Focused at Fifty

Last night I ended up at the hosey for a couple beers. For those of you who don't know, the "hosey" is a regionally colloquial term for the fire house social club. I don't know how it originated, possibly from the word 'fire hose'. I hear it across the Mid-Atlantic states. I usually have to explain it to anyone outside of Jersey or PA. Chicken of the Sea Sardines My hosey is the Summit Station Fire Company where I actually bartended for a couple years. When I go there, I see friends, play the games of chance, chill out with the awesome bartenders Snoopy and Janet, and knock back a couple of cheap brews. One of the gambling games you can play  are the punch boards where you get 10 punches for $1.00. You can win prizes such as a large bag of chips, a box of Tasty Cakes, a mini-hunting knife, a jar of tomato sauce, a bottle of laundry detergent and other pretty crazy odd stuff which you may or may not use everyday.   ...

This past month marked the 15th anniversary of 9/11, that day of horror where America was forever changed by terrorism with the multiple attacks on our country. I have close friends who were there that crisp September morning. I have friends of friends who lost someone when the Twin Towers fell. Most of us remember where we were that fateful day. 9/11 has become another day in which you ask your friends, "Where were you?" It is reminiscent of the day the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded, the day President Reagan was shot, or for our folks, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. These are days of infamy forever etched in our mind, meant to separate and weaken but they have only succeeded in making us stronger and closer. Twin Towers  at night, July 2001 (source: Wikipedia ) I have a couple of books on 9/11 and spent the day going through them and watching the historical coverage on TV. The story I want to recount was a special memory I have of the ...

Mom's Tomato Cucumber Salad Are you ever at a loss for what to make with that grilled steak or chicken? Here are a couple of go-to recipes that I love making in a pinch. Easy, a lot of flavor, and minimal effort. How great is that?   Weekly dinners should always be like this! The first is a basic recipe my Mom has been making as long as I know. It is the traditional summer tomato cucumber salad. Fresh, cold, zesty, and filling. This recipes combines two of my favorite summer veggies. I usually make a large batch for two or three nights. You can add onion if you want a bit more zestiness to it. But be warned, with the Italian dressing and onions, you may want to make it on the nights you don't have a date planned. :-)   The second recipe, crisp rosemary potatoes, is my go-to recipe if I am making rosemary chicken or just grilling chicken breast. It is a great side dish!  I prefer to leave the potatoes in to bake for more time as I like them pretty crispy. Mar...

Mom at 6 yrs (1948) On August 24th, it was my dear Mother's birthday. She would've been 74. Hope she had a great birthday up there doing shots of her favorite Hot Damn liquor. Maybe she sat on the edge of a cloud in Heaven. spying on her kids while sipping Baileys, she loved that too. I can picture her enjoying herself, listening to some salsa, watching people walk by (if they have such a thing up in heaven). She was a people watcher.  More recently before she passed in 2009, Mom just loved to sit on my sister Sheryl's front porch in Philly and watch the world walk by. Mom said it reminded her of growing up in Newark, sitting in the front of her building as a child.  By now, my readers know that I often tell of memories of her as a sort of a record for my brother and sister and my niece and nephew, Angelica and Johnny as well. One day, I hope it will help them get to know their Nana better.  Mom grew up in Newark, NJ, in an apartment building on Goldsmith Ave...

Last Year's basil crop! Blogger's Note: I began writing this last Fall (2015) and for some reason put it aside and didn't come back to it until now. I wanted to complete it and share the recipes with my readers since I'm growing basil again on my deck. Both recipes below came out great and I highly recommend them. One change though for this year, I am going to freeze the remaining basil at the end of the growing season instead of dry it. In addition, this blog post is dedicated to my fraternity brother Alex Spiezio, who has encouraged me to continue writing about food and recipes. Thanks Alex! Removing and cleaning the basil I always seem to fail at my attempts at gardening. I have a great green indoor thumb but the outdoor garden seems to falter, probably due to my lack of patience or it becomes completely overgrown and unruly. What I am good at is growing herbs. Last year, my tomatoes faltered until the very end and my banana peppers only produced 4 peppers ...

This past Saturday morning, I poured myself a cup of coffee and began staring out the kitchen window, thinking about my fun evening last night with friends, and what the day held before me. My mind wandered as I contemplated life. I sipped my coffee. Thoughts turned to a tomato and cucumber salad I wanted to make later. Chores to do, errands to run. Fitting in the gym somewhere along the line. I began to watch the birds and butterflies zip between the oak tree, the pussy-willow tree, the bird bath and the butterfly bush. I spend 15 minutes just relaxing and watching the birds. I gazed out finding myself smiling. About 5-6 cat birds hopped from branch to branch in the pussy-willow tree, each taking a turn in the bird bath. Feathers ruffling, water splashing,. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves as much as I was enjoying watching them. They'd hop out, and preen themselves on one of the branches, shaking off excess water. Butterflies were all over the butterfly bush...

Image borrowed from www/homedepot.com John and I were at The Home Depot the other day buying some paint, some rope, and a bunch of other stuff you normally buy there. We had a cart weighted down with two 5 gallon drums of paint and we were slowly pushing it around the store when I realized I needed some top soil and possibly more plants for the deck. We slowly pushed the heavy cart out to the garden section and I told John to wait with the cart by the entrance while I got a 25 pound bag of top soil on the other side; it seemed like a mile away. I carried the bag all the way back to the cart and was just about to place it in the cart when it split open, dumping out top soil everywhere. I started laughing and John rolled his eyes at me, sighing. I carried the opened toil soil all the waay back to the soil/compost shelves. dropped it, and got another one. Then I walked all the waay back to the cart. Luckily this one stayed intact. "Marc, why didn't you just bring ...