On The Road Again, just wish it was the Doolin road

It has been about six months since my last post, kinda got burned out on Bufblofopo, but lots of great stuff has come to pass, and now I miss communicating. So, every once in a while, I plan to do a modest post.

Our trip to Ireland was beyond all hopes cool. If you were there, you know. If not, come with us the next time. The next trip is still in dreamscape, but we will go together once more, for sure.

The garden was a disaster. John got the tomatoes in, but I could not keep up with it, I'm sorry to say. Next year for sure. The little fruit trees are basically ok, however. We need to deer protect them, and we all plan to do our part.

Julia & I had a terrific trip to Dallas, got a last dinner in one of our all time favorite restaraunts, LOLA, which is shutting down at the end of October. Thanks to them for several lifelong memory meals and wines. Plenty of Bloody Marys at the Rattlesnake Bar. Mighty good.

The Sabres open up Saturday. Totally my favorite sport. A happy anticipation to say goodnight by. All my love to you.

Four things I'll tell you more about....later

I. I just paid a visit to my tomato seedlings. The are just gorgeous,all green & perky under artificial light. I watered them, said hello & had a glass of wine while dreaming of this year's garden. It will be remarkable. Could it be otherwise with tomatoes named "Clint Eastwood Rowdy Red" or "Paul Robeson Black Tomato" ? I think not.

II. Ireland. With the fam. Trip of a lifetime until we go to Alaska. With bags of Score bars.

III. I got to see snippets of Obama's town hall press conference today, streaming on the computer. I am so hopeful that the world and our country will achieve the greatness we are destined for. Come on, Republicans and Bluedogs. This is the TWENTY FIRST century. People should not be hungry, sick, poor or at war just to feed your political ambition. You are truly pimples on the ass of prosperity.

IV. Although this is March Madness season, I love the Sabres & the Bills. Will next year be the years? I'll write again in 12 months.

..and the damage done

I have a picture to post in response to the Bufblopofo, but, I don't know how. I will get help with this, because you will clearly see that Grandma must have smoked, highballed and cocktailed, and listened to jazz in 1949. I think it notable that we celebrated each pregnancy with champagne, and never drank Pet milk, even in WIC days. Downed a lot of Total and cheese, though.

Influence

I've spent quite a while thinking about people who inspire me, and there is no shortage of these folks, but very few that resonate in the current milieu. I think that I admire Obama because he is the fulfillment of the culture of the sixties, where I came from. By this, I mean he is the emblem of a post racial society that, for sure more than the recent past, strives for social justice as a means to uplift everybody. And, he is Irish.

Jagermeister? you'll get gold poisoning!

I was in the Boy Scouts for only one night. A little too much structure for me, I guess, so I do not know the rules. In general, I try to be non-judgemental about how others live their lives, but I truly appreciate those who, when they vomit, manage to hit the porcelain or are far enough away from the house so no cleanup is necessary. On the rare occasion that a guest has too much to drink, or even has a nausea/vomiting episode, I think lovingly of all who, myself for sure, have been there, done that. Just don't drive, or mix Midleton with anything. You are always welcome in our house.

Arise, fair sun.....

I do not believe that I've had the pleasure, but I hope to meet Erin Go Blog before too long. I know she reads a kindle, has a new husband, new house & a new job. I hope she is feeling better, and would love to be invited for meatballs when she is well again.

My question for Erin is: you seem to be, like most of us, pretty busy. Your job is on your list of three things (so is relaxation, to be fair). What do you think Anna Quindlen, who seems to advocate more relaxed lifestyle, would ask you if she were posing the Bufblofopo question ?

Free Form Topic

The geezer rock station on Sirius has been playing the 33 most influential albums made on vinyl this weekend. I listened to some of it today, and actually got into hearing this music after all these many years. The top album is "Dark Side of the Moon", which I am ok with, but I have often thought that "Strawberry Fields" was the first departure from the white rock that preceeded it, and maybe the beginning of psychedelic music that pretty much defined the later sixties, when I was so impressionable. I was winter camping with my brothers Jim & Joe, and our essentially adopted brother Jim Angie. We were camped alongside the creek near the old cabin , which burned down before then, which you can see from the 400. The chimney still stands, and you can see it from the road shortly after the onramp at main st. Anyway, AM was the only radio, and there were great, booming stations that could be tuned in late at night from all over, Chicago, NYC (77, WABC), Detroit,Cleveland, and so on. Buffalo had WKBW, and the disc jockeys were big personalities: Dan Neaverth, Joey Reynolds, Russ Syracuse, Tommy Shannon. We listened to them on all kinds of radios, tubes, crystals and eventually, transistors. Radios became truly portable then, and we had one camping. We all hated Strawberry Fields, in fact were generally cool to most of Sgt. Pepper. We eventually came to love this music. I still do.

our house is a very, very,very fine house

I had a few dorm type residences, but the first time I actually confronted the harsh reality of housing came when I was in the Navy. I had lived in the barracks for a while, and elected to get into off base housing because the barracks lacked many comforts, not to mention privacy. Also, I did not know that people actually listened to country music until I was there.

Anyway, there was a street of identical rental houses that were eventually upgraded to slum status, well after I left. Jo-Ellen circle was home to about two hundred Seabees, most of whom had motorcycles and only short term goals. The wall and the ceiling in our living room had about a two inch gap and we had a Navy poncho for a shower curtain. The front door didn't actually close. I can produce a witness to support this. We had a helluva time.

This is only questionably a response to the question, I think. More reasonably, we lived in the luxurious Campus Manor apartments when we were first married. These were respectable dwellings, but had a few minor shortcomings. Like ice forming on the inside of the windows, and a thermonuclear oven which did not have a thermostat. We nonetheless ate long and awesome meals and generally had a helluva time. I had a motorcycle, for a while, and Lenny & Reg lived downstairs.

No crap here?

In the interest of efficiency and good time management, this post will contain two responses. For the purpose of bragging without the addition of crap, let me tell you all that I have no tattoos. This despite having been drunk as a sailor in Bangkok, Tokyo, DaNang and Biloxi. Is this a function of my astounding self control? No, just the grace of God. One of my friends found a backward Seabee on his arm when he regained consciousness, and another had a fly tattooed on his penis. A small fly. God is good. I was with them both that night.

Insofar as movie roles are concerned, I would like to be played by a smart, sensitive, stud... perhaps Groucho Marx. Or Marlon Brando. You, Mike, could only be captured by Paul Newman, or Jimmy Stewart, of course.

Wrong glass, Sir!

I like to drink wine. I was actually in the business for several years back in the day. We have a modest cellar and an unparalleled label collection. Still, I am not making any claims here. I am not a sommelier, nor have I taken any courses/exams to advance my knowledge. But, I still like to drink wine, good wine especially. This is how I taste a wine:

prenote: wine is sort of a food, and it is changed to a significant extent by the other food extant. This was demonstrated to us by a guy named Doug Eisele, whose parents owned the famous Eisele vineyard in Napa, while Doug was sort of a host at Franciscan. You might try this sometime. He presented four wines, two whites and two reds. He had four cheeses, different in texture, age and milk derivation. We cut each cheese, haha, into four pieces, the tried wine one alone and with a little of each cheese. It was remarkable fun and a learning experience, also.

So, get reasonable wine glasses. You can but them fairly inexpensively and they will make you glad you did. Pour about a quarter of the glass, gently swirl and LOOK. See the color, purple in young reds, straw in older whites. See the clarity, note the meniscus, where the wine meets the glass: is it thick and clear? See how the wine clings to the side of the glass? Lilly, Lilly, LEGS. In higher alcohol wines, or wines with residual sugars, the legs are thick trickles, so unctious. You already know a lot about this wine and have yet to even sniff it.

Swirl to increase the surface area of the wine, and give it a whiff. This is one area that really is amusing because we all will try to describe the "nose" differently. Maybe certain aspects are more prominent to us. Do you smell fruit, or earth, forest floor, cedar? Although this sounds creative, these aromas are often encountered, and should be for certain wines. There are thousands of different volatile elements that can tickle the olfactory, and this is the most variable and expressive part of a wine.

Taste. Although we only really taste four elements, salt, sweet, sour & bitter (there is a controversial fifth, that I do not know much about), this is why we have wine. Because there is still a lot of olfactory appreciation going on, draw a little air in to further boost the volatile elements. There are a variety of measures to apply: mouthfeel, viscosity, complexity, duration, aftertaste. Also, see how it changes over time. After the wine "breathes" or if the temperature changes, how do all the things we appreciate change?

And you should eat good food with good wine. Tasters in white tile laboratories ( lavatories) are working. We do enough work otherwise, so pull a cork or unscrew a cap and toast your friends. "Wine is constant proof of God's love." Ben Franklin was right.

Three leaves of a shamrock

Apparently blogging is NOT one of the three biggest things in my life, or I might have posted in the BUFBLOPOFO order. Sort of like reading the last page first, I guess.

After trying to succinctly put down a three item list, such as God, Family, Country or Me, Myself & I, or sex, drugs & rock n' roll, it became apparent that there are no individual things that I can separate into a list. Instead, I will tell you about my excellent day. We got up early to go to eight o'clock Mass. Neil met us there, somewhat unexpectedly. Today is his birthday. We came home and put some corned beefs on to slow braise, and made ratatouille. We opened a Veuve after Julia got back from the village, then I went outside. Shirt, no jacket, spectacular. We got a respectable Mr. Burns going, topped off the dumpster and rode around on the little tractor. Started the tomato seeds, heirlooms which taste great and look so cool. Had a Guinness with Smokey and bragged on the accomplishments of our children, boiled some fresh beets and greens, cabbage and potatoes (almost had a Dan Quayle moment there, but for spell check), carrots. Had another taste of champagne with Julia while we finished dinner. Enjoyed an great St. Patrick's dinner with Julia, GG, Neil, Matt & Theresa, Emma & GG. Smokey stayed for dinner, Sandy is in North Carolina. Julia made a very fine carrot cake for Neil's birthday, and we opened a couple of really nice cabernets with dinner. Just great. Sort of helped with the dishes, and now am writing to you.

I thought about and talked about all of the kids & grandchildren today, a lot. I especially want to mention Cecilia, riding to Kentucky on a school bus to do a week of mission work. You all make me proud and happy. I hope that:
1. you all had an excellent St. Patrick's day
2. you all have a safe, productive and satisfying week
3. you could cull out three big things from the above

Chow Down, Hombre

We have a book, given to us by Dawn, which has about fifty answers to "What would you have for your last meal?". The answers are from primarily serious chefs, although there is a naked picture of Anthony Bourdain, and the common thread seems to be simple food cooked good, a phrase heard many times at our table.

So, when I think about ultimate dining it is usually not in the context of a last meal, and occasionally this leads to more extravagant ideas. However, simple food cooked good is always a good guide. Especially if the diners are winers, so food can show off the wine.

Some of the most memorable meals have been in restaurants. I do not mean to rank them in any way, but simply to remeber a few here. There was Per Se, with Julia, Cecilia, Louis & Dawn. It was eleven or twelve courses of totally astounding food with eight or ten bottles of unreal wine. We had an Alsatian reisling from the year of Louis' birth, and it drank so fine! Then there is the time we went to Babbo, unexpectedly because we were delayed getting into NY on the plane. Dawn, Louis, Julia and I started dinner at obout eleven, and rolled out about four hours later, thanking God for good food and that we were not driving. Julia and I have been so fortunate to have enjoyed great meals in Ireland, Italy (with Lenny & Reg), Toronto, California and so many places, Cecilia met Julia and me in San Francisco, we ate at Gary Danko, had breakfast at Beuna Vista the next morning (where Irish coffee was first served) and the went to Napa for dinner at La Toque. We also had other dinners on that trip, like lunch at Bouchon, that I will never forget, Terra, for instance. The Four Seasons, no need to say more. Except, maybe, New Orleans.

I guess the favorite dinner memory for me was at San Marco. Eminently successful friends were unexpectedly there, also with their families. These were grandchildren hankerin' people who told us about their new dog. I was able to subtly note that we only had an old dog, but I held baby Julia all the while. As always, the dinner there was tops. Being together was the real treat.

So. What would be my choice? I'll tell you about one more dinner. It was for Papa's fiftieth birthday. Julia & I cooked for days. I had gotten three magnums of 1923 Montrose to build the dinner around (venison grand venuer from house harvested deer). We had consomme Bellevue, clarified until it sparkled, and Crab Remick, in abalone shells and on & on, for about sixty people, here at the house. Guests came from miles away. It went on all night.

Where does that take us? Here. The best meals of my life have been at this table with people I love, simple food cooked good and plenty of wine.

The Ancesteral Home Town

It has been a month since the last post. We were all so busy and the time flew by.We left the holidays with some mighty fine memories, a few extra pounds and a few plans for our trip to Ireland.
We will leave Buffalo and fly to Shannon. I think that the cross Atlantic portion is at night, so we arrive early Saturday morning. We have a bus that will just fit our group, with a driver, who will meet us at the airport. We will rent a minivan, said to seat seven, comes with car seats for the little ones, and a GPS. Our bus will take us to the cottages at Doolin, County Clare. We can either pick up the van when we arrive, or after a few days, and keep it for the duration.
After a week, we go to the east coast, to the cottages at Wicklow, County Wicklow. We return to Buffalo from Dublin at the end of the second week.
There are innumerable things to do and see. When Julia & I went previously, we had a list of things, and what wondrous trips we had! So there are only a few plans I would like to make, and most of these are pretty general. I want to have dinner together on my birthday, there are a couple of places in Doolin that look good, like the Roadford House, that have websites. I would also like a family picture in Sixmilebridge. Ireland is pretty with it concerning the internet, so look for information online for golf, fishing, ancient sites and historic places, restaurants and, of course, shopping. Also, get your passports now.
Sometime after Julia gets back from taking Mimi home, lets get together and compare notes, and see who would like to do things we may need to make arrangements to do. It will be the height of tourist season, so certain reservations will be helpful. But not to micromanage our plans, either.