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 What subject did you like best when you were in school?
Math – far above all other subjects – I loved the analytical methods - no matter what – there were right and wrong answers. In English – when you write – the answers are up to the teacher – did they like your subject or syle? In math – no matter who graded you – there was one right answer.
And this is like today – here I am – grown up and in the world – and it is the same – numbers are the driving force for everything – budgets, taxes, gas prices – schools – how are we doing? Are our kids getting it – are they functioning and literate in math? For a while, I taught High School Math – I especially love Geometry.
What pets have you had?
My pony was a great experience. One time living in Maryland, I was about 14 and living with my half-sister Vonnie. A neighbor gave us the pony – it was an old one – but after school I would come home and brush it and ride it bareback. It would just walk slowly through the woods and take me to the apple tree. After a few apples, it would bring me home. I poured out my heart to that pony.
Rabbits – wow – they do multiply! One of my foster sons worked at the Napa Humane Shelter and his job was the rabbits. One day, he said, “oh please great fabulous foster mom – may I have just one?” OK, I am a sucker to the kids and the animals they fall in love with – we built a hutch, 4’ off the ground and followed the guidelines from the Shelter. That baby bunny came home. Then another. Before we knew it – we had 3 hutches and a dozen rabbits. When that foster son left our home – we found a farm for the rabbits.
 We have had guinea pigs, and rats. Fish and exotic fish. Dogs and more dogs – usually from the pound – I am a lifelong FIRM believer in adopting. My sulpher-crested cockatoo – was amazing – his name was Dancer and he danced up a storm – he was a rescue from LA.
My finches and cockatiels were all rescued from neighbors moving or my foster kids friends whose moms had had enough and the pet had to go – so we would get it.
Cats are the one thing I have never had – and always wanted but my extreme allergies to cats will not allow me to have them.
Ducks – honestly – I do not know where I get these animals. Hubby brought me home a baby duck – fortunately my daughter-in-law Marianne Gentry was here and she had a friend that wanted the duck – wow – so glad – that was a one day foster care – smile.
When I first moved to Napa, I lived out on the river. Every spring, baby ducks were all over. There was this one group I fed, and the mommy loved her babies, all but one. It looked fine – but she would peck it and run it off and not let it eat the things I fed them. It survived. I am not sure how – a few weeks went by and one day I was out there feeding the ducks and the mom was pecking that baby, that baby turned toward me and swam fast as it could right toward me – I knelt down and put both hands in the water, that baby swam into my hands. I brought it up to my neck and cuddled that baby duck and it nestled right in there like I was momma.
 There have been so many times in my life like that – times when sis and I were abandoned and living in a home – and we were the outcast. We were outcast like that duck.
I remember one time – we were in Florida and my mom dropped us off at some strangers house – we had never seen or heard of these people before. The dad did an ice cream run to Dairy Queen and brought back Sundaes for all the kids and the parents. But not for sis and I.
We were kind of hiding in the upstairs bedroom of one of the girls – sis saw the ice cream and wanted some – I said there was not one for us – she started crying. I remember cuddling her in my arms like that baby duck.
You really have no idea – actually – this memory just made me cry – truly – you have no idea how terrible rejection is.
Until you have been pecked by your own mom – until you have been left or abandoned by those you trust and love – you really cannot understand what prejudice means.
I get it – with tears on my cheeks right now – typing this message to you – I can promise you just like the day I comforted the baby duck or the day 40 years ago when I comforted my sister – I get it – I understand unjust actions and unfair treatment – and it matters to me. I am a champion for the little guy and the underdog. I was one.
That baby duck trusted me – I called a friend – actually her name is Beth – and she came over and took the baby duck and raised it – she had a pond and that baby did just fine.
 What is in your refrigerator right now?
Wow – fun and good question – olives – that is the first thing that comes to my mind. Chopped olive tapenade. Jalapeno stuffed olives. Spicy olive mix with red peppers, green olives and kalamato olives. Tapatio in the big bottle. Love that on tuna, chips and eggs. There is always spicy humus or if I buy traditional humus – then I mix in Tapatio. (I do not use Tabasco – it is too vinegary)
Always something that is moldy. Why is that? There is always something that I keep saying – well – we are surely going to eat that – next time I look – hmmm – it is moldy.
Many cheeses. Right now there is Mizithra, several bleu cheeses, cheddar, mozzarella, fresh parmesan, herbed jack and some whites like swiss and such.
What is your favorite food?
I love to eat – and my all-time favorite meat is bacon – many of you think that is gross. Especially – it is high in fat and salt. But I love the flavor. It only takes a smidge to jazz up anything and I love it.
Then there is seafood – all kinds – shellfish is top, shrimp and crab then swimming fish next, baked, broiled, poached – we, hubby Jim and I – love seafood.
My favorite regional foods are Italian – I love pasta. Spaghetti is my favorite with lots of meat. And no sugar in the sauce. I do not like SWEET sauce. Next is ravioli and then all the pastas, the tubes and bow ties – all of them with a meat sauce and a ton of cheese.
And Greek – humus, olives, moussaka with meat sauce, lamb gyro on pita – love Greek.
 And then salads – wow – hubby and I LOVE our salads. We eat salad almost every day with bleu cheese dressing unless Jim’s mom is around – she makes a killer thousand island dressing that is wonderful. I do not like sweet with my foods – but for her dressing, yeppers – I do like that.
Our favorite salad is a crab louie. Hubby and I travel all over to find the BEST crab louie. One of our favorites is in Vallejo by the Ferry Building on the waterfront at the Front Room. They make a wonderful louie.
OK – so now have to tell you my favorite food story and it is about a louie. It is about crab – but eventually about a louie.
Maryland Crab – I mentioned I had lived there – and the blue crab is the king of Maryland. They love their blue crabs. They are small – about the size of the inside of the palm of your hand. And when you order they give you 1 or 2 dozen, they come HOT right from the pots and COVERED in a thick coating of a peppery salty stuff called Old Bay Seafood Seasoning. Likely there is more on your table if that is not spicy enough for you.
This is how you eat Maryland Crab. You take this small crab – you have the entire thing – you crack, clean, take out the guts, smash, cut, dig and eat. Maybe 2 or 3 hours you are there and that is called a crab feed.
Well imagine my surprise at the first fund-raiser in Napa – the CRAB FEED.
These giant parts dropped on my table on a platter. COLD and bland. Not a drop of pepper. And where is the Old Bay I asked? Who in their right mind eats cold, bland crab?
 This seemed to me like a piece of boiled white chicken. It is the beginning of a recipe. It is not something you eat. It is something you chop up and mix into something else.
Like a can of water packed, drained tuna dumped onto a serving plate. That is not it. That is not done. That is a staple. An item you use for something else.
So here I sat – at $40.00 a person - looking at this platter of giant body parts, all cold and white.
You know what I said? “Excuse me – can you get the guy back here with the spaghetti and salad and bread?”
OK – that was 20 years ago – and now I am in love with our crab. I LOVE it and when crab season is in – hubby and I buy tickets to 3 or 4 or 5 of the local fund raisers and eat until we could pop.
NOW that you have laughed at me – let’s reverse the story – Jim and I take crab seriously. A few years ago – I took hubby back to Maryland. We went to a crab shack and I ordered 2 dozen of the jumbo’s. I wanted to impress my hubby – well he was not. He laughed out loud when the tray came. They were so covered in pepper that to eat one – he took his water glass and poured it on the poor little crab and washed it off.
Then hubby proceeded to do what he does in California – he picks crab and piles it up for a huge feast an hour later.
He picked.
And picked.
And picked.
And complained – “these little things – are you sure they are not breaking the law catching them this small?”
 So now – he had his pile. Next he said – “ Hey – I want to make a Louie.” The waitresses said a “what?” Not one of them had ever heard of a crab louie.
So Jim asked if they have a tossed salad, “yes” do you have thousand island dressing “yes” good and a big bowl. So they brought the components, Jim piled the crab on top and now we had 5 or 6 waitresses AND a few customers looking and pretending not to be looking – then, when Jim dumped all that thousand island dressing on the top of the crab, all at the same time – the waitresses and the two customers that were not looking – gasped.
They thought that was the grossest thing they had ever seen or heard of – and they were visibly upset. One customer walked over with their cell phone/camera and took a picture of hubby and this concoction.
You see – each coastline takes their crab VERY seriously.
And this is how it is with laws and rules – that whole 10th Amendment thing. The sovereignty of the states. If Maryland were making the crab rules about how to eat crab, we would all eat it hot, peppery and small. If California’s rules were global – the crab would be cold, bland and huge.
We need sovereignty – we need our own unique rules and our own local people writing and administering these rules – we need California to be sovereign and separate from the rest of the land – heck – I do not want those tiny little crabs in California – it takes hours to pick them and make a big enough pile for a decent louie! |
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