What the hell was that?

I was watching the local PBS TV station last night and they had on this Ed Sullivan 60's music retrospective. Do you remember the Sixties? As Nancy my third wife used to say, if you do remember the Sixties, you weren't really there. I was there. I graduated from Garfield Heights High School which is a suburb of Cleveland in June of 1960 and one month later, I was on a Pennsylvania RR train to Philadelphia. It was like being shot out of a canon. Cleveland was, and is, a fairly big city. But Philly was the big time. Maybe not the Big Apple, but maybe the big kumquat. It had a subway train running right down Broad Street to the Naval Station where I was billeted awaiting my trip to Virginia Beach and Guided Missile School. I rode down to Virginia Beach with this black sailor from Chicago in a Greyhound bus. He and I talked about what our new lives were going to be like in the Navy. He was off to Naval Air Station Oceana which was real close to Dam Neck where my school was located.

Dam Neck was located on the northern edge of The Great Dismal Swamp. What a wonderfully descriptive name, The Great Dismal Swamp. Those old Southerners didn't believe in sugar coating things. I particularly liked the big poisonous Cottonmouth Water Moccasins that swam around the waterways on the base. The guns were also nice. Dam Neck was also home to the FADTC, the Fleet Air Defense Training Center. About a quarter of a mile from the school was the gunline on the beach. While we were trying to learn the basics of guided missilery, there were about 25 five inch naval guns banging away at some poor unsuspecting remote control drone. What a din that was. Just down the beach from Dam Neck was the town of Virginia Beach. It was wonderful. Lots of girls strutting around in their bikinis and other grand sights, but the day after Labor Day, the place turned into a ghost town. Everybody went home, wherever that was. I also experienced my first hurricane, Donna, while there. It was the worst in fifty years and it let me know that I wasn't in Cleveland anymore.

After seven months in Virginia Beach, life speedshifted to the next gear, California.

Heretofore, I had never been on an airplane and in one day I got a full indoctrination. A DC-3 propeller plane took us from Norfolk to Norfolk airport. After taking off and getting slammed around for a half hour we returned back to where we started. We then got into another Capitol Airlines plane, this time a turboprop Viscount that got us to National airport in DC. The next leg was on another prop plane a DC-7 which took us all of the way from DC to Baltimore. A fifteen minute flight. We now were big-time and boarded a United DC-8 jet.

A few brief hours later we landed in LA. It was February and it was cold when we boarded the plane in Baltimore. Back in the Stone Age of flight we had to walk outside across the, so called, tarmac and go up the boarding ladder. When we landed in LA, I bundled up. I had on my dress blue uniform with wool sweater underneath and over everything was my peacoat. I walked out the front door of the airplane and was hit in the face with 78 degree weather at ten PM, in February. I was from that minute on, a card carrying Californian. Off we went to learn about actual missiles, the Terrier/Tartars in my case.

But that's another part of my story, to be continued.

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.