My parents told me that when I cried as an infant, they played Jackie Gleason’s “Music, Martinis and Memories” to get me to sleep, and if that didn’t work they drove me around the block once and I was a goner. I’d like to say that my cooking memories are analogous with my musical ones, but they’re not. I may hit the high notes with some of my dishes, but at my age my vocal range is more limited.
I remember following the bouncing ball and singing along with Mitch, but Sinatra, not Elvis, was my forever love. If Tommy Dorsey taught me breathing and Nelson Riddle did my arrangements, I’d be up there on stage at the Grammy’s! We listened mostly to classical music, and I took up violin and piano early on.
Of course in high school I listened to the Beach Boys in the cafeteria, but at home I listened to the Beatles, Bad Company, Dave Mason and Jimmy Buffet before he became a pirate. Many others, never enough. I never had Pirate Radio, which we saw this past weekend. It was a blast from the past, a past I never lived because I was only seven when Radio Caroline was broadcasting. My family was more concerned with watching Walter Cronkite and keeping the student masses at bay by not allowing them to know the head of the institution was a member of the Manhattan Project.
My tastes still trend towards folk because I love a good story. Yesterday my husband showed me how to use the new iTunes app that allows home sharing. It’s great because it gives me access to my CD’s that are in storage! I love James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Pete Seger, Arlo and Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, the former Cat Stevens, the Eagles, Burl Ives (in his underwear), Carlos Montoya, Henry Mancini, Tony Bennett and his alter-ego Antonio Benedetto, Diana Krall, The Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers, Juni Fisher, Enya, Marty Robbins and many other artists. Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Dan Fogelberg, and my friends Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Offenbach, and the great Celtic poets.
When I was home-sharing, I realized that I did it not for what I wanted to hear, but what I wanted to play on piano or guitar. Korky and Douglas, my music teachers, should appreciate that sentiment. That said, I hope you’re not shopping for tons of gifts as you know that your presence is a gift anywhere, and homemade food gifts show that you really love the recipient. Musically yours, jingle those bells, Zoe…. Dee
Cooking with Dee 