Saturday, June 28, 2008

Vito's Worlds Best Spaghetti Sauce!!

Vito's Worlds best Spaghetti Sauce (Courtesy of Bill Nico)

This is the sauce that made Bill (Soup) Nico famous. I have been taking advantage of this genius for many years and although I always credit Zow with the know-how, it's given even my best friends the illusion that I can cook. Gather the ingredients, put on your favorite "Kiss The Cook" apron, open a bottle of red, turn on the game or your favorite tunage and call the neighbors over. You will be everyone's new best friend....



1 clove garlic (minced)
1 med onion (Chopped)

Pour about a 1/4 cup of olive oil in the bottom of a large stew pot and heat pretty hot. Add onions and garlic and cook until onions are clear

Reduce heat & add:

4 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can of tomatoe puree
4 bay leaves
3 T black pepper
1 T salt
1/3 cup of sugar
1 t garlic powder
1 small bunch FRESH chopped basil (1 T of dried)
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t oregano
1 cup or so of FRESH chopped parsley (stems and all)
A cup or 2 of cheap red wine

Slow cook for at least 3 hours. About 30 minutes prior to serving add an 8 ounce pkg of parmesan or romano cheese and stir well.

Add some Italian sausage links, meatballs, lamb chops (browned in garlic) or some browned up chicken breast or whatever meat you like and let stew while cooking.

This will feed at least 10 - 15 people. Sauce freezes well and makes easy-thaw last minute meals.

Ciao!

Friday, June 27, 2008

First Thoughts, Terry Pratchitt and Artist's Way

Well, I hope this is something. I have a new website / blog (like the rest of the world I guess). I will be adding to content and using the site to keep friends appraised of how life goes as an aging hippie kid working on a dream. I wasn't sure how to start so I published an e-mail I sent out a couple of months ago.

Life is good. There came a time for me when I made a choice to stop going the way I had always gone and to take an insane risk. I'd like to say it's gone amazingly well and now I am rich and famous. Seriously. I would really like to say that.

That hasn't ever been my experience. But still, life is good. As the old joke goes, 2 years ago I couldn't even spell actor. Now I are one. (I mean you don't actually have to be currently acting to be an actor, right)? If it wasn't for the money I'd be the happiest man in America. I say that all the time and it's mostly true. And there's no turning back. I am too old to change my course...screw that. I have no desire to change my course. I can do this.

Don't even get in my way.

But I can use all the encouragement I can get.

This excerpt from Terry Pratchett's wonderful novel "Moving Pictures", (quoted from Ginger, former milk maid and budding starlet on her desire to be the most famous person in the world)

"...the greatest tragedy in the whole word is all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they're really good at. It's all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It's all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad ploughmen instead. It's all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never even born in a time when it's even possible to find out....It's all the people who never get to know what it is they can really be. It's all the wasted chances."

Julia Cameron in "The Artist's Way" :

Stop telling yourself, "It's too late."
Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you'd really love.
Stop telling yourself, "It's just my ego" when you yearn for a more creative life.
Stop telling yourself that dreams don't matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible.
Stop fearing that your family and friends would think you crazy.
Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you've got.

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every blade of grass has it's angel who bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow"

"It Don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing". Duke Ellington

"You are a baddass. Live your damn life!" Doug Alchin

A little Bonzo Dog Band?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIrNchYlPEw