Forty-Two

Attaining the age of 42 has been somewhat of a milestone for me, in that philosophical space where I give a damn about age, life experience and all that rot. I've prepared for it by making sure I always have my towel handy (in my car, backpack, and onstage) while attempting to keep an open mind in the face of ridiculous events;  I've tried growing a second head;  I may yet decide to run for public office. I've learned not to pick fights with folks who run Major Wacko Religions- however satisfying it may be to show them the error of their ways- and will thank others to return the favor when I decide to found my own version of Major Wacko Religion.  At this point in the paragraph I'd like to thank Doug Adams for his lovely advice: "Don't Panic!"  I know you're dead, dude, but that simple admonition has literally saved my life more than once.  It has also made my life very nice on occasion, when presented with other, ahem, situations in which a young (or not so young) man might, errr, panic.

You see, I'm really a dweeb cursed with a Superhero's resume- except my parents weren't murdered (they'll be married 44 years in January), my home planet wasn't destroyed, I wasn't tutored by aliens or bitten by radioactive vermin... well, come to think about it I'm just a dweeb who happens to smell nice and can defend himself pretty well.  I did spend years playing in a drainage ditch, and there were some serious puddles and rocks down there: the comic books seemed more real if I read them in a drainpipe.

What in the hell does this inane ramble have anything to do with the concept of "42"? A friend lent me a copy of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy back in middle school, and I began a lifelong inquiry into the nature of "42".  I was fascinated with such an absurd Answer To A Question, but my Baptist upbringing had prepared me for any number of absurdities when faced with asking about Life, the Universe, Everything.  About the same time I attended my first science fiction convention (on the sly: my parents thought I was spending the night with my friend Chris), where I heard grown men and women answering all sorts of questions with "42".  Why, I asked, were these alleged "grownups" who obviously had their own cars and might have even had sex spouting such nonsense? To my confused pre-adolescent mind they seemed to be speaking in a Code, one that gave them great security regarding the Known Universe, all boiled down to the words "Forty-Two".  When I asked said grownups what the significance of "42" was, they laughed- not at me, but near me- and suggested I needed to think about the question instead of the answer.  That same convention I met Leonard Nemoy (it was VulCon at the old Castlegate Hotel in Atlanta) , and it's one of those occasions that one never forgets: I knew just enough about Spock to know he was a Vulcan, and that Logic ruled his life.  I ran into Mr. Nemoy, literally running, and when I looked up and saw Mr. Spock he smiled at me. "Where are you headed in such a hurry?" he asked. "FORTY-TWO!" I answered, thinking I had just the Answer. He stopped smiling, and gave me that arched eyebrow that let me know that Mr. Spock had relegated me to that disdainful realm of "Fascinating".  He moved on, having a life and all, while I thought about "Forty-Two" for the next thirty years or so.

As I've approached the age of 42 I've watched many of my friends and family reach that magical number and continue onward with nary a sideways glance; was 42 just another number, with no real significance?  Now that I've arrived there myself I think there is something special about the number: it shows up in so many significant spots:  In mathematics, a magic cube can be constructed using 27 same-size cubes whose nominal values progress from 1 to 27, using a 3x3x3 progression in which every straight line drawn through the center of the cube comprises 3 cubes whose sum is 42.  If you were to fall into a hole which went straight through the Earth, your elapsed time would be 42 minutes- assuming you didn't bump or slide on the way. It's the angle in degrees in which a rainbow appears, the number of gods and goddesses in ancient Egypt, and the number of letters contained in one of the Qabbalistic names of God.

As I pondered the significance of 42, and upon reaching that magical number of years, I've suspected the philosophical retort that it might be the correct answer to a question incorrectly asked might just add some seasoning to the pan. What I can claim with reasonable certainty is that 42 has inspired me and countless others to wonder what's behind the seemingly nonsensical answers Life, The Universe and Everything provides us. We'll see what the year brings...mmm?

Boneless Pork Loin Steaks with Hot Fruit Relish

I haven't posted a recipe in a while: Cookin' With Mister C has taken on a bit of a soggy tinge lately, what with the two feet of rain we've had over the past 10 days or so. The rain began the day we buried Sadie, and finally stopped yesterday morning; food has been more or less an afterthought on those grey days. Mushrooms are growing in the chicken coop, and the grass is approaching knee-high simply because I haven't been able to mow for nearly two weeks. So to snap us out of our musty reverie, here's something brightly-colored and spicy-hot to celebrate the return of the Sun, however briefly:

Mister C's Boneless Pork Loin Steaks with Hot Fruit Relish

Serves four.

1-1/2 - 2lbs (4 pieces) Boneless Pork Loin chops or steaks at least 1" thick
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
4 Kiwi Fruits, peeled and diced
1/2 lb Strawberries, diced
1 Mango, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp Green Onion tops and bulbs, chopped fine
1 Medium Jalapeno, Serrano, or Sacramento Pepper, chopped (substitute 1 tbsp fresh ginger)

First, make the relish: combine the fruit, onion and pepper and mix well. Add more or less pepper depending on your sweet/heat tolerance; I like the Sacramento pepper because it's medium-hot but very sweet. It'll get a bit gloppy, but that's the goal- if it's too chunky then add orange juice a little at a time while stirring the mix. Relish is very much about consistency, so mix it with a fork or wooden spoon until it has that unmistakable relish look-and-feel. Set it aside, or better yet chill for an hour or so before you start cooking the pork. Sensitive palates take note: This relish hits around a "7" on the heat meter so adjust your pepper accordingly or substitute the fresh ginger.

Combine Olive and Sesame oils in a medium frying pan on medium heat, add the garlic and chops. Pan-fry the chops until done, slice medium-thin and add the relish. As a lower-calorie option, cover the pork with the relish and bake at 350F for 30 minutes or so until done.

This goes well with jasmine or basmati rice and a salad. For a different serving option, spoon the relish over rice or serve the relish on the side.

RIP Sadie Mae, The Junkyard Dog

Sadie Mae 1993- 2009

One month since my last update, although it seems like a season has passed here at Greenwood. The dog is our dear old mutt Sadie, 15 or 16 years old and as goofy as the photo suggests. Sadie in her senility had taken to following whatever happened to be moving around her, and would become confused and unable to find her way home. We have no fences here at GreenWood- although we've wished for them for some time now- so I had to hunt her down more than once. Yesterday, she evidently followed Zoe and Ash to the bus stop, and then being basically blind and deaf wandered into the highway and was hit by a car. Tragic, yes but certainly not unexpected.

Old Sadie was rescued as a puppy from a junkyard by Zoe's dad Felix, where she had been fed massive quantities of booze and suffered subsequent brain damage. She was a full grown trash-eater by the time I came onto the scene, a weird and kind of scary chow-german shepherd mix; she'd get spastic and run away if one tried to pet her, but then she'd come up behind you and shove her head in your lap for a good scratch. The house in Decatur was in an older suburban neighborhood, and so there were animal control employees who collected unfenced dogs. Sadie mocked them, and their lariats, and their food traps; she especially enjoyed mocking their football-fake-rush attempts to tackle her, giving them good sport and showing them how it was done. They never managed to catch her, so they settled for yelling at us about our dog from time to time.

We moved to GreenWood in 2002 and of course Sadie came with us. Ash said she didn't travel well and would puke in the moving van, but it turned out she was just fine. Now Sadie had lots of land to explore, woods to sniff and all sorts of animals to discover. Sadie stayed on the porch, not caring at all that there were deer in the field along with rabbits and squirrels practically underfoot. What got her riled was unfamiliar cars coming up the long driveway, and it was on those occasions that we saw the other side of Sadie the Junkyard Dog. She wasn't a big dog, but she gave the impression that she didn't need to be. Never one to cry wolf, when she started barking I knew I needed to come outside.

A couple of years later Norno and Tatsu came along, all 150+ pounds of them and Sadie had to learn the dominance game. She didn't mind being lowest in the pack as long as she could still eat compost and lay about on the porch. Sometimes I had to wade into a three-dog fight but they pretty much functioned as a mini-pack. Then Tatsu was killed, and we had a succession of strays show up who Sadie accepted in her strange way: Jax, the flying Jack Russell who bit her tail constantly; Honey, the Corgie/lab mix who was part of a rescue litter of nine puppies; then came Pugsley.

Sadie and Pugsley were inseperable, and Pugsley was the only dog I ever saw Sadie play with. Every morning they made their rounds together, trotting side by side around GreenWood. She would spring to her feet whenever he came outside, and always seemed happy to see him. When she was so stiff she couldn't get up Pugsley was able to get her up and moving when all she would do was bite me.

These past couple of years her decline accelerated, and she was basically blind and deaf. I could tell that petting her was painful and she just wanted to lie about most of the day. We gave her glucosamine and Prednisone when she began to fall off the front porch, her back legs not really working correctly. When she discovered that she could move about without so much pain, she would try to run but with her legs locked. She looked like a hobby-horse trying to make a break for it, but she kept up somehow.

The last few weeks were difficult, as it was becoming obvious that she was losing what was left of her vitality and mind; Ash and I talked several times about the option of giving her release but we decided that we'd just tough it out and let her come to her end naturally. She wandered off two weeks ago and we thought she was dead then, but my neighbors found her and I brought her back to the house. I knew then it was pretty much a matter of time, I just hoped it didn't happen while we were away at Dragon*Con. We came home and there was Sadie, standing on the porch like she'd just been put off a bus in a strange town, not really knowing us but happy to see us nonetheless. She was so frail that Norno's tail could knock her over, and she had a hard time rolling off her dog bed but she managed to rouse herself whenever there were leftover ribs to be had- a frequent treat here at GreenWood.

When I walked outside yesterday morning to take Conor to school I didn't see her on the porch; I knew that I'd find her dead this time. She was on the side of the highway, facing East with her ears straight up. No blood, not mangled, but looking towards the rising sun like she'd just decided to lay down and die right then and there. No final twisted grimace of violent death, her eyes still clear and her mouth closed; she looked like she'd been prepared by a taxidermist. I had my yellow garden wagon down on the highway to carry her back in some semblance of comfort, and when a trucker saw what I was doing he stopped right there in the highway and blocked traffic so I wouldn't get hit myself. When I rolled her back across the highway he flashed his lights and gave her three quick blasts from his air horn, then the world returned to its mindless rush. At that moment, the skies opened and torrential rain began to fall: I think that was the longest walk I've ever taken up the Road and driveway.

I knew where I wanted to bury her, there's a spot at the edge of the woods near the pumphouse where a previous owner had buried a dog. It looks North, towards Three Sisters mountain and Woody Gap where the Appalachian Trail begins its first serious rise. Sadie was a bigger dog than I realized, and her grave took me all day to dig. I had to dodge lightning and the worst of the deluge but there was nothing for it, she deserved to be laid in comfort- I'd be able to anesthetise myself later. We all participated in filling her grave, Felix was on the cellphone while we were working so it was a true family affair. Sadie's spot is ringed with rocks we've collected over the years, and I'll be planting a V-8 engine head as her headstone in honor of the junkyard dog that she was until the moment of her passing.

We came in and celebrated Sadie's long life with bloody rare ribeyes, smashed potatoes with Old Bay and a romaine/sweet pepper salad. Ash and I drank an entire bottle of Shiraz, and toasted the Old Lady until we were pretty well snockered.

RIP Sadie Mae, you old weirdo.

Mungo Jerry Pork Loin with Toasty Nuts

I've been up to my eyeballs in the backend of production for "That Night in the Garden", with all the associated pain which comes from independently producing a CD and then sending our baby off to the finishing school known as "Mastering and Artwork" at our production facility. So, I'm indulging in a little thumb-sucking and doing only creative things in the shop and kitchen. We've got peppers, lettuce and tomatoes coming in- plus an early pumpkin from the compost bin.

Today's Cooking With Mister C was inspired by what was in my fruit and veggie cooler, and it's been damned hot the past week, so I've been revisiting "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry. It was the first album my uncle ever gave me, but I've always been inspired by the line "just do what you feel" so I found Bing cherries and a mango that were languishing beneath a bunch of carrots and lettuce. Chopped in the blender with some ginger paste and it makes for a tart and interesting combination of fruity layers. Mango:Mungo/Cherry:Jerry and so you will know where my mind is of late. Nuts are the new good thing for men my age, so I added a couple of tablespoons of crushed cashews and pine nuts browned in olive oil as a crunchy topping for the pork loin I was going to grill. It's pretty, dark red and thick with plenty of sweet tang and the final punch of the ginger enhances the cherry and mango.

Served with my trademark Bossa Nova Salad, with fresh peppers and green beans from the garden and white rice.

Here's the recipe:

Mister C's Mungo Jerry Pork Loin with Toasty Nuts

Lean Pork Loin 3-5lbs
1 Cup Sweet Bing Cherries (Stoned, and as ripe as you can stand)
1 Medium Mango
1 Tbsp Ginger Paste (or chopped for the blender)
2 Tbsp Chopped Cashews
2 Tbsp Pine Nuts
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Pit the cherries but don't skin them, peel and slice the mango into large chunks and add these with the ginger to the blender or food processor. Chop only long enough to break up the cherries and mango, but don't puree- it needs to be thick and chunky, almost like salsa.

Set the sauce aside to do its thing, and heat up the olive oil in a small pan on medium heat. When it starts to smell like hot olive oil, add the nuts and begin toasting them in the pan; you have to be vigilant in keeping the nuts turned so they won't scorch. When your nuts begin to smell toasty and turn golden brown take them off the heat and let them sit in the remnants of the oil for a bit.

Turn the grill to medium heat or preheat to 400F in the oven with the baking rack set high in the oven, and use about 1/3 of the sauce to make a thick baste on the pork loin, concentrating on the top of the roast. Take the nuts and add to the sauce on top of the pork loin, pressing them in a bit as you go. Close it up and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours, no more basting needed. When the loin comes to 165F through the center it's ready. Let the loin set for 5 minutes, then slice. Add the remaining sauce to the slices and get ready for the compliments.

On Goat Cheese and Geodes

A couple of weeks ago we visited Victoria in her college town of Huntsville, Alabama. We're geeks, and so instead of doing the regular parents-visiting-their-kid-at-college stuff like taking all her roommates grocery shopping and cleaning their I-really-don't-know-how-long-that's-been-there apartment (hey, look at it as an immune-system builder), we left our Pug to be doted over by beautiful college girls and their buff-but-polite guys-in-waiting and headed for SciQuest at Calhoun College. It's a hands-on science museum, literally in the shadow of the Space Shuttle and Saturn V as it's across the road from Marshall Space Center. There's a little shop inside the museum, and it took me all of 2 minutes to find the geode bin. Walnut-sized whole geodes. A dollar each. Hmmm, I have rock saws. So we took the geodes home, and discovered one was partially hollow and one had a beautiful heart-shaped pattern when sawed and polished. We're mad for geodes, some of my most prized possesions are geodes which contain ancient water that's anywhere between 40 million and 300 million years old. And they're translucent, so you can actually see the water that most likely was contemporary with the dinosaurs. That's near the top of my Cool List...

Who? Oh, Vic. She had a great time with Pugsley, and it's nice to finally be able to have a cocktail with my oldest daughter while talking about things adults talk about (True Blood, Dragon*Con- you know the drill). We took her out to dinner at Bonefish Grill where we saw the inspiration entree for today's Cookin' With Mister C. No one ordered it, but it was billed as "Lily's Chicken", grilled with lemon and basil and served with goat cheese, sauteed spinach and artichoke hearts. Not being one to simply rip off a signature dish of a nationwide chain of fine restaurants, I thought about how it might be prepared and then changed the parts I thought could be done differently. It's significantly different from the Bonefish recipe as I really wanted to make a goat cheese sauce with a bit of color and tang:

This was served with mushrooms sauteed with oilve oil and pine nuts, over whole grains with roasted garlic and pecans. It came out so much better than I expected, even Conor wanted seconds; in retrospect I'd double the goat cheese sauce recipe and juice a fresh lime to add more tart to the recipe. The only downturn is that it comes out distinctly purple instead of red, looking a bit like baba ganoush but a true knockout for the taste buds. Take a Lactaid or two, this is rich.

Mister C's Lemon Basil Chicken with Red Wine Goat Cheese Sauce

Six Boneless Chicken Breast Halves (2lbs or so)
4 Tbsp Butter
A Handful of Fresh Basil (or 2 Tbsp Dried Basil)
1 Lemon, Juiced
1 Cup Chicken Broth
4 oz. Goat Cheese
1 Tsp Mediterranean Seasoning (or 1/4 tsp each: grated lemon peel, salt, pepper, parsley, garlic)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Red Wine (or 1/4 cup for less thick sauce and more tang)

Melt the butter, chop the basil finely (save a pinch for the sauce) and mix with the lemon juice into the butter. Keep this at room temperature or warmer for at least 20 minutes to allow the oils and acids to mix and mingle. While you're waiting, preheat the grill and begin the sauce:

Red Wine Goat Cheese Sauce

Add the chicken broth, olive oil and wine to a saucepan and simmer until reduced by about half. Add the Goat Cheese and Mediterranean Seasoning, simmering and stirring until it thickens.

Grill the chicken, turning and brushing with the lemon basil mixture frequently until done. Add the Goat Cheese sauce in a healthy portion to the sliced chicken breasts, and serve with the sides and a salad. I'm one of those people who believe that red wine goes with everything except a Baby Ruth, but a cold crisp white would also do nicely.

Spend some time over this meal, it's worth it.

Summer Rain and Summer Everything

We just wrapped up Emerald Rose's latest live CD titled "That Night in the Garden", which does a fine job of summing it all up. It's been a challenge physically as well, in that Arthur's wife had open-heart surgery and a dear friend of mine died of a series of heart attacks- culminating in yours truly leading the funeral in a Presbyterian church of all places. The title does as good a job as any describing our common touch-stone for the summer. Speaking of Summer, this is the time in our year when the "first fruits" come in- namely the peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Add to that the berries that have just finished producing and we have the bounty of Summer, and a harbinger of the Autumn to come. So, it's time to modify that old stand-by of ribs and fruit glaze to reflect the current season. Dinner tonight is a double-rack of ribs grilled with a glaze of black currant, red raspberry, strawberry, apricot (it's first harvest in California) and a bit of pineapple for zip (it's always pineapple season in Hawaii). Recipe to follow after I finish rambling...

On the jewelry design front, I'm preparing to make a series of Argentium silver pendants and earrings fashioned to remind the beholder of the moons of the Cosmos. They'll be individual creations, but not modeled after specific celestial bodies. They'll also be augmented with small gemstones, but they should most affordable when I'm done with them, especially in light of the fact they will all be unique. I'll post photos as I make progress....

Grilled Ribs with First Fruits Glaze

2 Racks Pork Spare Ribs (10lbs or so)
1 lb of the first fruits for your neck of the woods (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc)
2" section of ginger root, sliced (substitute 2 tbsp dried if no fresh available)
1 Hot red pepper
4 tbsp Soy sauce
2 Tbsp Honey

Preheat the grill to 300F, then puree the fruit, ginger, pepper, honey and soy sauce. Remember, you're not in the zone without something tasty to refresh your parched tongue, so while the glaze ingredients are getting acquainted do yourself a favor and take care of that little detail straight away. By now your grill should be hot enough, so toss the ribs on without glaze for 10 minutes, then brush just enough glaze to lightly coat the ribs. Close the grill up and forget about it for the next 20 minutes. Brush the glaze on every 20 minutes until they are done to your taste. I've given up posting cooking times as everyone has their personal opinion of "done": you're a grown-up with your own car keys and credit cards, and I know you'll be fine. For what it's worth, mine usually take around two hours... and the remainder of the glaze is just fine after 2 minutes in the microwave on its lowest setting. Makes a great dipping sauce.

This time I served a Bossa Nova Salad (my black bean salad with cucumber), but in keeping with the "First Fruits" motif I scavenged the garden for fresh green beans to add to the mix.

I'm not posting pics this time, because cooked ribs look pretty much the same no matter how you prepare them- unless you boil them. If you boil them you need to read this blog from the first post forward before you attempt to cook ribs again.

Recording Blues and Squid Tacos

We've encountered our usual snares during this latest round of recording- the studio computer's main hard drive gave up the ghost and so I spent many days scrambling to make everything exactly the way it was before. We've been hard at work in the studio but also recording live before our fans: this is the shortest deadline we've ever given ourselves, so it's been intense. Jewelry commissions are a bit thin but I always have enough material to cut that I'm not without more work than I care to do artistically.

We've been eating a pretty eclectic diet lately, but a summertime favorite is fish tacos, San Felipe-style. Easy, low-impact and quick cleanup. We substitute or add squid to the cod fillets usually used, and the beer batter is the key as always. Here is the batter recipe:

1 cup Regular All-Purpose Flour
2 tbsp Cornstarch
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Oregano (optional: San Felipe recipe)
1 egg
1 cup fresh dark beer
1 lb fish (Cod is our favorite for tacos)

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Cut the cod into 1" wide strips, cut squid into tentacles and 1" tube sections. Add to the batter and stir to coat thoroughly. Heat oil to 375F, enough to deep-fry (at least 2"). Add fish and squid a bit at a time, taking care not to overcook (a light gold is perfect). Drain and set aside.

Now, all that's needed is about a dozen corn tortillas, a couple of chopped fresh tomatoes, shredded cabbage and cheese. And that frosty rum-laced drink. I bet you thought I'd forgotten about the booze, eh?

Enjoy