not your father's loco moco...

I call it Loco Florentine, and it's a fusion between comfort Hawaiian and classic Northern Italian. A little left-over spinach is the secret ingredient.
The question is, what beverage to marry with the rich beefy flavors, the soft, moist texture of white sticky rice, the earthiness of egg-over-easy? All suggestions appreciated...

Here's my recipe for Loco Florentine:

2 scoops left-over sticky rice
1 hamburger patty, grilled and seasoned to your taste
cover with low sodium chicken gravy from a jar
top with wilted spinach, peppered with a squeeze of lemon
top with egg fried in butter, over easy.

"Ono-delicious!" as we say in Hawaii.

For those uninitiated to loco mocos, here's a link to learn the history of, (but frankly I think my photo looks yummier.)

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/LocoMocoHistory.htm

Why men fish...

Come on by for dinner...bring a bottle of wine

Star-Crossed Tuna

1. penne pasta -- about 1/2 lb. cooked
2. olive oil -- about 1/4 cup
3. sundried tomatoes, julienned and packed in oil -- about 1/4 cup or more
4. minced or chopped garlic -- about 2 tsp.
5. fresh basil, snipped -- a handful
6. onion -- about 1/2 cup finely chopped
7. salt and pepper to taste
8. tuna -- one 6.4 oz. package or two small cans, drained
9. parmesan cheese

Open a bottle of cooking wine. This is for the cook to sip while performing the following steps: Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil, just until onion turns soft. Add sundried tomatoes and basil, stir. Add tuna, break up, stir and heat through. Add cooked, drained pasta, and more olive oil if too dry. Season to taste and sprinkle heavily with parmesan cheese.

Dinner Chez Nous is often something I throw together from what's in the cupboards. Star-Crossed Tuna is what we call "boat food" at our house because it's something I could prepare aboard Topaz while underway. (Topaz is our sailboat, and she doesn't have refrigeration.) With the exception of the basil, all of the ingredients can be stored at room temperature, at least for short periods of time, even the parmesan cheese although after a while it will mold. The basil you can keep growing in a pot on the windowsill or on deck, to use as needed.

If you have a refrigerator Star-Crossed Tuna is enhanced with a chilled bottle of crisp chardonnay. If not, it goes equally well with a bottle of red.

105 days on a bamboo raft...

I'm sitting in front of the fire, happy in the midst of a rubble of books; some borrowed from the library and some bought through Amazon.com (a great source for the obscure tomes that I seek, which definitely aren't on Oprah's list.) I'm researching for my novel-in-progress, a paranormal that takes place at sea. (Some scary shit happens on a boat in the middle of the ocean, I can tell you that...)

Here are a few of my new found treasures:

The China Voyage by Tim Severin
Zheng He; China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty by Edward L. Dreyer
Chinese Junks and other Native Craft by Ivon A. Donnelly
Chinese Mythology by Anthony Christie
1421 The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies
Chinese Junks on the Pacific by Hans K. Van Tilburg


Of these, The China Voyage is probably most compelling to the non-geek reader. The author Tim Severin and his crew set out to sail across the Pacific on a bamboo raft (kind of like Kon Tiki, but in reverse.) Their purpose was to test the theory that Asian sailors could have reached America 2,000 years ago.

OK, Tim and his crew didn't quite make it to California, and were rescued by a passing freighter about 3/4 the way across, but Severin kept me up late reading his story and brought me near to tears when they abandoned Hsu Fu, the humble bamboo raft that had served them well for so many months at sea.

If you have a soft spot in your heart for wanderlust types you might like to read The China Voyage -- or one of Tim Severin's other 12 books -- all of them accounts of re-created historical adventures. This crazy Irishman after-my-own-heart has sailed a leather boat across the Atlantic in the wake of St. Brendan, traveled on horseback with the nomads of Mongolia to explore the heritage of Genghis Khan, and written books about those experiences too.

When doing research, there's no substitute for first hand experience. Which makes me wonder how I'm going to get mine?

Here's to your memory, Mike

It was a secret we shared
a fabulous truth
Living at terminal velocity
at light speed

We were the omnipotents of our time
and flying was all it needed to be
all it could possibly be
all we could imagine

Even now when I remember freefall
I feel the spaces cracking, expanding
I hear the frenzied molecules humming
Any louder and I blow apart

This close to the edge
I just might jump

lsc,1999; revised 4/1/09

This morning

More snow!
Heaps and heaps of soft flakes balanced
on branches and buds
furry fingertips
reaching skyward each
to collect a soft white cap

A field of cotton bolls
a convention of miniature chefs
hundreds of vanilla ice cream cones hanging
outside our window
this morning

lsc/3/31/09

Today

Aspen holds fresh snow
in her bare arms, on her buds
blizzard of lilies

lsc/2009