Revisiting: A Baked Apple Pancake And A Word About Friendship

    

Baked Apple Pancake

     

The clocks will soon be turned back and that means more time for a wonderful weekend brunch.  

 A baked apple pancake was first mentioned in Murder Before The Bell when Rick tried to

 woo his new girlfriend. When it comes from the oven it is absolutely beautiful.

Batter

4 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Fruit

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large tart apple (no need to peel)

Blend eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in food processor.  With the machine running add vanilla, butter, and nutmeg.  Let it stand for thirty minutes.

Slice the apple.

In a 10 inch ovenproof skillet melt the butter and coat the sides of the pan.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar cinnamon and nutmeg over the butter.  Cover with apple slices and the other 1/4 cup of sugar.  Use medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles.

Pour the batter over the apples and place in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for fifteen minutes.  Reduce the heat to 375 and bake for ten minutes more.  Serve immediately

Makes 3-4 servings.

This recipe adapted from Machine Cuisine Cooking Classes

And Now For Some Advice

Mellow Out--Lessons Learned From Household Cats is a fun read that explores the influence cats have on our lives. The book delves into twenty areas where their behavior provides a calming effect. Each section begins with a quote that reflects mainstream thinking on the topic. This is followed by comments on how this concept plays out in society, and then, how the cats respond. Finally, there is a discussion on how to use the behaviors of the cats to improve our lives. The broad themes of the book focus on how to take care of ourselves, how to tolerate adversity and how to embrace our emotions. Topics include such things are dealing with 

getting high, being overweight, love, and brown-nosing at your place of employment.

More Information about Mellow Out--Lessons Learned From Household Cats can be found by clicking here 

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A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation or being together. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends never part.

Anonymous

Chapter 19 
Friendship Requires Work

In 1968, after completing three years, nine months and twenty-seven days, I received my early discharge from the United States Air Force so that I could attend San Jose State University (it was a college back in those days). Since money was very tight, I would hang out in a church-run coffee shop called Jonah’s 

Whale. Liberal college students, some ex-military and some people who were into drugs frequented the place—after all, it was the 60’s.

I loved to talk about politics, and I spent most of my time with a guy named Al. Even though there was pressure about ending the Vietnam War, I still believed in the American dream and that our military was keeping us safe. However, the transition was beginning, and within the year, I would be involved in peace marches. In fact, there was a huge march in San Francisco, and I walked behind a flatbed truck where the Jefferson Airplane was playing.

My friendship with Al continued to grow. We played chess, we talked and we took road trips. Graduation came; I got married and started a family. We would see each other a couple of times a year. In 2007, we decided to have monthly dinners together. At first, they were random places; then we established goals.

 Our first goal was to eat at all the restaurants on the Capitola Wharf. When that was completed, we decided to eat at all of the restaurants in downtown Campbell and finally all the restaurants between Campbell Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard—a five-mile strip.

We kind of got off schedule and I wrote an email to Al in November of 2011, but he never responded. I later found out that he had died from a heart attack. The point of all this is that long-term friendships are great, 

and most of us have very few of them. The friendship between Al and myself grew. 

It was a bit different with my cats. The Mitzer didn’t like Willie—end of story, period. Willie would sit next to the Mitzer and the Mitzer would hiss and hiss. This would happen day after day. The bedroom would be dark and the Mitzer would be on the bed with me. I would be petting her. All of a sudden, there would be this low growl and Willie would appear right next to the Mitzer. No matter what we did, Willie would always be there.

Willie is a kitten, and he wants to play, and since the Mitzer is ten years old, she has different ideas. 

However, recently things have changed. Willie attacks the Mitzer and they both kind of hit at each other. 

You can tell that they are playing because the growling has stopped and their claws aren’t out. The other

day, my wife was asleep and Willie and the Mitzer were sleeping in my spot on the bed. They were less than six inches apart, and I think that they have finally become friends.

The cats became friends because Willie worked at their friendship. In our world, we have good friends at work or in our neighborhood, then we change jobs or move to another area and these friendships go by the wayside. We move on.

I worked with this woman for several years and she got a job out of the area. Of course, we lost touch with each other. A decade later, I saw her at a conference and told her I was so happy to see her again. She

gave me her new address and phone number and said that I would probably never call or write. Unfortunately, she was right. I never called.

My cats remind me that friendships just don’t continue. You have to work to keep them alive.

Food And Wine Pairings From Death In The Science Classroom

Death in the Science Classroom explores a tragedy resulting from a teacher being falsely accused. Rick Podowski, the head grievance representative for the teacher’s union enters the science lab and finds the body of the teacher hanging by a braided rope from the metal frame of the overhead fluorescent light fixture.

As Rick and his friends investigate, they find Dan Longreen's secret. He has been charged with sexual misconduct concerning three young girls in his Las Vegas classroom. Even though proven innocent, a small group of parents forced his resignation. He accepts a job in San Jose, California, and is creating a new life. Suddenly, he starts to receive threatening emails and there are questions about his death.

Did someone stage the suicide? Was the principal putting extreme pressure on Dan to resign to protect his forthcoming promotion or was the suicide related to Longreen's fiancée?

The food and wine pairings  in Death In The Science Classroom include the following:

• Candy's Meatballs In Chile Sauce with Woodside Vineyards Kings Mountain Cabernet
• Erin’s Egg, Bacon, and Leek Pie with Clos LaChance Syrah
• Teresa's Pasta Pescatore with Poetic Cellars Mourvedre
• Leti's Quick Chicken Mole with Roudon-Smith Duet
• Rick’s Polish Chicken Flambé with Big Basin's Pinot Noir
• Rick's Red Snapper, Veracruz Style with Roudon-Smith Claret
• Rick's Irish Stew And Soda Bread with Zayante Merlot
• Leti's Mexican Bread Pudding (Capirotada) with Beauregard's Late Harvest Zinfandel

Food and Wine Pairings in the Fishy Chips

Loyalty and betrayal quickly become conflicts in The Fishy Chips, set in the Silicon Valley of California where many of the titans of the computer world have research and development operations and manufacturing facilities. Educators, under the control of Chinese agents, are using students from the Mission Community College’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Program to obtain a top-secret computer chip being manufactured by Intel for use in the United States Military's anti-ballistic missile system. Rick has to reconcile his loyalty to his students with loyalty to his country as he works with his friend from the FBI to recover the stolen component.

Also telling the story is George Yuan, a nineteen-year-old alienated Chinese-American. Through the help of a beautiful female spy, George discovers his love and loyalty to China. He agrees to help steal the computer chip. In the process of recovering the stolen computer chip, the FBI captures the members of the spying ring, and two others are murdered.

Food and wine pairings mentioned in The Fishy Chips. 

• Erin's Irish Smoked Salmon Sandwiches with Santa Cruz Mountain Durif
• Rick's Famous Polish Cabbage Rolls with Thomas Fogarty Pinot Noir
• Meatless Bigos A La Rick with Salamandre Coyote Cuvée
• Rick’s Potato Pierogies with Fernwood Mirepoix
• Erin’s Irish Beef Stew with a Hunter Hill Zinfandel
• Fettuccine and Clams a la Teresa with Alfaro’s Billy K Merlot
• Leti's Steak Tampequena with Kathryn Kennedy Lateral

Food and Wine Pairings From Murder Before The Bell

In Murder Before the Bell, Rick Podowski and the Hefty Trio fight to save their friend accused of murdering the school principal. The story begins when Rick arrives at Central High School and sees the administration building engulfed in flames. Later, the police discover the charred body of the principal and as the police start to gather evidence to frame the acting principal, Rick and the Hefty Trio start their own inquiry.

They discover that their friend and the principal are both involved in illegal activities with a South Vietnamese Colonel who runs a language school on the campus every Sunday. The community loves the Colonel and is unaware that he owns a house of prostitution in the neighborhood and employs a local Mexican gang for security. A rival gang wants part of the action and the excitement begins.

Food and Wine Pairngs

• Erin's Irish Leek & Swiss Pie with River Run Vintners Cote D' Aromas
• Rick's Bigos--Hunter's Stew (The Polish national Dish) with Burrell School Syrah
• Erin's Irish Poached Salmon with Watercress Sauce with Nicholson’s Pinot Noir
• Leti's Pollitos en Vino Tinto (Little Chickens in Red Wine) with Naumann's Tre Rosso Cali
• Teresa's Heavenly Fettuccine with Downhill Winery’s Susannah’s Barbera
• Rick's Pasta Puttanesca with Villa del Monte's Cabernet Sauvignon
• Leti's Mexican Chocolate Pots de Crème with Loma Prieta Merlot
• Rick's Famous Polish Nut Strudel 

The Polish Festival

Every year Rick Podowski attends the Polish Festival at St. Brother Albert Church in San Jose  (This year--September 17, 2017)  where he watches Polish Folk dances and indulges in Polish food.  His favorite dish is the combination plate of bigos, pierogi and cabbage rolls with bread.  When he makes bigos at home, he serves it with store bought pierogi and salad. 

The recipe can be found in Murder Before The Bell. There is nothing better than eating bigos while reading a murder mystery.

 Bigos—Hunter's Stew (The Polish national Dish) 

This recipe comes from the Bigos Bar website first developed by Mike Oborski, the honorary consul of the Republic of Poland in Kidderminister, England. Rick likes this dish with a glass of Burrell School's Syrah because the boldness of the dish is complemented by the boldness of the wine. 

Serves 4 (This recipe can be doubled or tripled)

1 lb. sauerkraut

1/2 lb. ham with bone, pork spareribs, pork rib roast, or chicken

1 bay leaves

1/2 ounce. dried mushrooms, chopped

1/2 onion chopped and sautéed in butter

5 black peppercorns

3 allspice berries

1/4-teaspoon salt

4 cups beef broth,

1 lbs. green cabbage, chopped like sauerkraut

1 tablespoons butter or margarine

l pound of Polish Kiełbasa

Rinse sauerkraut with cold water and drain well. In a large stockpot, combine sauerkraut, ham or pork, bay leaves, mushrooms, peppercorns, allspice, and salt. Add 2 cups of broth, bouillon, or water. Cook, uncovered, 15 minutes over medium heat. Cover and simmer over low heat 45 minutes. Remove meat and let it cool.

Place cabbage in a large saucepan. Add remaining 2 cups broth, bouillon, or water. Bring to boil. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat, 1 hour or until cabbage is tender. Add to sauerkraut mixture. Bone the cooked meat. Cut cooked meat into 1/2-inch cubes.

Melt butter or margarine in a large skillet. Add cooked meat, smoked sausage, and white sausage. Sauté over medium heat 10 minutes or until browned. Add to sauerkraut mixture. Also, add the onions. Cover and cook over low heat 1 hour or longer. Remove and discard bay leaves. Serve hot.

Bigos, pierogi, and salad--delicious!

 The secret of old-time Bigos is that it gets better as it's reheated on successive days, peaking at the 6th or 7th day. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Summer's Over and It's Time To Deal With Those Extra Pounds

Do you need to address all of those extra pounds gained during those fabulous summer vacations?  The following chapter is from Mellow Out--Lessons Learned From Household Cats and it will help to put the problem in perspective.  More information about the book can be found by clicking here. 

Dieting is the only game where you win when you lose.

Karl Lagerfeld

It’s OK To Be Pleasantly Plump

I love watching detective shows with female leads—Beckett on Castle, Jane Rizzoli on Rizzoli and Isles, and Teresa Lisbon on The Mentalist are just a few of them. The one thing that all of these women have in common is that they are slender, and many of us that are a little overweight envy them because they represent the norm for our society. Being overweight is not cool.

On August 10, 2010, we received a desperate call from my wife’s sister. “Sherry has a problem, and she can’t keep her two cats. I’m driving up to Oregon to get them. Will you take one?”

A few days after that simple request, a black and white medium-haired cat arrived on August 14. Her face was snow white in the area around her mouth and up to her nose. Above that was black fur, and it was difficult to see the two very wide eyes in this area through the fur. It looked like she didn’t have any eyes! She had the strangest face. As for her body, the ribs could be easily felt under her coat of fur. This cat was underweight.

The cat was only eighteen months old, extremely thin and had already had two litters. Her name was Marie, and she did not like to be held, possibly because the daughter of her former owner kept her tied up at night. Fear embraced us. What if she were pregnant? Since we have a huge yard with many cats in the neighborhood, we wondered how long it would take for her to have another litter.


We put her in the spare bedroom, and she was cool and calm. As happened with Mitsy, when we let her out of the room, hissing matches ensued—with both cats now. The next day, I took her to the Humane Society complex that was located on the other side of town. Marie howled as I drove to her appointment. While she howled, I prayed that she wasn’t pregnant. It would be impossible for me to handle a litter of kittens. You should have seen me when my own kids were born. I was a nervous wreck. Strange thoughts raced through my mind. How do you use the Lamaze Method on cats? Can you teach cats how to breathe?

I waited in the lobby while the techs checked out Marie. My prayer was answered. She wasn’t pregnant. We then scheduled another appointment. The next Wednesday I repeated the drive at 6:30 AM and the howls continued as I drove her back to the Humane Society. She was spayed and at 4:30 the howls resumed as we drove home. Three weeks later, we returned for our final appointment. Marie was completely healed, and there were no complications.

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Mellow Out--Lessons Learned From Household Cats is a fun read that explores the influence cats have on our lives. The book delves into twenty areas where their behavior provides a calming effect. Each section begins with a quote that reflects mainstream thinking on the topic. This is followed by comments on how this concept plays out in society, and then, how the cats respond. Finally, there is a discussion on how to use the behaviors of the cats to improve our lives. The broad themes of the book focus on how to take care of ourselves, how to tolerate adversity and how to embrace our emotions. Topics include such things are dealing with getting high, being overweight, love, and brown-nosing at your place of employment.

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Each morning the cats would receive half a can of delicious cat food—mixed grill, turkey and salmon with cheese, etc. I made sure that I bought a variety of flavors, but, in reality, the cats didn’t care. A bowl of dry food would be out for them to eat whenever they were hungry.

The first thing Marie did was to eat more than she could handle and then vomit. This was a recurring pattern. Eat as much and as fast as possible. Eat the leftovers from the other cat dishes. Vomit. By way of explanation, Marie could get away with eating from the other cat dishes because when Samantha hissed, she just ignored her. Of course Mitsy just ran away.

While this was going on, Marie became friendlier. We would turn on the bathroom light, and there she would be, staring at us from inside the laundry basket. Her other favorite place to hide was behind the flat screen TV. We could see only her tail hanging out. We were becoming very endeared to her.

Mitsy and Marie became good friends as they bonded against Samantha, who was larger than both of them. Samantha did not like this new arrangement, and she let everyone know that. As their friendship grew and their relationship with us changed, we ended up calling Mitsy, the Mitzer. In the weeks after the operation, Marie just swelled up and we renamed her Chubby Wubby. She went from 6 pounds, 12 ounces, to 10.15 pounds.

Before anyone gets angry, please note that Chubby is now 9.2 pounds and according to the Pet MD calculator, her weight is perfect. Our love for Chubby continues to grow and she has become my good friend. Every time I go into the kitchen, she jumps up on the counter and snuggles next to me. When I watch TV, she sits on my lap. We love our Chubby Wubby.

Chubby was always calm and cool. It didn’t matter to her what she weighed. In contrast, we humans have a great fear of gaining extra pounds and that fear is exacerbated when we jump on the scale at the doctor’s office. When I left high school, I weighed 155 pounds, and that number kept creeping up. I met my doctor about fourteen years ago. She had just joined my HMO after graduating from medical school. This woman was Vietnamese, very short and very thin. After our first meeting, she started complaining about my weight—diet and exercise, exercise and diet, were her mantra. A year letter, she went on maternity leave, and I knew that I would get my revenge.

Most woman, like Chubby, keep the weight after they had children and I knew that she would come back from maternity leave with lots of extra pounds. I was wrong; she was as skinny as a rail. Over the years, this happened two more times, and in each case, she didn’t gain a pound. Last year I ballooned to 240 pounds. Even I thought that this was bad, so I dieted a bit and now I am almost content at 230 pounds and with a BMI in the obese category. I can’t give up wine, desserts, and pasta.

In reality, I have a family heritage to maintain. My mother was fat, my brother looks pregnant and I am pleasantly plump. Our whole family has been fighting weight issues. Like Chubby, I’m content with my weight, even though I am trying to lose a few more pounds. My cat has helped me to realize that it’s okay to be a bit chubby as long as you are cool about it.