Cooking with Dee

Since I’m up I may as well write.

I dreaded the first day of school when the teacher would mis-pronounce my name. Had nightmares all summer about that first day and what was to come.  The dreaded take-off-coat-underwear nightmares.

My seat was in the back so I wouldn’t be noticed. When our music director called me in after school I thought I was in trouble. Then she made me look away while she played notes and I called them back to her (perfect pitch) then tried me out for the lead on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” My Aunt Lorna cried at the concert, which I actually had the guts to perform.

My parents never fought but divorced instead after being married nearly 40 years. I thought that to get into a disagreement with a boyfriend was an automatic end of the relationship.

Even in politics I didn’t appreciate the fight because I always thought it was personal. It wasn’t until I took on a volunteer endeavor and was followed, harassed in public and worse that I realized it is personal and political and deals with whatever your values happen to be.

So you need to stand up for what you believe in. No matter what it is. If it’s important to you, do it. I did it when one of the boys took my winter hat off my head at age 9 on the school bus and ripped it in half. You live in a cold climate, you wear a winter hat. Ferry boys be damned, to this day.

I now make my point on a blog, in newspaper editorials (NYTimes and more); and in person. I know if it’s a woman everyone says it’s “strident” but this is what I have to give. It’s not angry, it’s very positive and a gift I give to you in poetry and prose. No, that’s not spelled Prozac. Dee in a Frank Sinatra Moment (3:00 in the morning).

I have been in love with Frank Sinatra, from afar, since I was a little girl. My favorite album always was “Come Fly With Me” and while I parted company from the mono album years ago I do have it on iTunes now. My parents took me to see him at Carnegie Hall twenty-some years ago.

Favorite song was Isle of Capri, and I don’t know why because the lyrics are not to my modern liking, if you get the drift.

I did find a recipe of his for chicken and sausage, years ago, but it called for about a cup of olive oil. I guess that was before the days of non-stick pans.

Anyway I’d like to provide you with lyrics of a favorite song, which I just heard. “It’s Nice to Go Trav’ling” can be found at http://www.thepeaches.com/music/frank/ItsNicetoGoTravling.htm. I can’t turn on the light to learn my html tags without waking up Jim, who needs his sleep. And Zoe the dog, who doesn’t. And who has taken over my side of the bed.

Remember that this was written at least 50 years before the TSA was invented. Homeland Security was a given and we didn’t strand folks in flooded hospitals and homes.

That said, I’ve had many magnificent meals in the Empire State. My mother and Aunts, plus later on restaurants who made Buffalo famous for chicken wings and beef on ‘weck. Check out the song. Wish I could send it to you. There was a restaurant in Binghamton NY (leather shoe factory land) that served Sauerbraten and red cabbage. When I look up recipes for sauerbraten it always starts with “marinate for four days…” and I can never wait that long. Right now I’m looking for a quality German place in Texas.

Enjoy your weekend! We’re sleeping in and probably doing lunch and a movie tomorrow but I’m informed I must test-drive cars. Dee