Category Archives: Editorial

Welcome to the blog

Dee Chic

Posted on October 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

My sister wanted to live in Athens, among Socrates and Plato. I went with her to assure my parents she’d have a decent place to live. What we found was a smog-choked city with gorgeous ruins and no sign of Socrates or Plato.

I was 24 and celebrated my 25th birthday by sunning topless at Agia Galini in Crete. But I digress.

When we landed in Athens we sought out a very nice pensione with three single beds and sink, and shared very modern bath next door for $12/night. My sister thought this was way too expensive and wanted us to sleep on peoples’ roofs for $1 per night. No, I said, this is my vacation.

We couldn’t sleep after an all-nighter in coach class so went to a taverna for lunch. I ordered a Campari, straight up. Here came 1/2 inch of red liquid in an old juice glass. Thinking I was worldly, I took a sip and choked. So much for that!

I reveled in Greek food and my sister ordered spaghetti and meatballs at every meal. The Greeks served coffee, which I still do not drink, and think that if one orders tea one is ill. Not the case here. I just like tea.

My sister opted to stay and ended up on a kibbutz in Israel a week later (nothing I could do about that) but our last night was a Greek feast, a seven-course meal with ouzo, retsina and Metaxa brandy for a total of $15. No, not per person. The owner selected our meal and sat with us and explained the dishes. It was amazing. Of course, my sister was appalled at the price!

On my birthday Mom and Dad gave my sister $25 to take me to dinner. When sis told me that, I said that we were going to save $10 to buy us both dinner and the rest on a decent hotel room that didn’t have sand in the sheets and a shower over the toilet. Done. Best birthday present ever.

Now I make peasant food with the best ingredients I can find, and try to entertain well. Even though I’m French-trained as a cook, I lean more towards Italian and Mediterranean cuisines because of pure simplicity. While people think it’s simple, if you work with a few ingredients it’s easy to mess up if you don’t know proper techniques.

I’ve spent about 20 days over the years in Greece and love the people, food, sights, water. Italy, probably four months over many years and it is my heart’s home and I’ve yet to see so much of the country.

No more will I sit outside at a taverna and have a straight Campari. With age and wisdom I’ll seek out the best food possible, potentially from a street vendor. I thank the kind restaurant owner who walked us through a Greek menu many years ago. Enjoy the day! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , ,

Mornings

Posted on October 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

are so boring here, even before the sun comes up I have to take the dog out for a “fake” walk because she has trained me that if I bring her back home, feed her and take her out again she’ll reward me with the opportunity to pick up #2.

This is a hallowed role in my life, akin to being royalty. Then, upon our first return I start with breakfast. This time of year I’ve an extra treat in the morning:

Hope you enjoy it, Dee

Sunrise Fall 2012

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Speaking for Oneself

Posted on October 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

After French cooking school, I examined Italian, Greek and other cuisines and found my own style. Quality ingredients and don’t mess them up. No frills, peasant cuisine. Hearty stews like I’ll make today and another that was shared yesterday with friends. Summer salads, cold dinners or a really good burger or steak on the grill.

While I speak with my food now, I also have a voice. It took a long time to find it because I’m quite shy (shhh, reader, you’ve only known me for five years) and did not stand up for myself as a child or young adult.

One parent told me I was gifted and wonderful, and the other said I was useless and never did well enough in school, ballet, piano, violin or anything else. Reading was my refuge, also the creek and its forest. I’ve recently framed a photo taken by the head of the local newspaper “back home” that she took in 1982 and gave to me around that time. It brings back so many childhood memories, most very good. RIP AE.

The shyness led to a bit of a “deer in the headlights” phenomenon. I had opinions, just didn’t voice them. It took a long time for me to be able to use my voice to espouse political and other positions, such as animal rights, that I am known for to this day.

Public speaking is still my enemy, whether it’s speaking to a government body or group of strangers. Yet I can teach a cooking class or talk to anyone on the street or in the market.

Jobs were an issue. My main fault was that I let the hirer talk me into working for them without ever asking more than a cursory question. What did that lead to? You got it, bad bosses. One tried to do his old job for me and only let me do grunt work. Another micromanaged to the point I had to leave.

Then I became a consultant as an agent of change. Yes. Imagine any organization that has already gone through a lot of internal strife to agree that it needs change. Not everyone has bought in, however.

The consultant comes in and all looks rosy until the undermining begins, sometimes and often by the organization’s own change agents. I’ve been threatened, duped into fake meetings and had my new car keyed. And this all assumes on-time payments.

I burned out of that career and did a lot of volunteer work and got married and have a new life now. Yes, I do speak out, and write, and take care of my family. And I’ve had wonderful family and work experiences and great bosses.

Slate’s Matthew Yglesias wrote a piece on what makes a great boss. http://www.slate.com I am one, and so is my husband, and we’re both team players so we can live with each other. I can’t excel unless the team is working at its best and I’m working hard to make it easier for them to do their jobs, running interference and solving problems.

Think about running a feral cat spay/neuter clinic that I helped do for six years. The leader of Recovery was quite shy and would rather work with the cats in ICU (a van). Naturally I moved to volunteer coordinator for recovery and it was a one-day stint for volunteers so all needed to be trained. Cage cleaning, tent set-up and take-down, transport, ICU, breathing, release to caretaker. I even purchased a bean bag kitty and had the “ear” folks tip its ear and used it for transport training, and was filmed by the SFSPCA for my excellent training!

In the end volunteers built us tables so we didn’t have to bend down all the time. We changed the position in the traps to prevent accidents. I devised a “wake-up list” for breathers (to make sure the cats are breathing after anaesthesia or rush to ICU) to tell when a cat awakened.

While I cannot speak for the cats as they were asleep and feral, I was an exemplary volunteer leader of 14 projects per month and attended feral cats every month for six years. Servant leadership. We recruited more volunteers and retained them.

The first time I sent myself to a business next door to tell them we’d be using the back parking lot for about six hours, I bought a bottle of juice and they asked what we were doing. Trader Joe’s, about 1/2 hour later, delivered cases of sodas and boxes of cookies for all the volunteers. Now that’s servant leadership! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Overdone Food… Network

Posted on October 15, 2012 | 4 comments

This morning as I finished the breakfast dishes and started a load of wash, Bobby Flay’s Barbecue Addiction showcased the last few moments of Bistecca alla Fiorentina. This is a classic Florentine dish consisting of a thick porterhouse steak basically unadorned except for sale e pepe e olio (salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil).

Of course he had to marinate in rosemary and who knows what else, and serve with some sort of homemade steak sauce. That would be heresy in Tuscany akin to putting salt in bread. Then he took gorgeous Treviso (long-shaped radicchio) and grilled it but then had to gild the lily with gorgonzola and chives. I grill radicchio a lot but just toss quarters with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and let it speak for itself.

Then Tyler Florence started chiming in with a California home baked “smoked” brisket with some sort of homemade barbecue sauce. Our Uncle Bobby made his own rig and smokes his briskets for 13 hours and ribs for five. Texas-style.

Folks, there is no real NY/Southwest style bistecca alla fiorentina. Nor is there true Marin County BBQ brisket. These people just need to sell television shows and assume the worst of viewers: that we know nothing.

I’ve had my bistecca in Florence and brisket in Texas and think viewers should be shown the correct ways to make food before you do your riffs on it. I must say that Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence are two of my favorite television chef personalities but this is too much.

I’m beginning to agree with Bourdain, that Food Network is the “evil” channel. Just teach the basics and offer riffs. Don’t make viewers think that bistecca comes with steak sauce or that true BBQ comes from California. This, dear reader, is an extreme pet peeve of mine that I’m sure will resurface after I’m sued by the Food Network and the attorneys of Tyler Florence and Bobby Flay.

If so, I’ll plead the 1st and 5th amendments, have Uncle Bobby come to the trial with his smoking rig and my favorite Italian chef come in from Tuscany with true bistecca and the judge will decide for her/himself. Happy eating! Dee

4 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas

Tagged , , , , , ,

Grandmas

Posted on October 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

are in short supply this week. The first one who “adopted” me nearly 40 years ago is gone.

ML taught me how to understand a Texas accent, but most important Texas hospitality. She cooked Tex Mex foods and expanded my palate as a youngster, as did her daughter JC and my Aunt.

My mother didn’t know much about cooking when she married my father, so in the year before I was born, before Grandma H died she taught Mom all about the German foods Dad liked. That’s what we ate, plus anything with Campbell’s soup in it. It was post-war and everything to bring Rosie the Riveter back into the home was supposed to be “easy.” Canned food, frozen dinners, vacuum cleaners and real washing machines. Plus wearing dresses and pumps to clean the house and having your hair done once a week and teased to perfection. Easy!

Being exposed to Texan and Mexican flavors was incredible. All of a sudden I knew there was another world of flavor out there. There was no such thing as American Regional Cuisine back then and those who knew about cooking were all trying to be French. I had no idea that there were even more cultures in Asia and everywhere and regional breakdowns that I’m still eager to learn, even years after cooking school.

ML must have known decades ago that I’d marry a Texan, and have to decipher the language barrier (due to the War of Northern Aggression) and food differences, like chile peppers. She prepared me for it with love and grace.

When I was in college, ML’s daughter had caught the cooking bug and gave my mother a lifelong subscription to Gourmet magazine. That changed our lives. Souffles, chicken and peach salad. Mom was on fire and the bug was in me as well. No more cans. Everything from scratch.

For our first wedding anniversary we went to ML’s birthplace, San Antonio, and toasted her at the pub in the Menger Hotel which she’d told us about.

What can I say about her now? Love. Grace. She was probably obstinate at times, came from her Texas upbringing (being a nation once and holding out as a state) but I remember unconditional love for her family and friends.

We were all bathed in the light of that love. You will be missed. Love, Dee

ps Happy Birthday Nanny (my husband’s grandmother). She took me on 10 years ago, not as a replacement for ML but because one cannot have too many grandmas when one hasn’t known her own. D

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , , , , ,

A Long Time Ago…

Posted on October 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

in a galaxy far, far away. Whoops, sounds like Episode IV, A New Hope. I had a cat, and had just met the man who was to be my husband of nearly ten years (anniversary coming up in a few months). He could not visit me because he is deathly allergic to cats, so I had to find him his own place 1,000 feet from mine.

Let’s just say his gifts are usually meant to make HIS life easier or more fun. He did buy a gas mask so he could come over for dinner one night. I couldn’t stop laughing as all I could think of was James Earl Jones in Star Wars saying “Luke, I am your father.” That’s what he sounded like.

Washer and dryer and frig at his place so I could do his laundry (and mine without going to the laundromat) and cook.

The gas mask only lasted about ten minutes and we went out to a neighborhood haunt for dinner. Other “gifts” include a flat screen tv and a playstation III. Two controllers, one which has never been used in the past four years but finally made it out of the box because I wasn’t about to move the box!

This gift was because I wouldn’t go away for the weekend and leave my cat Mickey Mouse (real name Mick Dundee) alone. So my dear husband bought me an automated feeding system. Four trays so we could leave Friday night, go to Disneyland or wherever, and come home Sunday afternoon, no problem.

It was battery powered. I had to freeze two small packs, then pack the four trays with canned quality food (Innova, I used back then) and set the timer. Unfortunately one weekend the timer didn’t go off and that heavy feeding system was bashed around and ten feet from its original location. I felt terrible and fed him the minute I walked in the door. I also had a self-waterer that had been freshly scrubbed and filled before we left for the weekend. Also every dog in the neighborhood knew him. When they ran away from home I’d get a call and they’d be right outside looking at him through the window and asking him to come out and play/wrestle. He also taught himself to fetch, crumpled post-it notes from my to-do lists so aside for one missed meal, I was not needed.

We normally do not purchase gifts for each other for birthdays, holidays or anniversaries but I find my love’s tastes quite self-serving. Ceramic Santoku knife. Calphalon roasting pan with rack. For our wedding he spent days researching online and told his parents (who asked him what to get as a gift) we would love a food processor, but only a KitchenAid. I’m the cook and was not asked. Our counters now sport a blender, food processor and my 25 year-old 5 qt. stand mixer, all by KitchenAid!

Allow me to say that he comes into the kitchen only to get ice and Dr. Pepper. Has not cooked a thing since we met 11 years ago but he is eager to make it easier for me to cook for him.

Jim gave me sci fi movies. I gave him Jane Austen and Memoirs of a Geisha, for which I will never be forgiven. Excited I am to see Star Wars marathons on cable.

What would life be like without interesting stories and someone with whom to share them? Not one I want to be a part of. Thanks for reading, as always. Dee

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , , ,

Dear Ben and Jerry,

Posted on October 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sinful. You’re bad. My husband ran out to the grocery while I made dinner the other day and took quite a long time to return. Yes, he got toilet paper and tissues, but also his favorite Cherry Garcia and a special treat for me.

Chocolate Therapy ice cream. All I can do to describe it is like a frozen brownie in all its chocolate sinfulness. I did have to turn down the freezer a notch because I could barely get two tablespoons of it in a bowl to savor.

Yum. Yum. Yum. I’m not a dessert person but this is a special treat. Thank you! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged

Re-Making

Posted on October 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

It took me a while. My mother died four years ago and I have a few things of hers, like her Lenox china for ten. I also have Nanny’s (my husband’s grandmother) setting for eight. We have service for 18 in an apartment that’s 1,248 square feet and a dining table for four. Fabulous!

A while ago my sister sent me an envelope with recipe cards from the early 1970’s. Every one, hand-written, brought back a memory. It was difficult, emotionally, to put them into context.

I talked to my brother the other day and he has her Hungarian Coffee Cake recipe, a bread we ate early every Christmas morning. I traded it for our aunt’s Piquant Meatballs and threw in BBQ Beef for good measure (because I mentally tortured him as a young child). That is a joke, dear reader, it’s just that he drummed on everything, especially on 14-hour car rides and drove me up a wall.

Taste and smell memories are awesome. Just making Mom’s pot roast brings back memories and it’s such a simple dish.

The BBQ Beef calls for three pounds of beef chuck. I haven’t made it in decades. I remember it being delicious, our homemade version of that supermarket stuff. When I looked at the ingredients I went to one of the cookbooks I have online (in the Cookbooks section, silly) and thought I might substitute a true Texas BBQ sauce while cooking the beef. The book is by Jeanne Voltz and entitled “Barbecued Ribs, Smoked Ribs and Other Great Feeds.” Publisher is Knopf, the same company that was smart enough to publish our beloved Julia Child.

It’s a wonderful cookbook (I’m not paid a cent to say this) and her regular rub, rib rub, peppery barbecued rib sauce and fresh cucumber relish are out of this world. I have over 200 cookbooks, and don’t cook every dish in every one!

I’ll let you know how this new, old family favorite turns out. My husband is having cold pizza at a seminar tonight so it’ll have to wait. And I was going to try chicken-fried steak tonight! He’s a Texan and his dad runs a ranch so I thought I’d try to wing it but that will have to wait as well.

There are many dinners (I hope) to come for us and family and friends. It’s great to be cooking for two, these past eleven years, instead of a toasted peanut butter sandwich over the kitchen sink for the 20 before. Don’t worry, my husband of nearly ten years and dog of nearly nine are not spoiled at all. Ask anyone! Right….. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Cook Books, Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Recipes

Tagged

Dear Barack,

Posted on October 9, 2012 | 1 comment

Michelle, Joe, David, Donna et al.

You must know me because y’all email me every day asking me for three or five dollars. You always say “Hi, Dee. We really need your help right now.”

I registered to vote in my new state, no party affiliation asked. That was a couple of weeks ago and I have no credentials that say I’m certified to vote or even where my polling place is.

In addition, I offered to work for your campaign and no-one will get back to me. I spoke to a woman at HQ here, then to the local campaign head. No word.

In my over 30 years of experience in politics and wisdom gathered along the way, I’ve never known a candidate who didn’t need people to get out the vote.

I offered. They can’t bother to talk to me. I’ve run phone banks, lit drops, virtually held the hand of candidates. In my real life I’ve raised funds, hired and managed and rewarded volunteers and helped people.

Perhaps I’ll go vote if I’m told where to go to do so. Maybe I’ll stay home or go to a spa to celebrate my birthday on Election Day. I don’t know. Or, I may call HQ to have someone drive me to my polling place, as I used to do for old folks back in the day.

Do not be complacent. Your dear BFF, Dee

p.s. I’m an Independent in a swing state.

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged

Equity

Posted on October 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

Merriam-Webster’s site says it quite clearly for children:

Main Entry: eq·ui·ty
Pronunciation: primarystressek-wschwat-emacron
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
1 : fairness or justice in dealings between persons
2 : a system of law that is a more flexible addition to ordinary common and statute law and is designed to protect rights and achieve just settlements in cases where ordinary legal settlements may be too strict
3 : the value of an owner’s interest in a property in excess of claims against it (as the amount of a mortgage)

* * *

It appears that as our insurer of two cars, a renters insurance policy we are not required to have and a million dollar umbrella insurance policy chose to not wait an hour. Instead they sent out an immediate cancellation notice by email then a pink letter I picked up in today’s mail.

Am I livid? Yes, I’ve talked to several people and sent a letter to the head of the Gecko Network.

We’ve been good customers for 14 years and have four accounts. All they can say is that these letters are sent by the system and they can’t do anything about their issuance.

When called, a representative said that after 14 years paying into the Gecko Network we don’t have “equity” in it so get notices on the first of every month if our online check has not been processed.

What is “equity” when it comes to an insurance company? I’d like to know. If we don’t have “equity” after 14 years, what might that elusive pink or punk elephant be?

Our state does not give one day’s grace period for lateness on an auto insurance policy, something I’m trying to remedy because it turns out our state senator has to run for office in a few weeks and I’m a new swing state voter.

Thirty years ago I had a check cashed at my local (back home) auto insurance agent’s office. It was due on the first but was a day late due to the mail service. Remember, this is 30 years ago.

They cashed the check that was due for the coming month and cancelled my policy the same day. I called and called and called. I was working for the Speaker of the NYS Assembly at the time, on Insurance. My agent would not answer a call and his assistant would not even answer the phone.

New York State has a 15 day grace period for auto insurance. I went to a reception that night for the insurance industry and ran into a former lobbyist who became Insurance Commissioner under the Governor.

The Commissioner asked what was up and I told him what happened to me. He asked if he could take care of it personally if I sent him the paperwork by interoffice mail. The next morning my agent called (he probably had an accident in his pants) and said my policy was reinstated with a decrease in premiums.

Would I have liked to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Well, insurance is regulated state by state because that’s the way the insurance industry wants it to be (unlike banking, but no-one regulates the banks, they only take bailouts).

I’m pioneering a five business day grace period for auto insurance policy holders because no-one can depend on computers, or the US mail. The State of Wisconsin has no grace period at all and told me they could do nothing for me with GEICO.

I’m looking into other companies but haven’t had a good hit yet. GEICO has been good to us for 14 years, we’ve had two minor claims in 14 years, under $5K total and two windshield nicks. I’d hate to leave them but will if a better deal comes along.

In the meantime, I’m going to pressure the state legislature to enact a grace period so these companies don’t send out pink envelopes to long-standing, premium-paying clients who always pay on time for over a decade, just because some dang computer says so.

Are you with me? Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,