Recording of Cooking Classes

I have wanted to record my cooking classes for awhile and make a KISS Method Gourmet youtube channel to coincide with the release of the cookbook I've been working on- maybe even include them as an optional dvd with the cookbook or as part of an e-book release. Now I have made contact with someone I was told was really good at doing stuff for our cable systems local CATS channel. This could be good.

Occupy November 2nd

Due to the Oakland Police overreacting on Tuesday, the sever injuries to marine and two time Iraq Vet Scott Olsen, Occupy Wall Street is supporting Occupy Oakland, as now have several other Occupy locations, and have called for a nationwide general strike on Wednesday November 2nd. We will be joining the effort, though I admit its cheating- Wednesdays' the restaurant is normally closed! It doesn't lessen Amberwind's and my support. It also doesn't hurt a struggling small town small business in the midst of a recession by being closed an extra day. Besides, those of us who are truly small business owners should NEVER be part of such a boycott- large corporations that are part of the problem should. I AM a capitalist, but I supply paid vacations and healthcare as a small business that grosses less than $300K/year during this recession. I have given my employees several raises over the years while giving myself only 1. I am part of the 99%.

MY First Bad Review

I, personally, got my first bad review on tripadvisor; though I wasn't mentioned by name. Not the restaurant, but me. I take it I spent too much time talking to a table. I was either bored- because it was a slow night- or else they asked some questions and I babbled. They were obviously not happy and I sent them an apology.

If I ever do it to you, my dear reader, please let me know, even if it must be blatantly- I can be thick- that you would like me to leave your table. I'll be chagrined because of my being unobservant and dense, but I won't be hurt or upset by your desire to be left alone. After all, your pleasure is the reason we do what we do.

Recipe: Marinara Sauce

Marinara sauce was created in America, as was what we think of as pizza, as a quick, easy and delicious sauce for pasta. For a little less than 30 minutes worth of time and very little effort one can make a superb tomato sauce that your family will think you simmered all day. Though the name is related to the English word, 'marine' it most often doesn't have fish added- though this is always a great alternative. You can easily add ground meat- beef and/or pork- chopped mushrooms, sauteed bell peppers or whatever else you desire to personalize this tasty sauce.

• 1/2 cup onions, small diced
• 1/2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup red wine, I usually use a good Merlot
• 1 rd Tbs garlic, minced
• 2 tsp parsley flakes
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp oregano, dry
• 1/2 tsp basil, dry
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

1. In a 2 quart sauce pan saute the onions in the olive oil until transparent.
2. Blend the crushed tomatoes in a blender until smooth. Use the water to rinse out the can and the blender add the water and tomatoes to the sauteed onions.
3. Add all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook 20 minutes, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon.

If you are going to add meat or peppers saute them with the onions. Mushrooms can be added when adding all the other ingredients.

When I use the sauce I often add a little extra red wine as I'm reheating it because it thickens as it sits. Like all tomato sauces, it tastes best next day, though it is perfectly wonderful same day. It freezes well and will refrigerate in a sealed container for 10 days.

Sometimes I'm Really Dense

Here I am a professional chef and I omit Beryl's favorite foods from my memory of him:

• He loved chips with medium hot salsa, with or without cheese. He would even eat a couple of corn chips with nothing on them- yes he was a strange and wonderful cat.
• Popcorn with nutritional yeast, garlic powder, tamari and pepper was another favorite.
• The last of ice cream clinging to the pint of a premium brand container Amberwind and I had just finished. He would shove his whole head into it and wear the container for a chance at the bit on the bottom. Then he would cleverly get it off when he was through.
• Any cheese, and I mean any cheese, ever made- untrue of our other cats.

He would barely eat catnip, but preferred to roll in it; unlike Topaz who seemed like a reincarnated Deadhead when it came to his kitty drugs. And when Sapphire came into the house, he could push Beryl, who was very non-aggressive away from his bowl. (But then Sapphire had shown up at our door starving- with his ribs showing- dehydrated and needing pets- what we call skin-food.) Beryl hardly hissed and the few times he did was usually because he was in pain. You could pet him for hours and he'd still want more- unlike any other cat I've ever known. And he'd sit in Amberwind's lap- he slept with me but only occasionally sat in my lap and only when I had fabric on- for hours.

I only wish that everyone gets a chance to have such an affectionate, smart, wise and occasionally annoying critter like him in their lives.

Personal Reflection- Occupy Wall Street

I am an entrepreneur and small business owner- a capitalist, BUT I support the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Why am I a 99%er! I'm a small business owner no one is going to bail out if I fail. I pay taxes and am realistic enough to know I'll never be rich being a restaurateur in a small town. I believe in balanced budgets, but in the Lesser Depression I'm a Keynesian who wants to see a REAL stimulus package of about $1.5 trillion. I believe Wall Street is NOT the real economy- they neither produce goods nor offer a service that helps most. The advise their investors and then bet against them. They lie and give inaccurate advise if it benefits them. It is a business driven first and foremost by greed and the lack of the regulations put in place after the Great Depression has allowed this all to happen- thanks to Reagan, Clinton & both Bushes, who all deregulated them in the false belief that they'd regulate themselves. The have rubbed in our faces the bail; out they got with giving themselves outrageous bonuses for what?! Tanking the world economy?! And I am a believer in a progressive tax rate. They have bought, if not the best congress (Democrat and Republican) money can buy, it's pretty close. And Obama has made lame half-assed statements calling them out for their greed and they BLAST him as anti-business, when he has been anything but.

It's time for accountability: there are Wall Street types who should be in jail; members of congress voted out of office for their unyielding support of deregulation of the financial system; To-big-to-fail banks and financial institutions broken up; investment earnings should be taxed at income tax levels versus the 15% capital gains tax- which should be eliminated and make all capital gains simple income; we need to rewrite the tax code, end all deductions and make a progressive flat tax for individuals and corporations; but most of all we have to get money OUT of politics and pass an amendment to the Constitution that ends the definition of speech as including money and that corporations are not individuals.

These beliefs put me in the company of that great "Socialist" Warren Buffet; better company I could not ask to be included in. I think most Americans have no idea what Socialism means, but, just like the throwing around of Hitler's name for anyone who disagrees with them, they will continue to use it- continuously. That's because whenever money is tight we eliminate money for schools and teachers first- we have dumbed down the populous. The Corporate-Oligarchy have fed the populous the modern equivalent of the Roman Emperors 'Bread & Circuses'- 'Bud & Circuses; couch potatoes fed on beer, reality TV and sports. But Americans are waking up. First there was the Tea Party- They've been co-opted but it was the beginning of 'We the People' starting to stand up. Now there is Occupy Wall Street.... Let's just hope it isn't co-opted as well.

Personal Reflection- The Most Amazing Cat

Its been a while since I posted.... as always, life has been busy, so I'm sorry for the delay. 


But today I want to share what my cat Beryl was like. Beryl was 16 years old when he died. He had become a diabetic in the last year of his life. Beryl had become fat from the steroids used to keep in check the chlamydia that is a dental disease in cats- and different from the chlamydia bacterium that affects humans- which he caught from our older cat Topaz; who groomed him regularly and who we had put to sleep months earlier. Topaz got it the one time he got out and disappeared for hours. Unfortunately he was misdiagnosed from a local vet practice who refused to listen to what we had observed and believed was the problem- a dental disease. (Later on we found out that other vet practice disliked cats and had done the same thing to several other folks- not liking cats they refused to keep up on the most recent medicine affecting them.) Its been a year since our vet met us at 2am to put him to sleep (thank you Dr Wilmeth for being so caring). He was panting and in pain. Beryl's kidneys had shut down, but we didn't figure that out until days later.

In a lifetime of pets, Beryl was the first who I had from being a kitten (or puppy) for his whole life. He slept with me- tucked under my arm- every night of his life. This alone would have been enough to endear him, but there was so much more to this BIG personality that made him lovable and a grade A pain at times.

It was coming up on Amberwind's birthday. We were working more and more and had Topaz for a little over a year; which was Topaz' age. Two cats usually do better than one if they're going to be alone a lot throughout the day. I went into the cat room at the Albuquerque Human Society building and all the cats were quiet, except this one  6 week old kitten. I've had Maine Coon mixes before and loved them and though I was hoping to find one I wasn't hopeful I'd actually see one. One look and it was obvious he was a mix- which was confirmed by the AHS workers. (They knew who his mother was and her owners- a show cat who had gotten out and 'caught' by a street cat- and "Berlioz" as the AHS called him had escaped the yard of his mama's home. It turned out his mama's family didn't want him back, but I had to wait 10 days for them to not come for him before the AHS would let me take him home.) When I saw the future "Beryl" was half Maine Coon I asked if I could hold this howling ball of fluff. He had the ringed tail, ear-tufts and neck ruff typical of his breed.Beryl jumped into my hand, jumped from there to my shoulder and then stuck his nose in my ear and began purring and licking my ear. I was in love.


When I got him home Topaz was terrified of this bouncing ball of energy and ran away from him for about 2 weeks. That changed over the years and besides grooming Beryl Topaz and he often slept in a pile. The first thing that was obviously different about Beryl was how, after a couple of days Beryl realized that the cat in the mirror we had sitting on the floor was him. After that the thing that set him apart was his dog like behavior of greeting anyone who entered our apartment. Well not actually everyone. The half dozen or so folks he hid from all proved to be people that tried to screw us over in some way. He was less than a year old the first time this happened. Unlike most cats, Maine Coons will get affection from every member of the family, but except for that handful of people he ran from, everyone who walked through our door was instantly expected to admire, pet and croon over him.

 Amberwind and Beryl asleep on the couch together- a favorite position for both. This is my computer's wallpaper.

His intelligence became even more obvious as he taught- through example- Topaz how to open and enter kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Beryl hated closed doors and quickly figured out how to slide open sliding closet doors and accordion doors. He later mastered jumping up and twisting a door knob with his front paws while kicking a closed door with his hind feet. It would take about seven tries, but as long as the door opened in the direction he wanted to go he would eventually get a closed door opened. Funny, but I just realized that I never saw him try to use a doorknob on a door that opened against the direction he was trying to go in.

Beryl loved rubber bands. We had them in a junk-drawer in the kitchen until it became obvious that he would wait until Amberwind and I were not home to pull them out of said drawer. It took us awhile to figure out that Beryl had jumped on the kitchen counter to get them out since he would ALWAYS re-shut the drawer after snagging the rubber bands out. Smart and sneaky!


When we bought our house we experienced a new level of intelligence as we saw how he had mastered the concept of mirrors. Our master bedroom suite has a bathroom with a large vanity that has a huge mirror as long as the vanity and 4 feet high. When one entered our bedroom, if Beryl was upon the vanity- which he was, often grooming himself looking in the mirror- he would stop grooming as you entered, look you in the eyes via the reflection in the mirror and chatter at you. He would never turn to look at  you, but as you approached and moved your hand to pet the top of his head, Beryl would stretch his head and meet your hand for the stroke. Beryl would also sit there and watch our other two cats- after we took in Sapphire- in the mirror, and without missing a beat he would simultaneously spin, leap and jump on them having figured out exactly where the other two were behind him using the reflection. Watching him do this feat was just mind-blowing. Most dogs and cats NEVER understand how a mirror works and try to attack or at least get to the animal they see in the mirror without realizing it's them. Beryl KNEW it was him!


Beryl also loved being in boxes and paper bags, especially the large ones from Trader Joe's. But where most cats would run into a bag when you scratched the back of it, trying to find the thing making the noise, Beryl would run around the bag and jump on your hand. Same for scratching other things to get him to play- he would go for the movement if your hand was, say, under a blanket and making it jiggle, but if he saw no movement he'd go under or around whatever piece of material that was blocking his way to seek out the noise. But then he was a fabric kitty and loved crawling under and nesting in any fabric he could find. (Beryl wasn't allowed in our closets for that reason and when we bought our home one of the reasons we liked it was because the closet doors were ones he couldn't open because they opened out, not in.)


He entertained all of our guests with his warmth and antics. He was there when either Amberwind or I were sick with purring comfort. He played bed warmer in winter and alarm clock every work morning, seeming to understand our schedules, including our regular days off. Beryl knew the sounds of each of our vehicles and would set up a racket whenever one of us returned home. He knew when I said, "Goodnight Beryl" and would often beat me to the bedroom from wherever in the house we were, though he almost always arrived as I was getting into the bed- except when Amberwind was going to stay up and was doing something interesting. Beryl insisted on being the center of attention and always, well mostly, made it worth your while. Beryl was.... Beryl and I still miss him terribly.

A fifteen year old, Beryl losing his belly hair from the steroids that he needed. this is my cell phone's wallpapaer.

Someday we'll add another cat to our family, until then Sapphire is getting necessary attention, his being a skittish but affection needy guy. I already know where the Tucson Maine Coon rescue folks are at. There will never be another Beryl, but each Maine Coon I've had was a loving and affectionate fellow. I've been lucky to have many a loving pet in my life, but Life wouldn't have been as good as it has been without the sixteen years Beryl was part of my life.

PS: I forgot some of the stranger abilities of Beryl. For one, he KNEW his name- something dogs usually do, but not true for most cats. He understood the word "Goodnight" as meaning bedtime, whether I called his name with it or not. If he was playing rough and biting, the word, "Gentle" stopped him. And finally, he always knew, no matter the time of day, if I called out, "Breakfast" that he was going to get fed. Most cats don't learn individual words, but he did.