Posts Tagged ‘Penne pesto and chicken’

Easy to Love

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

Last night was nice and certainly not as raucous as other birthdays that I’ve had. I’ve had birthday evenings filled with whippets, acid, coke, booze but not any more. It was the first time in a while that a hangover did not follow the next day. I’m not complaining though some madness would have been nice last night.

After dinner Bill went right to bed and I watched TV. Just like any other night. Bill was up and out at 4:00 this morning. Some church function in upstate New York. A nice kiss goodbye, then he was out of the apartment leaving every light on in every room but the bedroom. I stirred about 5 hours later, waking to find the news of Hurricane Ike kicking Texas ass.

Pretty bad down there. I was telling Bill last night about my father working for the Port of Galveston years ago. From the reports this morning there might not be much of Galveston left, not to mention the ports themselves.

I stopped buying the New York Post this morning. I’ve been buying it for a while now, a perverse thrill but it’s mainly been pissing me off. I can read it online and save myself $0.50. Why should Murdoch get any of my hard earned cash? I can afford it, but it’s the principle.

Just too stupid and wrong wing and I admit a certain snobbery when I would see people reading it on the subway or the bus while I sit and read the New Yorker. It’s not right but it’s a fun moment being judgmental. I have had my moments and I’m pretty sure I’ve been judged for doing a lot worse than reading a tabloid. I

was planning on going for a bike ride this afternoon but it looked like rain so I didn’t. Stayed local and walked over tot he river and read the latest Mojo. Ran into Michael Hill who’s always a nice guy to talk to.

I forget who it was a while ago who had something to say about Michael but I’ve never had any problems with him. He even tried to get me a job at Warner Brother music a couple of decades ago but that didn’t pan out. He was soon on his way and I finished the cigar I was enjoying and walked home as it started to drizzle a bit while talking to my sister on the phone.

15 minute walk from Sinatra Park to my apartment all the while talking to my sister about making pesto sauce. I did try to make the pesto sauce and it certainly was not like the pesto that I would have for lunch. I did not buy heavy cream and following Harpy and Annemarie’s instructions it came out badly.

When I would get the penne pesto and chicken for lunch it was creamy and the pasta was covered in a green sauce. This was speckled with some pesto and rather bland.

Annemarie is worried about the cholesterol with the heavy cream but I was planning on only using a dash of it, to liquefy the pesto which is clumpy. And I couldn’t find any info online.

Plenty of info on how to make pesto sauce from scratch, but nothing about a recipe if the pesto sauce has been store bought. We’ll see about tomorrow.

Today’s weather

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Posted in Interesting Things as of Late | 6 Comments »

Ask Me Why

Friday, September 12th, 2008

It’s a dreary gray Friday afternoon. I got out of work around 2:30 this afternoon and rather than walk across midtown enjoying a birthday cigar I took a subway which I rarely do. It was raining but not hard enough to warrant an umbrella since I only had to walk a block or so.

Now I have that ‘I might have napped too long’ feeling despite the fact I didn’t really have a restful nap. Phone calls and phone buzzing kept interrupting. Missed a birthday greeting from Chaz, but earlier I did speak with my sister Annemarie, as well as a voice mail from her and my nephew Earl.

Also heard from Queen Jane Approximately, Constant Connie, Sweet Sarah and Brenda Bubbles, Adorable Adrienne and Lovely Rita and Harpy and Julio and Stine with a picture of that adorable little man, Alexander.

Text messages from assorted nieces and maybe my brother Brian or his son Brian. I just can’t tell. Actually I can tell. I just checked and it was from my brother. My other brother Frank hasn’t called and that means if he doesn’t call later, he will call on the weekend and feel bad about not calling on my birthday.

It’s not a big deal. It would have been years ago. It might have been last year. But this year? Eh, no biggie. Last year Bill gave me a saucepan for a birthday present. I found it an odd present since I’m not much of a cook or a foodie.

I don’t watch the Food Network, or Armenia’s Next Top Chef or Gordon Ramsey or whatever. But since the spot where I get my penne, pesto and chicken in Manhattan, Cafe Fonduta went under I have been lacking pesto in my life.

So having watched the guys prepare the pesto, I think I can do it myself and finally have a reason to break out that sauce pan. It’s still in the box. I figure I can take a teaspoon of pesto, some heavy cream, some olive oil and imitate the guys. Or I can try to look it up online somewhere.

Perhaps there’s a video on YouTube that shows the How To.
Or perhaps you dear reader, would have a recipe to make a nice pesto sauce.

Bill just came home and we’re going to go out for some steaks at Arthur’s steakhouse on Washington Street. Hopefully it will be better than last year, when we went for my birthday after a few other things going wrong earlier in the day.

My churlishness towards the saucepan (embarrassing 365 days later) and the fact that some disgruntled mail room worker wished that I would die since I had decided to smoke a Padron and walk along Park Avenue during my lunch hour.

Birthday wishes also came from some new Facebook friends (Andres et al.) as well as a dear friend, Betti Cola. It’s still raining and my bones are tired after tossing and turning in the late gray afternoon but in a few minutes Bill and I will head over to Arthur’s where hopefully they will have their credit card machines up and running, unlike last year.

Just got back, excellent dinner with Bill. Arthur’s wasn’t too crowded, credit card machine in order and I was caught by surprise with a few waitresses singing Happy Birthday to me with a wonderful slice of chocolate mousse cake with a candle on top. I turned a thousand shades blushing.

A walk around Washington Street followed, me finally enjoying my birthday cigar in the misty evening.

That seems to be it for the day. Loveliness abounds.

Here’s some quite recent snaps as well as something else. Thank you for your good wishes

and here I thought I wasn’t going to write tonight!

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Posted in the day after yesterday, Wonderful World Beautiful People | 5 Comments »

No No No

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Well it’s Friday for me, Wednesday for everyone else. I have off until I go back to work on Tuesday. Woo hoo! What will I do? Not much actually. Sleep in more than likely. Crazy shit on the news this morning, sent shivers down my spine.

A 16 year old boy, with a friend video taping, inflates a pillow, places an 8 month old baby on the pillow, then the 16 year old drops onto the pillow with his knees sending the infant through the air, the baby landing on the floor bawling it’s eyes out while the teens laugh.

It’s a horror show and after spending time with Julio and Stine’s son Alexander, the thought of harming an infant makes me want to beat that 16 year old within an inch of his life. So I have 30 years on him, compared to what he did to the baby, it seems fair.

The kids posted it on youtube and a high school teacher saw it and reported it to the authorities and now the 16 year old is in jail, hopefully he is something to trade for in jail, trade him for cigarettes. Generic cigarettes at that.

I read the other day, that Matt Lauer on the Today show said Osama rather than Obama, 3 times. Yes, having been running for election for about 2 years now, he still is new to the scene, with that ‘new’ candidate smell.

Corporate owned media is just so disgusting, and when they call it the liberal media, I have to wonder just who it is they are talking about. I get by on Truth Out and Media Matters, as well as the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Keith Olbermann, gets a pass, but loses points due to the timbre of his voice. Brian Williams and the rest I have little or no respect for.

The local news is bearable sometimes. Though Janice Huff’s reports on adopting foster children usually breaks my heart. They usually have pre teens who I guess in the world of adoption usually get passed over for babies.

Work was very slow today. I didn’t mind. I had a few things to do as well as making sure things would run somewhat smoothly while I was out of the office. It was a nice day to wander around midtown, getting my penne, pesto and chicken.

I ran into Dave G, a former co-worker from the Wanker Banker years. He’s not happy and he’s still there in an affiliated company. Good to see him. He”s a spiritual type into Reiki and things like that. He actually practices Reiki, which according to the Reiki website is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing.

It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. Oh that unseen life force energy. I was looking for it, but since it was unseen I couldn’t find it.

I watched Juno last night. It was ok. It wasn’t the rave that I heard. Ellen Page was good as was Michael Cera and the rest of the cast, but the script was just too clever, too hip. I wasn’t enthralled by it and I also found the songs a bit twee. Kimya Dawson, well…let’s just say I wasn’t impressed.

She makes Jonathan Richman seem hardcore.

And this, from todays Associated Press:
Madam Marie, Jersey Shore Psychic, Is Dead

ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — The Asbury Park fortuneteller known as Madam Marie, who became a figure of rock ’n’ roll mythology thanks to Bruce Springsteen, died on Friday. She was in her mid-90s.

Her death was announced by her great-granddaughter Sally Castello.

Billing herself as a psychic reader and adviser, Marie Castello had told fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk since the 1930s.

She became famous worldwide in 1973 when Bruce Springsteen paid homage to her in the song “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”

His lyric “Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do” cemented her fame.

I thought the line was “Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they’d be” .

No mention if she died behind bars.

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Posted in the day after yesterday | 4 Comments »

As It Is When It Was

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

It’s a gray day yet again, this time it’s a Thursday gray day. Not so bad. Just always on the edge of a storm today. Last night, pretty quiet. Finally got this week’s New Yorker. That’s what sows down my catching up I think. Well, that and not reading it when I have the opportunity. I have been slowly reading a book about the Beatles. It’s a good read so far. I’ve read dozens so far and they always end the same. The band can’t stand each other and they break up. Sorry about the lack of spoiler alert.

I did attempt to go to bed earlier. I was getting ready for bed around 10:45 when Bill texted me that he was on the bus home. I had no idea that he was coming over last night. I texted him back that I was going to bed. He usually texts me when he gets on the bus at the terminal, but apparently this time he texted while he was on the bus in Hoboken. He was in the apartment about 10 minutes later just as I was closing my eyes. I got out of bed and gave him a kiss, chatted for a minute, then tried to go to sleep. Not that easy since he was soon in bed next to me and soon after that was snoring. Still, it was good to hear the sound of concrete being jack hammered, which is the sound he sometimes makes as he drifts off.

I woke up around 6:00, Bill still sleeping. I asked him if he was going to work and he was going in later. Soon I was out the door walking up to Washington Street, listening to Hot Chip on the iPod. Got to the office, most everyone was going to be out of the office at a seminar across town. That made things pressure free and I was able to take my time starting up the office. It took me about 15 minutes instead of 10, that’s what I call coasting. Ran a few errands, dropped off In The Valley of Elah at the Post Office.

Eventually I strolled up to 57th street to get my Thursday lunch, Penne with chicken and pesto. It’s just a nice reward that I give myself for getting through most of the week, and the garlic breath keeps people at a distance. There’s a slight undercurrent of melancholy in the office this week. DNA Inc, shares office space with TechnoBio and TechnoBio is leaving at the end of the month, relocating the office to Washington DC. Some are going, some aren’t but the New York office with be closed regardless. Nice people, hate to see them go.

Some have left already and we’ve said good bye over the past couple of weeks, now it’s the core group and it’s cleaning out of offices and throwing stuff out. They’ll still be paying half the rent according to the lease, but no one will be there. That’s the nature of the economic beast.

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Posted in Abstract Absurdist Otherness | No Comments »