Yay Cooking!

In the mid nineteen-eighties I was doing commercial copywriting for a company that hired a designer with whom I was to work to convert the company from a media buyer to a publisher—the owner had decided to advertise exclusively through in-house publications.

One day the designer inadvertently revealed an incredible pay disparity between us and I became offended that my skill (the conceptualizing of our policies and practices plus the writing of all copy) was so undervalued compared to hers (designing our newsletter, its ads and all our flyers), so I complained.

It got me nowhere; we both had signed contracts. So I set out to learn the skills she was using to charge so much more per hour. That meant I had to learn a desktop publishing program called Quark Express, the industry leader at the time.

The point of this story is that learning Quark, was my first experience with highly-desired learning. All previous learning had been abstract, either learning for learning’s sake, or for marks, scholarship, bursary or award, but I wanted to learn Quark because I really wanted the skills and to earn more money.

I was excited because I could offer clients two services, thereby earning more while, at the same time, undercutting my single-skilled competitors.

When it came to learning Quark, I discovered something profound: I love learning from people (and detest learning from books). I really wanted to learn Quark,  and I wanted to learn it quickly so I hired the woman who sold me the program to teach me.

I accomplished my goal.

The Great British Baking Show has radically changed my life for the better. It ignited an ember of passion that has grown into an inferno. It learned a lot from the people in that show; they were inspirational for me. Now, I am so charged by the recipes in Plenty; I foresee an endless future of homemade gourmet eating. I am eating like royalty and couldn’t be happier.

Costin got me on o Plenty and Plenty has super-charged the passion ignited by the Baking Show, so…

My Sunday

Click on the image for a better view.

Balance. After a birthday, Christmas and New Years, even my minimal amount of socializing made my solitude today feel wonderful.  

Next month, friends of a friend who passed away a year ago will meet to celebrate the bench we have bought in his name in Stanley Park. So yesterday and this morning, I made the invitation above. I loved making it; it evolved through many designs. Far more was discarded than remains.

By noon I was out the door. I was so impressed with Costin’s cookbook, recipe selection and his cooking that I went and bought the book and all the ingredients to replicate his meal. No greater compliment could be made.

I walked to Whole Foods on Cambie, then to the bookstore at Georgia and Broadway and then to Granville Island and came home on the ferry with all the ingredients. It was cold but I was excited about my mission. Late in the afternoon, I made the Sweet Winter Slaw and pigged out on it.

Costin Cooks

Oh my God…. last night was one of the finest meals I have ever eaten, cooked by a friend. I went To Costin and Marina's and had a tremendous time. They are very warm and welcoming people. We sat together in the kitchen whilst Costin cooked and Marina and I drank bubbly in a fabulous new way. We mixed it with Fragoli, a strawberry liqueur and I loved it.

He made two dishes from a cookbook I am going to get asap: Plenty. It is written by Yotam Ottolenghi,. He made an appetizer of fried leeks with red peppers that was beyond belief, delicious. And then something he calls a sweet slaw to which Costin added chicken.

Oh my God, what a meal!!

The slaw, in development, includes papaya and mango. Yum!

Costin & Marina have a cute little polaroid camera.

Rolling the leeks in bread crumbs before frying.

Adding the creme fresh sauce with capers.

… and the peppers.

The slaw was to die for, full of lime and nice and spicy.

Adding the chicken. I love this man.

Dessert was bought.

The cookbook! Costin has made almost every dish in it.

New Year's Day

My New Year’s Day included a nice brunch with my friend Paula and her friend, Andrea, followed by an evening at home. I tried to watch Sherlock but was bored on impact. Then, when the widow entered the story and was revealed to be the tiresome blonde of past seasons, I switched off.

My dear and long-time friend, Leslie’s New Year’s Day began with a crash at 6:30 am. Her mother succumbed to her battles and passed away. It made for an intense day; I was highly aware of my good fortune all the time.

•

Today began at 3:30 am. I went to bed early, so an early rise was inevitable, but 3;30 is ridiculous. The highlight of my morning was reading Ethan Kuperberg’s Existential Riddles on the Shouts and Murmrs page of the Dec. 14^th, New Yorker. They are hilarious.

At daybreak, I was ready to go. Today sees the return of the Farmers’ Winter Market. I am out of Mutsu apples and that cannot go on.

•

Tonight, I go to Costin’s and Marina’s for dinner. He is going to tell me if he is joining me at any of my cooking classes at the Dirty Apron cooking school. I hope he does.

Costin is about thirty years old. I am almost seventy and yet I am very fond of him. I hired him to be on ongoing consultant in the management of my aquarium through the store where I get my fish and I was nervous about having a stranger come into my home. But my affection for Costin was immediate.

He told me he was an actor and has a serious illness so we two things in common. He is European born and raised; I feel kinship with his passionate Latin soul. He is an irresistible mélange of confidence and humility, and he loves food.

At first I felt odd our friendship moved outside the boundaries of his professional services. I don’t think he did. He has, as is said, “an old soul” I think, that contributes to the success of our developing friendship. With each thing we do, it gets better, so I really hope he takes some classes with me.

•

And so on ….

Clever teachers are using Lego bricks to teach math.

Meanwhile, In the USA...

He Meets the Force

Click here and then click on "begin."

This is just for fun. It is NOT about the movie Star Wars.

I Love Beauty

As a child, her beauty hurt.

As an adult, this beauty makes me melt.

I am a gay man who loves women and beauty.

I am the man who sprang from a boy who, after seeing the film, Boy on a Dolphin, told his mother: “Mother, were we to rank the most beautiful women of the world in order, Sophia Loren would be at the top followed by a huge gap, after which would be all the rest of the women in the world in one big fat tie.”

Sophia, as I saw her in her films, embodied the passion of love. So did Maureen O’Hara who somehow managed to make integrity manifest. These women taught me that the beauty I loved came from without and within.

Grace Kelly’s beauty felt glacial and Marilyn Monroe’s public behavior made her beauty seem crass, and common. Instead, I felt rapture looking at images of the exquisite grace of Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rossellini.

Recently I saw the photo above of Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary in a livery costume. It made me swoon like the little boy who’ just seen Boy on a Dolphin. Then I saw this clip of her on the Tonight Show. In it, Hugh Bonneville, Allan Leech (sigh) and Ms Dockery are asked to read a Downton scene with American accents. It gives us a chance to see that Mr. Bonneville was typecast whereas Mr. Leech and Ms Dockery are actors of range.

She nails every line, generously supports her peers and reveals a comfortable and easy capacity to laugh and I am now officially smitten with Ms Dockery (and Mr Leech).

2015 ended in a way that made it grand to leave behind.

I finally found a handsome man who was interested in me and capable of seeing past my HIV status. But he is not a man for me. Sigh. And there were other issues (and migraines), plus I put on weight over the holidays.

But it’s a new year….

2016 will definitely bring some news about my screenplay. I can say that because the option agreement we signed ends in June. It will have to be renewed if they want to proceed. Renewal would be good news as it would indicate continued interest.

During the January - April period, I am taking fourteen cooking classes in two different schools. I have never taken cooking classes before. I liked learning as a child, but not classes because of my introverted nature but I think because it is cooking that I will have fun.

And then comes Spring and Summer, my two favourite words in the English language.