Cooking with Dee

Wouldn’t one wish to see both? A few years ago we chose lake. My screen saver shows both, wouldn’t that be a hoot.

“Our” mountains were so amazing. Growing up and having my first place to myself I learned the soothing sounds of the only two-way street that 18-wheelers were allowed to traverse. I heard the gears at the traffic light at first, then they muffled. It was only when family came to visit and mentioned it that I remembered my initiation.

In the mountains I was afraid of the mortars they used to prevent avalanches at five in the morning. Within a week it was like a lullaby. It’s going to be morning soon, must take the dog out.

One gets used to things, and doesn’t. There is not a moment I see the lake and the sun or moon shining on it that is not magnificent. Same for my mountains. Here there’s the Coast Guard, there ski resorts. We didn’t ski downhill. Tried XC once and I went 1/4 mile each way and probably didn’t walk the next day! Make the best of your day! Dee

As far as my book goes, an infant in the womb does not have the opportunity to select his/her parents, even siblings. They are just there, and need to be dealt with.

Same with kindergarten and grammar school. No choices there, it all depends on where one lives and what the parents decide.

As you get older you may have a choice of which college to attend, with whom to be friends there and who to go out with on a Saturday night for dinner and a movie.

Later, one selects a spouse and decides on having kids, where to work and live. A dear lady who works here is getting married this week! She has made her selection and was concerned about an age difference. I believe I dispelled her fears, saying that they are both mature adults, know that they selected each other, and that I’m over twice that amount of time older than my husband!

A sad selection went on as well this week, for a family member who is dying, about what tie to wear in his casket. His mother liked one of my husband’s, which would have been an honor to give, but the family on site went with one from his favorite sports team. I do not select to have him go. I always wonder what his theme will be every holiday, he is funny. On Easter Day, he got the phone and said “Happy April Fools!” I told him he could not do anything to me because I wasn’t there and he replied “there’s a possum in your house” so we kept that going for a day and he was happy and laughing.

Oh, we selected a dog as well. Adoption from a shelter, best dog in the world as I got to raise her from scratch. I did love my old dog, also from a shelter, but she was abused and needed a lot of work to be normal, as she became and was loved by kids and all, neighbors had a tree planted in her memory. She died shortly before I met my husband, and I had her for ten years and knew her for eleven. Our Zoe is now 14 and losing her eyesight and hearing.

I often have to pat her head to get her up to go out and eat her breakfast in the mornings. Don’t worry, she is good inside, and still a chow hound and scarfs up anything she can find! When it comes to our next selection, it will be when Zoe asks us to let her go. I don’t think it is the right time to select and train a new pup until our gal is gone. I choose to nurture and protect her until her choice is made. I’ll know. I’m her “mom.” Dee

I never knew what that meant as a kid, just thought it an exotic destination if I ever stepped off USA soil. I have, but have spent the most time in Scotland, London, as little as possible in Northern France, lots in Italy and Greece.

USA is always with me, welcome Sweden, Netherlands and hello again UK. I’m going to wait to hear from Scotland. We were on George Square looking at City Hall and there were parades with increased police presence from girls, to boys, to women (mounted police), and the men had basically SWAT teams en route to a soccer game. It’s still Catholic vs. Protestant over there. No matter what Henry VIII said, I don’t understand why he tore apart his and other countries.

Two days after we arrived in Scotland the weather turned cold and I had to buy winter clothing for me and my husband and I found stamps there, plus cool postcards to send home, where I didn’t have to wait in line for an hour at the post office. I told a Japanese tourist, after he asked me where to buy stamps. Soon every Japanese tourist was asking me questions and I’d been there less than a week and knew nothing. Luckily I had a compatriot from the States and we plumbed all the nearby castles and their treasures and put the word out. All this without an early blog.

We were able to give advice on what to see and what not to see depending on the interests of any visitor. I am a magnet for people. Our dog is ten times the magnet as she gets petted and has treats (we donate) for a trick.

Back “home” I hear horns, squealing brakes, sirens and Harleys. I miss the sound of the bagpipes on the streets in Scotland. Wherever I live I learn to live with Moo, even trucks going through the gears in front of my window I miss the pipes. Dee

I give, rarely get. I don’t look forward to getting anything we owe to each other and our dog, love and forgiveness for eating a shoe while stressed at being flown halfway across the country in “crate class.” Yes, that was the dog, not my husband. She is too old to fly.

I’ve an “entitlement theory” where people think they are more important and/or raised better than the rest of us. They cut in line at the grocery store, even run on the side of the highway fleeing from a Cat 4 hurricane. Without speaking at all, we stayed in the right lane and one guy took his truck to the right along side the road and we kept pace with him and traffic, about 2 mph. We thwarted the people who thought they were more important than everyone. They had to get back in and wait for the police that were holding M-16’s to safeguard gas stations. We couldn’t get gas for miles after that.

Every hotel, motel was filled and every gas station was empty. Luckily we stayed with his parents. Even the no-tell motel had a parking lot filled with luxury cars. The motel soon re-painted with the money they made from that hurricane.

In work and in life, I never kick the person below me down the ladder. Neither does my husband, which is part of why I married him. We bring people up and allow them to be what they can be. Years ago my father met a truck driver for whom he had an intelligence test taken and he was a genius! Dad got him a scholarship to college. He ended up with a doctorate and successful career, and was a mentor to me.

The end lesson is that it doesn’t help to bring people down, but to bring them up. That is the role of a leader. Leaders don’t force people off roads in a hurricane. They help, Dee

Years ago I’d walk down the street and have a marvelous sandwich at a local restaurant. I am not trying to re-create it here, it’s just something I’ve never tried and would love to make one and check it out. After all, it might get my husband off a lifetime meat & potatoes kick for at least one lunch!

I’m thinking at least 12-grain toasted bread. It’s vegetarian, not vegan, so slather some homemade guacamole on both sides, layer with perhaps butter lettuce, sprouts, and room-temperature Brie. Sauteed sliced mushrooms would be a good touch, but a duxelles would be better as it wouldn’t squish out. As would sliced tomatoes.

Hot toast, veg, warm Brie or Camembert, greens, what’s not to love? Oh, fried green tomatoes on the side with a quick pickle of thinly sliced European (seedless) cucumber with French breakfast radishes, also sliced and pickled, a bit of apple cider vinegar and splash of salt and pepper. Sugar, a pinch. I know Bobby Flay would do honey but I do organic sugar. So be it from the church of Dee.

My husband ate an entire mini-meatloaf last night, I substituted turkey for beef. Tonight we’re having a spatchcocked Cornish game hen (I’ll cut out the backbone and crush the chest bone, I think my butchers appreciate that, as they do the meals I bring in for them to taste) marinated in lemon grass and garlic and chiles. I think we’ll cook it indirectly on the grill. With it will be small multi-colored potatoes and that is to be determined. We just may place the potatoes in a cast iron pan on the hot side of the grill to roast, along with some heirloom carrots. That’s just salt, pepper, a little thyme and olive oil.

Lunch is fajitas, at least for him. I’ll make salsa and guacamole and have a chicken breast in the frig. Breakfast is either smoked bacon or blueberry sausages, eggs and toast with local jam. He’s been gone for two weeks and leaves again in 24 hours so I have to make sure he has home-cooked foods because he eats in restaurants all the time. I loved my father, still do even though he is gone, but he traveled also and got used to the thought that Mom could make him a dish he desired in an instant. No, I don’t have any veal chops or heavy cream.

I made my father a classic cassoulet once which is a two-day process with duck, sausage and beans and veg and crust that has to be dealt with every hour. He said it was his favorite meal of all time. That means a lot to me.

When one gets in from an airport he can not ask for cassoulet at home and have it done in 1/2 hour. It’s simply not on the menu. There is your answer. Sorry, hon. My husband has never had a classic cassoulet. I don’t mind cooking one, it’s just that it might be an out of the blue request when his plane lands at 11:00 p.m. Don’t worry, I go to the gas station up the street and get him his favorite frozen thin crust pizza and a 2 liter Dr. Pepper. All he has to do is call me from the airport and I’ll turn on the oven. Cheers from the cook, Dee

My pup is on her way out, but for six years she has provided treats for her fellow canines. After hearing of our efforts, a couple of neighbors have chipped in with small bags of goodies.

Zoe’s treats go in to a big cookie jar, the latest are Charlee Bear’s Bear Crunch, grain-free. one dog refused one of the specialty treats and wanted Zoe’s choice. Do we have a mascot or not?

Unrequited love? No, I have it in an intermittent husband and forever dog. She was attacked yesterday but seems OK.  She’s an Aussie mix and her ruff is thick so I don’t think the teeth ever got in there. She hates for me to comb her ruff (chest fur).

Yes, I slept with my hand on her belly for breathing, and searched for blood much of the night. She is still old, mainly deaf and with cataracts but seems to be OK until the vet sees her.

I love my family, always will. Dee

I was young, a mere child, during the civil rights movement. If I had my feet under me I’d have been on those buses.

Likewise when my father said I was going to college for a MRS, to be a wife, degree, yeah, I fooled him for over 20 years after I worked for others, then for him. As a consultant.

Back in the day I helped with the first legislation to allow same-sex couples to have a home and a job. Decades later, they can finally get married. I’d like to think I was a part of that. Job security on the NYC building code was essential so we required 42″ netting. Privacy was my goal and it has been eroded as now cell phones can hear what we say on the phone as well as off the phone. I hope the NSA likes me talking or signing to my deaf dog.

Today, I spent several hours talking to our bank, an account I placed my husband on over 15 years ago. They actually talked to me today and set an appointment for business and personal accounts. They did not say, as usual “we need your husband’s approval before we can speak with you.” But it’s my account! I had it for years before we met.

We’re legally half-owners of both the marriage and the business. I was forced to give up my consulting business to move everywhere with my husband, so now I cook and arrange flowers, feed and walk the dog and go to a museum from time to time. And pay bills and do taxes et al.

I always made less than the guys I worked with, and was told that they were married or they had kids as an excuse for paying me less. I worked more hours than anyone (I was assigned to cover for them in the office until their bill was to come up on the floor, sometimes until 4 a.m. and we all had to be in by nine no matter what and had three times the bills to carry) and was propositioned in elevators by elected officials and had to properly deflect those requests. My job should have required more pay, rather than less. Dee

Welcome Brazil and Chile!

My husband will have been away for two weeks this time, for work and will be home tomorrow night.

As he always eats in restaurants during the week, I thought I’d try an old favorite and perhaps a new one. Dinner.

Meat loaf. He hates leftovers but loves a meat loaf sandwich the next day. Spatchcocked Cornish Game Hen marinated with lemon grass et al. If it’s not snowing/sleeting/raining on the same day we may be able to cook it on the grill.

He’s been gone for two weeks. I like for him to have some home-cooked foods on the weekends. We try to get out for lunch.

Oh, he found this game we played at a restaurant/beer place a while ago. It arrived this evening and I decided not to cook, rather go to the place where we played it with the entire box and let them know that we now have one as well. Bears & Babies. I had the wrong glasses so could not even read the rules, but I won.

This one is sealed in plastic, that he will open tomorrow. It was supposed to be sent to his family but it ended up here, where it will remain. He’ll send another to family. I’ve better glasses so can read the rules while I make a stew or something in the slow-cooker. Dee

of people and things. I preserve art by framing it and placing in under 98% UV preventive glass.

We have sconces here that are under my husband’s height so I’ve placed thickly framed artworks under badly placed sconces so that he will not hit his head and need to go to the hospital. He would not wish to ruin one of my photographs in the hallway, so he won’t hit his head. Don’t question me, it’s worked for years.

I’ve now 14 works of art stacked in our kitchen because when he is home, he likes to make spaghetti and meatballs and inevitably gets tomato sauce on the walls. I call that self-preservation. The paint ain’t all that great and regular scrubbings would probably take us through to our neighbors. Right near the trouble spot is now a framed photo of him in high school at Christmas, by the tree, putting together a grill his father got for his mother. It’s a favorite photo for both of us, as it shows his personality. Driven, methodical.

Canine preservation. A dear pup who loved our Zoe has grown up. In less than a minute last evening (we call it “last chance” outing because after that she wants to be lifted up to our bed right away to sleep as she has no hips) she was attacked twice by said dog. The owner never apologized but I told him Zoe did nothing to provoke the attack and he agreed. He’s a good guy and has never seen that kind of behavior before. Zoe is 100 in “people years” and was just standing there at the time. They sniffed noses, he attacked.

Just as “Mama Bear” protected her cubs, my husband and his younger brother, I take care of him and our old dog as best I can. I’ve also made limoncello once, and a blueberry/blackberry ‘cello still in the frig for tastings, so that is preservation as well. Right now I don’t have room for canning equipment but when I do, I’ll ask my mother-in-law about her pear preserves. Pears with cinnamon. Delightful! Dee

No, I’m not talking GFCI, electrical outlets. OK, perhaps I am. We keep people and things safe through grounding.

My dog was the first official photo to be sent out on Instagram by our lessors. That was about 15 minutes ago. She wore her Greyfriars Bobby collar and brought the book that I just received. Greyfriars Bobby is buried next to his master at the kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. We went there, saw the church, cemetery, statue and his favorite pub where little Skye terrier would go every day for a free meal at the 1:00 cannon to place all the ships in harbor on the same time. The Scots are frugal, why have a 12:00 gun and waste 11 cannonballs when you can make it 1:00?

Bobby has been grounding children for 150 years, by a book and movies of him sitting on his master’s grave for fourteen years. While I’m not in the grave as yet, our Zoe has been by my side for fourteen years and I need to be by hers as she loses her sight and hearing. She has grounded me.

My family has grounded me in a way, one parent said I could do anything and the other said I could do nothing. They’re both gone now.

My husband of over 15 years, a genius, has provided a GFCI for me, that is a ground fault circuit interrupter for those overseas who have more advanced systems. He is the rock my life is built upon.

My brother the other genius is there, intermittently, Over the past ten years we’ve only seen each other at our parents’ funerals.

I think about grounding as I do food, even flowers now. Food requires a French education (see my cookbooks) then an Italian tempering with a Greek je ne sais quoi. Once you know the rules, you can stretch them, even break them. Grounding.

Flowers are not easy, nor is picture framing. Everything requires a brain, an eye, a heart and a soul. Life and loss are not easy. I put up flowers every week for my immediate family in small vases, and always have two to remember Dad, this week it’s sunflowers. Greens help ground my food, flowers, family as they are a base on which to build.

Dad built great institutions and they were always grounded in purpose and perseverance, ingenuity and imagination. I inherited some of that, learned more from him and to think outside the box. I am a thinker and a problem-solver.

My husband’s family grounds me. They think he’s in an air balloon and I’m tethering him. As a joke we have a hot air balloon piece of art next to an abacus. While they’re both magnetized now and on the refrigerator I’ve never been the abacus, I’m up in the balloon. So much for grounding! Dee