VETERAN'S DAY

Next week, Nov. 11th., is Veteran's Day. If you think about it between now and then, try to do something nice to show your gratitude for their service. I know when I got back from Nam in the late sixties, the reception was less than warm. Not that I really cared, I was as much against the war as most of the Hippies and other Peaceniks.

If the subject vet was Navy, why not buy the old sailor a beer or two, and then take him home and show him a good time.

If he was Army, maybe a hot meal is still a treat to an old soldier.

A can of Brasso will always get any ex-Marine excited.

And if he was Air Force, milkshakes are always proper.

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

It's nearly Thanksgiving time once again. Most of us Americans look forward to the turkey with stuffing and all of the sides and pies. Cranberry sauce however seems to be like fruitcake. You either love it or hate it. If you want a cranberry change of life, try this.

It's CRANBERRY & RAISIN CHUTNEY

I got it out of a Bob Apatite magazine a zillion years ago.

Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a sauce pan and throw in a cup of raisins.

Remove from the heat and let stand 15 minutes. This will plump the little SOBs up.

Drain and reserve 1/2 cup of the raisin water and pour it back into the pan.

Add 2 cups sugar and 2 TBS white wine vinegar over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Up the heat and boil without stirring until syrup turns golden brown and delicious, GBD.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup orange juice 2 TBS orange zest and 2 TBS chopped fresh ginger.

Add two 12 Ounce bags of cranberries and cook until they begin to pop.

I like to pop some of the berries against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon, but that's just me.

Add the raisins back in and cook another minute.

Cover and let cool.

I'll bet you get requests for more next year.

OK kids, here's dad's recipe.

Esse gute.

But is is Satay?

A long, long time ago; when I actually had to work for a living, I flew a lot. By a lot I mean at least once a week. All over the place from LA to Mexico City and Tokyo and Sidney and Seoul and all over the USA. My favorite domestic airlines to fly on then were Continental & American, my least favorites were North West, Eastern and United. It wasn't that United was so bad. But I always liked to travel and traveling should be an adventure. Especially when you fly. Back in the dark ages, the nineteen seventies, flying was still fun on the aforementioned airlines. On the last three mentioned, it was more like taking a big bus. The airline food was usually best on American. The food on most of the others was normally not worth remembering. I was n a United flight one time however and it was time to slop the passengers. The flight attendant came by and asked what I wanted. The choices consisted of the usual like beef tips and noodles etc or maybe the Malay Peanut Chicken. "The what?" I asked. Something new and different on a airplane? They don't normally poison the paying passengers on the major airlines so I figured, why not. I ate, I enjoyed and I wanted more. After the dinner service, I went back to the galley on the airplane. I cranked up the charm setting to ten, smiled and asked "can you tell me who in your organization I would need to contact to get the recipe for that Malay chicken?" She smiled back at me, I thought I was really hitting pay dirt, and reached over my shoulder, pulled out a large printed card and said that so many people had asked for it, that the airline had it printed up.
So here it is. It is my oldest son's favorite food for me to make him.
I have deviated from the printed recipe some.
I cut up a whole chicken into breast, thigh, wing and leg pieces.
First season with some soy sauce.
Dust with flour, and saute. Keep the heat on. Add a teaspoon, or so, of dehydrated onions and 1/4 cup of white wine. Add a Tbs of soy sauce a can of chicken broth a 1/2 tsp of ground ginger and Turmeric and let simmer for 1/2 Hr. Lastly add a 1/2 cup of half & half adjust salt & pepper, if needed and serve over rice.
Yummers.

Veal Cordon Bleu

As I said in the last blog, we saw Julie & Julia and really enjoyed it. So much so that I went e-shopping for Julia Child's MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING. I ended up getting a PDF version on line which is great with me.

I have way more books as it is then I have room for.

I thought that the first thing that I would try would be Veal Cordon Bleu. It's very French you know. Guess what, it's not in Julia's book. I have been making Veal Cordon Donnie for some time now. Over thirty years. I actually broke up with this girl from No. Carolina because of Cordon Bleu. I made these wonderful Veal Cordon Bleus on a two burner electric hot plate on my little 28 foot sailboat that I lived aboard in Redondo Beach in the mid-seventies. They were accompanied by these thin little potato pancakes topped with apple sauce and dusted with cinnamon. It's all about presentation you know.

Miss North Carolina proceeded to dump catchup all over my gastronomic creation thus ending the doomed relationship on the spot. In and Out squeeze bag catchup no less. It wasn't even Heinz.

When you make something for so long sometimes you stray further and further from the recipe.

Oh well, I have a copy of Le Cordon Blue, Complete Cook, home Collection. Left behind by one of the ex-wives.

You guessed it, aint there either. Hell, I have Google. I'll search it out.

Ah, here we are. First hit. Cooks.com, they'll know all right.

What have we here? First ingredient

1 can "Cedar Lake - Chops"

What in the hell is a can O "Cedar Lake - Chops"?

Cut halfway through, leave a flap-like a clam shell.

FILLING:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened - softened cream cheese?

What gives, is this a blintz?

1/2 c. grated Monterey Jack cheese.

Monterey Jack, maybe I stumbled onto a taco recipe.
1/2 c. grated mozzarella cheese.

Motz? Motz goes with anything, almost.
1 tbsp. Baco chips

Baco chips? That's it, I quit. I'm going back to Veal Cordon Donnie
1/4 c. diced green onions or scallions
1/4 tsp. fine herbs

Fill each chop and chill 2 to 3 hours or overnight.

To finish: Beat 2 eggs in small bowl. Place 1 1/2 cups Contadina seasoned bread crumbs in bowl. Bread each chop in egg then roll in bread crumbs. Place in frying pan (use Puritan oil) and brown on each side. Turn ONLY once. May be kept warm in oven until ready to serve. Serve hot.

This recipe must have been written by Mr. North Carolina.

Too bad he left the opossum and grits out.

The search goes on.

Julie & Julia

We went to the moving pictures yesterday and saw Julie & Julia. If you're a foodie as I am, and you used to watch Julia Child on PBS, as I did, before being a "foodie" was hip, you're going to really like this movie.

Why all of a sudden do I feel like Rex Reed, or Gene Shalit without the silly mustache?

I've never been a big fan of Meryl Streep, even though I know she's truly is a great actor. I think it is because when I saw Kramer verses Kramer I was going through my own private divorce hell, and to me, she was the bad guy. But moving right along, I gotta say. She nailed Julia.

Jamie Fox nailed Ray Charles in Ray and Meryl got Julia.

I've always liked to eat and one of the best ways that I found to get food to be just the way you like it is to prepare it yourself. So I took to cooking. I wasn't worried about being thought of as a sissy or anything. I had no issues with my masculinity. There were a few good cooking shows on back in the sixties. The two that I remember the best were Graham Kerr and Julia Child. Julia was hands down, my favorite, She was as real as they come. Back in the sixties, after the era of live TV, on air talent stood in front of a camera and let it rip. Not much editing back then. If Julia dropped a chicken on the floor she would just pick it up, brush it off and put it back on the serving platter and explain that these thing happen in the real world. If she burnt something, she'd show how to rescue it if at all passable.

Pre-Julia, I always thought of the French and their cooking as being way over pretentious. I still think of the French as being over pretentious snobs, but at least Julia made their food a lot more accessible. Every now and then, I try to make something from my Le Cordon Blue Complete Cook, Home Collection, but it is a reach for me. So now, I just bought an E-edition of Mastering The Art of French Cooking and I'll try a few things Julia fashion. But not them all, I still like my BBQ, Italian sausage & peppers and Linguine with white clam sauce.Esse gut.

It's thirty years this month.

In Sept of 1979 I bought a sailboat.

A schooner, Merrymaid, Downeaster hull #1.

Me and this boat have been through a lot together. I've lived on her, full time, for twenty seven years. She and I have been through three wives, three cats, three diesel engines, two kids, a Golden Retriever and several long term significant others.

Thirty years, that's a long time.

Here's hoping that the next thirty is as much fun as the last thirty.

It's 9/11, again.

This gets personal for me. Maybe not as personal as someone who was in NYC eight years ago today. But it still pisses me off.

In 2001, I was married to Nancy (wife #3) who was a TWA flight attendant.
Her brother lives in Clinton, NJ and she had her vacation to visit him planned nine months in advance.
We flew back to Newark NJ on about 9/15, one of the first days that the airplanes started flying again.
After three days in NJ, I said that I couldn't be this close to an event of this magnitude and not go to see it.
And so we did. We spent the day in Manhattan. Down where the WTC was, it was horrible. It was still burning at the site. I expected to smell rotting human flesh. After all, over three thousand American souls were strewn all over the place only a few days before. It smelled like an electrical motor that had overheated and burned up. Every time that a fire truck went by, which was often, everybody stopped and applauded them as they went by. It brought tears to my eyes. It still does, even now, just thinking about that very emotional event. Everywhere that you went, there were flyers posted on walls and telephone poles. On every surface available there were all of these pleas with pictures on them asking whether you had seen so-n-so in a hospital or wherever. It was really hard to cope with. Almost as hard as being in Viet Nam.
All I really want to know is, after eight years, why in the hell is Osama's ass not tacked up on some Seal Team's shithouse wall yet?