables for tempura and carving fish for sushi. 1D/Learn some Japanese language on the way. 1E/Stay away from Fukushima. 1F/Pick up your santoku knife. It is already sharpened. 1G/Fly back home. Then proceed to number 2, although the veggies might have rotten in the meantime.

Alternatively, I have heard that some people have managed to peel and chop vegetables without a japanese knife.

Speaking of Amnesia, I thought the vegetables were for TJ to use to cook a dish for the restaurant.

After reading the comments of some/most of the readers of this strip, and seeing how their minds work, I have a better understanding why Brooke McEldowney removed the comment option from his comics.

Just let them stew in their own folly…or not.

Hilarious Disasters AND/OR Experiences that Strengthen the Bond With Someone… This is interesting! Bets has the enthusiasm and Les has the humor, cooking together will be an important step in their relationship. And for once, Les looks almost like the wise one.

Got to agree with Les’ comment this time.

What bothers me is that vegetable soup really IS that easy. It’s hard to see how it COULD turn into a disaster.

But I’m sure the Evanses will find a way.

How hard could it be?

This appears to be a copy of arc ehere Lu tried to make E-Z stew. Was it Frank who rescued her, or did she call out for pizza? Here, Gun may come to rescue.

Where is Gunther doing his homework? At the library? The library in Spain? I don’t think he’s in the house.

Les shows good situational awareness on the “what could go wrong?” line.

I’m forced to agree with Les this time; Bets is doomed to failure, and probably a disastrous one.

These kids will be the first to starve in the coming zombie apocalypse.

“I’m keeping the cucumber though…”

Should be an interesting production, and I always wonder how this fits in the story arc or arcs that seem related, but one point I want to highlight is how Les and Bets are getting along Friendly even. I think that is great progress for Les, and it shows that young adults can be friends, platonic in this case.

Mmm-hmmm. I called it. There is still an attraction factor between these two. Gunther will find them in flagrante delicto, and that will be the end of Bets in this strip.

Nope, No recipe ever started with that line.

Once they discover what a Santoku knife is, everything can go wrong. Glad Bets considers it wasteful to toss the fresh veggies. Do they have a soup pot? Wonder where Gunther is studying and why he hasn’t come into the kitchen to see what’s going on. Will they have to call an EMT if someone cuts their finger? Oh, the limitless possibilities of where this could go! ;-D

Looks like mom is long gone so they will have to rely on Siri.

PULLLLEEEEZE

So is bets going to live stream her adventures in cooking?

When you think of it, this weeks strip is pretty bizarre! First, TJ the chef gives the veggies to Les… to take back to the Gulag… without other instructions… WHY?

Second, Bets and Les appear to be interacting as friends when last April, at her first appearance, she told Gun(ther) he was a jerk. An appearance, BTW where she appeared much taller and slimmer than she does lately.

Also, GnK continue to juxtapose characters in unusual ways. Until now, Bets has only appeared sans Gunther once and that was with Tiffany in economics class related episode.

The excuse that Gunther is absent doing homework is pretty lame! Bets was in his lap when he was trying to study at Bernice’s study hall.

GnK has Bets inviting salacious comments with her seeming lack of any idea what a cucumber is.

Finally, we’re left with the idea that (perhaps) these two cooking adverse types are about to concoct a veggie soup. There are three possible out comes: veggie soup, a horrible mess in the kitchen and, some TJ-like disaster. (Maybe Gunther will arrive in time. As he often does!)

The knife sharpening has lots of room for unfunny disasters, and then using it carelessly continues it.

I looked up santoku knife, it’s just a knife designed for chopping, whoever wrote that recipe is pretty pretentious and trying to scare off amateurs with technical terms.

One foo-foo meal, comin’ right up!

This reminds me of a classic Roz Chast New Yorker cartoon called Young Professional Recipe Test, which had questions such as “Do you have to go out and buy a type of pan you’ve never even heard of?” along with a picture of a woman in a high end kitchenware store asking the clerk “Do you carry Quasenbo pans?” (Imagine the umlaut over the “a”)

Ya, What could possibly go wrong !

At first I thought Bets was cute. But now she working my last nerve.

these slow disaster build-ups aren’t as funny when you see them coming on the horizon

Tomorrow, Bets uses a Japanese carving knife. Hilarity ginsus.

Tomorrow: Brad and the fire crew show up as the gulag is burning from the grease fire Bets accidentally starts while cooking her vegetable soup.

Gunther cooks. He would educate them on the value of fresh produce. But dude has been incognito for way long. What’s he doing? I don’t suppose he’ll be gone till the dish is cooked? Or the kitchen catches on fire from the novices cooking?

That home is tiny. Surely Gunther can hear everything, and will smell the soup within minutes.

So, now we find out if she watches Cooking Shows even though she doesn’t cook.

If she knows what a Santoku knife is, she’s been watching at least one Cooking Show.

To get into the spirit of things, Bets will have to put on a Graham Kerr/Galloping Gourmet costume. Don’t forget the ‘clarified butter’…

No fingers in my veggie soup, please! Careful with that knife!

You should not need a reminder to sharpen your knife, and this isn’t a recipe, it is an ad for a particular knife. But if you don’t know a beet from a radish you may think you need the brand name and not any paring knife or utility knife.

Terribly unbelievable story arc. Not recognizing vegetables? Letting a cat sit on food? Throwing veggies out without asking Gunther? A recipe beginning with a knife recommendation? Someone call quality control because peed on vegetables isn’t the only smelly thing here.

Experimenting in cooking is enjoyable.

(It helps if you can eat the very worst. Thanks to Mama, I come extremely close.)

Oh no! I am having flashbacks of EZ Stew!!!!!

A santoku is similar to a chef knife, only it is typically shorter, thinner, and lacks the upward curve to the tip that allows for “rocking” cuts. But it sounds a bit condescending that the writer of the recipe would assume you don’t keep your knives sharp. Mine only ever need a quick honing.