Tagliatelle alla Victor

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What a way to end a wild and crazy week - homemade Pasta alla Victor!

It's been a great week to be a Liberal, but life continues on and dinners have to be made. Part of our Gay Agenda is getting his Mom fed and her medications in her on schedule.

Victor bought me a pasta roller years ago and then proceeded to master the art of perfect pasta-making. I don't go near it - I don't think I could do it justice after the light as a cloud pasta Victor continually makes. Besides... I ain't no fool. The man is cooking me dinner - I'm ready fork in hand.

Making pasta isn't difficult, but it does take time and a feel for the dough that only comes through practice. As in bread-making, where I can just tell when it's right, Victor just knows when the pasta dough has reached the perfect consistency. It is an art, for sure.

A silken, edible art.

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Victor’s Pasta

  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • up to 1 teaspoon water, if necessary

Instructions

On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add egg and egg yolk to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Add drops of water, if necessary. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.

Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.

Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.

Cut sheet in half width-wise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.

With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.

To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.

The sauce was his sauce we made and jarred a few months ago, along with a few hot Italian sausages.

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Sauce made in small batches with real ingredients and no fillers, chemicals, or extraneous ingredients placed solely to trick the mind into thinking it's eating real food.

It is good.

The final plate was rich sauce with silken pasta and a just-spicy-enough sausage. I ate more than I should have and loved every bite.

Real good.


Marriage Equality and French Champagne

 

At 10 o'clock this morning, I really really wanted to call my mother. She would have been so happy. Very honestly really happy.

I remember the day 40-whatever years ago when I told her I was gay. She cried. Not because I was gay, but because she knew what a rough life I was going to have - and she feared I would be alone. I lived all over the USofA chasing rainbows of one sort or another but true love always eluded me. I hid the rough spots over the years, but she always hoped I would settle down.

And then I - and she - met Victor. It was love at first sight.

She adored him and knew from Day One that I had finally met my life-mate. She was a proud mama and so happy that her little boy had finally found the happiness she had always hoped and prayed for.

She died way too soon, but she left us knowing we were happy.

And today, I just wanted to call her and say We Did It!  Legal everywhere! She would have beamed with pride.

What a difference from that little boy 50 years ago - several lifetimes ago - who at 13 actually thought about killing himself. I knew I was different, I thought something was wrong with me. I kinda knew what it was, but it was something I had to keep secreted in the deepest depths of my being. The love that dare not speak its name...

It was a very frightening time. I think it's one of the reasons I'm very publicly out today. I want other 13 year old kids to see a [reasonably] well-adjusted adult gay male out there and just kinda pass on the "it's okay" message.

When I told my father I was gay, his reply was "I know. I was wondering how long it would be before you finally mentioned it."

And then I CAME OUT. In a blaze of Rainbow Glory. I was so out my brother finally told me he liked me better when I was in the closet. I got the message and toned things down a bit. It was such a relief, though, not to have to hide. Of course, it opened up a whole new can of worms... I got to experience fear - not of being found out - but of getting my ass kicked for being in the wrong place or coming out of the wrong bar. And then there was the hotel GM who told me I wasn't going any further up the Corporate Ladder because I didn't have - emphasis his - a wife.

So many years of open and blatant discrimination. So many years of being called a sodomite and a sinner, that I was going to hell. Laws enacted to deny me my basic human rights.

Hell - I couldn't even get out of the draft by saying I was gay. In those pre-Don't Ask Don't Tell days, I would have been inducted, and then dishonorably discharged. With a probably prison sentence. Really. I lied like hell and then hoped to hell no one found out.

When we moved back here from California in 2001, I - naturally - had to quit my job. California denied me unemployment because we weren't married. I filed an appeal and a judge wrote a scathing opinion denouncing California, stating that we had done everything we legally could to validate our relationship and they couldn't deny my unemployment based on a legality they refused to give me. It was great.

When California finally enacted Marriage Equality we finally decided to get married at home in San Francisco in 2008. The wedding was planned for November 23rd. Prop 8 passed on November 8th. So much for our non-wedding.

We were finally married in October 2010 by a dear friend in New Hampshire. And then parts of DoMA were repealed. In May 2014 - while we were in Sicily - Pennsylvania recognized our New Hampshire marriage.

And today, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court announced we are married. Period.

What a long, strange trip it has been. I don't think that little boy 50 years ago ever dreamed this day would come.

Hell - in 1995, Victor and I marched as honor guards in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade for Hawai'i defendants Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel - two of the women who sued Hawai'i for the right to marry and really started the firestorm. I didn't think we had a snowballs chance in hell of ever seeing marriage equality in our lifetimes.

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The champagne came back with us from Paris about 10 years ago. It's been sitting in the 'fridge waiting the right moment to come out, so to speak. Today seemed like the perfect day to drink champagne and spread some cheer.

So cent’ anni - a hundred years!

Oh... and that 10 year old champagne was outstanding!  We need to go back and get another bottle!

 


Peach Sriracha BBQ Sauce

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I really enjoy making different BBQ Sauces - the flavors are really fun and the possibilities really are endless. From root beer to fig and even strawberry, we've made our share of sauces.

I have been dreaming about a peach sriracha bbq sauce for a while, now, and today was the day to make it happen.

Sriracha is a flavor profile that I really like. Southeast Asian with lots of heat - but with lots of flavor. It's not just heat for heats's sake.

So... armed with 8 pounds of peaches and 7 huge red peppers, I went to work. First was roasting the peppers...

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The peppers had me drooling. There's something about charring peppers and steaming them in a bag that just gets my gastric juices flowing. It took great restraint to keep from just eating them standing up in the kitchen.

Into the pot they went with a couple pounds of onions, a full head of garlic, and the peaches. I put the peaches - unpeeled - into the food processor and mashed them up pretty well before adding them to the pot.

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And then went in a whole bottle of Sriracha Sauce, a cup of pure cane syrup, 2 heaping tablespoons of smoked paprika, a full bottle of catsup, 2 cups apple cider vinegar, and some salt and pepper... and I let it simmer away for about an hour.

Into sterilized jars and into the pressure canner.

Alas, one jar didn't make it. I have a few old jars that I really do need to just replace - I've been reusing them for years. Note to self: go through the jars downstairs...

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But they cleaned up nicely.

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I ended up with 8 quarts of sauce. Methinks I may get some smaller jars at some point and re-can some of it for Christmas.

We shall see.

In the meantime...  here's the recipe:

Peach Sriracha BBQ Sauce

  • 8 pounds fresh, ripe peaches
  • 7 large red bell peppers
  • 2 pounds onions
  • 1 head garlic
  • 2 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 1 bottle sriracha sauce
  • 1 bottle catsup
  • 1 cup cane syrup
  • 2 tbsp smoked paprika
  • salt and pepper

Roast peppers, steam, peel, and chop. Set aside.

Chop 2 pounds onions and saute in a large pot until translucent, using about a quarter cup olive oil.

Add peppers and minced garlic.

Pit peaches. In batches, chop in food processor, and add to pot.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer. Let sauce simmer about an hour, stirring now and then to keep from scorching.

Using an immersion blender, blend sauce until smooth.

Place sauce into hot, sterilized jars, and process in a hot water bath or pressure canner according to manufacturers instructions. (About 15 minutes at 11 pounds pressure for a pressure canner.)

I have to admit it came out great. It's going on grilled chicken, tonight - and steaks tomorrow!


Tortellini and Cod

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I had it in my mind to make pasta when I got home, today. Victor had the same idea - except his idea was even better than mine!

Victor cooks a lot on Saturday. It's his day of domesticity - laundry, vacuuming, that sort of thing - and more often than not, a great dinner. I love it! It is great pulling into the driveway on my last day of work for the week and seeing Victor in the kitchen. Really great!

Tonight was no exception... I saw him through the window and I knew something good was afloat.

We had some Alaskan cod in the freezer and Victor simmered it in a jar of his homemade sauce. Simplicity. And totally delicious. Nice-sized chunks of cod gave the sauce a delicate hint of seafood and fresh pecorino romano and basil on top brought it right over the top. I hate to keep harping on it, but it really is so easy to cook decent meals at home on a regular basis. You just have to do it. And the more you do it the better you become and the better you become the easier it is... Really. It's like canning 14 quarts of sauce at one time... Yes, it takes a bit of time to do it, but the payoff is fresh sauce without crap in it.

I'm getting a bit nervous, though... I think we're down to only 2 quarts of sauce left. It was my hope that we could get through until our (in my dreams) bumper-crop of tomatoes was here and we could make a vat using fresh tomatoes. Methinks we may have to make a batch using the last of the San Marzano tomatoes downstairs in the very near future. Oh well. The things we have to suffer through...

Tomorrow is my day in the kitchen. I'm planning on making a vat of Peach Sriracha BBQ Sauce. I have the peaches, the onions, the red peppers, the tomatoes, and the sriracha... I've been kinda formulating a recipe in my head for the past few days. We'll see how it comes about tomorrow. It's supposed to rain for the next 36 or so hours, so making a few gallons of BBQ sauce sounds like a fun thing to do.

And in the meantime... my tummy is smiling and I am one happy and content guy...


Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder

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I was at the store looking for some baby back ribs for dinner and the racks were all in the $13-$14 range - pretty normal for where we live. I went to pick one up and glanced down and there were whole pork shoulders for the same price. One meal or five meals... Guess which one won?!?

The beauty of our kitchen - and especially the spice cabinet - is that we can cook just about whatever we want whenever we want, because we have most of the necessary ingredients hanging about. It didn't take much to figure out a dry rub and get this onto the grill.

Salt and pepper were automatic, as was smoked paprika, chipotle powder, ancho chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, Mexican oregano, and sweet basil. I wanted lots of smoky stuff since I was using a gas grill.

After getting the grill nice and hot, I turned off the middle burners and let it cook with indirect heat for about three hours. It was pull-apart perfect.

I let it cool and split it up into 5 batches - 4 for the freezer and one for the stove-top.

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I looooove my FoodSaver! We bought it years ago and it has paid for itself many times over.

Batch 5 went into a skillet with some spicy sriracha BBQ sauce and dinner was born!

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It was a great East Meets West flavor combination!

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I added sliced pickles - homemade by our dear friend Ann and her daughter Melinda - to my sandwich. There's something about pickles and BBQ that just works. Grilled corn and a baked sweet potato finished things off. The corn was spread with a bit of mayonnaise and then sprinkled with some Kansas City BBQ seasonings compliments of our friend Luigi. Wrapped in foil and cooked on the shelf rack of the grill.

The perfect summer dinner!

 


Sriracha Hot Dogs

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I have been dreaming about this since Friday's burgers...

It's no secret that my favorite food - after ice cream - is a hot dog. It is the ultimate in versatile comfort food. From beanie-weenies to chili dogs, bacon-wrapped to jalapeño pepper topped - and everything in between - I loves me some hot dogs. Fried, grilled, boiled, steamed, dipped in corn batter - they're all good.

And I knew when I tasted the Sriracha Cole Slaw, that I would be putting it atop a hot dog really soon. Two hot dogs, in fact.

Sweet, hot, crunchy... My stomach is smiling...


Sriracha Cole Slaw

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It is rare that I will make something at work all day and then come home and make it for dinner. Welcome to one of those rare days.

Today's gastronomical delight is Sriracha Cole Slaw. Really. Cole slaw with a spicy bbq sauce base. Creamy, crunchy, and mildly spicy - the bbq sauce is tempered by the mayo. It's one of those dishes that keeps me going back for more. And more.

And it's so easy to make.

I've been using the Sriracha BBQ Sauce on everything, from ribs - last night - to chicken, pork, and a tri-tip on the grill. It just works. And, knowing that it just works, I knew it would work as a salad dressing, as well.

Sometimes ya just know.

I made a hefty batch and tonight, put it on burgers. The burger was a total mess to eat. Just the way a good burger should be. There's enough left to have it a few more times, because... well... It's really good.

 

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Sriracha Cole Slaw

  • 1 bag shredded cabbage
  • 1 bag shredded carrots
  • 1 red onion, julienned
  • 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
  • 3/4 cup Sriracha BBQ sauce
  • Salt & Pepper, to taste

Slice onions into strips. In a large bowl, mix carrots, cabbage, and onions.

Add mayonnaise and Sriracha BBQ sauce and mix well.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

Tonight's dinner was remarkable in another way, as well. Not the tater tots covered in cheese - I get those now and again... No... It was actually buying pre-shredded cabbage and carrots! That's almost a first, for me!

Will wonders never cease?!?

 

 

 


Stuff

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One of my more fun cooking styles is clean out the refrigerator. The dish is usually an amalgamation of pieces of this-and-that that are hanging around the 'fridge. Things that are too small for an actual meal and too big or too good to toss - things that just accumulate over time. It's the type of meal that is almost always stellar - and will never be replicated because the odds of having these same items in the 'fridge at the same time are between slim and none.

Tonight's meal started with 2 meaty country pork ribs, a single cooked Italian sausage, a bit of leftover flank steak, a green pepper, an onion, half a basket of mini heirloom tomatoes, and a single ear of corn. Oh. And three pieces of bacon.

I started with the bacon. I chopped it up and let it start to brown. Into the pan went the onion - the smell of bacon and onion cooking together is almost olfactory overload - and after browning everything nicely, I added the ribs.

After went the tomatoes, the green pepper, the corn, the sausage and the flank steak - and then a cup of white wine, salt, pepper, and a great spice blend my friend, Tyler, brought back from Florida - Old St Augustine Minorcan Spice. It's a blend of Datil peppers, Seville oranges, garlic, onion... Not too spicy and with a nice hint of orange.

Good stuff.

I covered the pot and placed it in a 300° oven for a couple of hours. It's cold and damp outside - it was nice having the oven on...

I pulled it out of the oven, shredded the pork and tossed the bones, and then added about a cup of beef broth and a half-cup of rice, mixed it all together, and put it back in the oven for another hour. Covered.

The end result was a rich, meaty rice dish with tons of flavor.

Nonna asked if she could have it for lunch, tomorrow. It was definitely a hit!

And there's more Strawberry Pie for dessert.

Life is good!


Strawberry Pie

It's not often that produce makes me stop in my tracks, nowadays. In a former life, I was a specialty produce buyer for a gourmet food distributor and at 4am, you'd find me at the produce market at SFO looking for new and unique - or just stellar - produce. It was the mid-'80s and fresh produce was being rediscovered. Baby vegetables, exotic greens, kiwis flown in from New Zealand at a dollar a piece...

It was great fun and a great education. I learned so much from so many people - and ate and ate and ate. I've never been a vegetarian, never wanted to be a vegetarian, but I have a great respect for Mother Nature's Bounty. It's one of the reasons I love Europe so much - they have a totally different respect for food and the earth that we lack here in the states.

So here it is 30 years later and I'm out in 'burbia walking through the grocery store and my eyes zero in on a basket of strawberries that were some of the most perfect-looking berries I've seen since I was a wee tyke. Not only did they look perfect, they smelled perfect - like strawberries that wanted to be eaten right this moment.

The two-pound box went right into the basket.

I could have just hulled them and eaten them out-of-hand, but that wouldn't be me. My modus operandi is to take the healthiest thing I can find and add whipping cream.

It's an art. What can I say?

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And add whipping cream, I did. And a bit of booze, because... well... I can.

Strawberry Pie

crust

  • 1 cup walnuts, toasted
  • 1 cup cookie crumbs
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup - butter, melted

filling

  • 6 cups quartered hulled strawberries (about 1 1/2 lbs)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup grenadine liqueur

topping

  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp grenadine liqueur

Preheat oven to 350°F.

For crust:

Butter a deep-dish 9" pie dish. Mix walnuts, cookie crumbs, and sugar in processor and chop until finely ground. Add melted butter and mix until crumbs are evenly coated. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of prepared pie dish.

Bake crust until set, about 12 minutes. Cool completely on rack.

For filling:

Place 2 1/2 cups strawberries in medium saucepan. Mash strawberries with potato masher until chunky. Add sugar, cornstarch, and grenadine.

Stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils and thickens, about 3 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl. Cool to room temperature. Stir in remaining 3 1/2 cups strawberries and grated orange peel. Mound filling in crust. Chill pie until cold and set, at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours.

For topping:

Whip cream with a couple tablespoons of sugar and a couple tablespoons of grenadine liqueur until stiff peaks form. Spread over filling. Top with reserved strawberries.

There's not a lot of liquid for the amount of corn starch, so it gets really, really thick. It will loosen a bit when you stir in the rest of the strawberries after it cools, but you need it really thick to hold together when you slice it.

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Ooey-gooey perfection.

I used some fairly plain Italian cookies we had in the house, but you can use just about anything from vanilla wafers to graham crackers - or even mix it up and go chocolate - maybe even paint the cooled crust with melted chocolate before adding the strawberry filling.

Have fun with it. It's pie. It won't be bad no matter what you do!