Fifty Years In A Flash

My sister Joan and her husband Brian are celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary. How can that be? We were there when they got married, but it seems like yesterday. They say that time flies when you are having fun, so yes, we must have been having a blast.

One explanation of the 50^th wedding anniversary for people so young, is that Joan and Brian were 12 when they got married. Well maybe I exaggerate a little, but they were only 21. I recently asked my mother, who is 100 years old, how she and my father let them get married so young. She said it wasn’t exactly her choice, but she knew they were in love. Fifty years later, one might say, getting married so early wasn’t such a bad decision.

Susan and I followed Joan and Brian at State University of New York at Plattsburgh. When we got to Plattsburgh, they were the old married couple. Here is a picture of the two young hippies in their garden just outside of Plattsburgh.

Joan & Brian in the early 1970’s

The crops from this garden were the ingredients for the first Supper Club. The fact was, we didn’t have the money for much more. It didn’t matter. Joan and Brian had rented a little house out in the middle of an apple orchard. We had many good times and too many good meals there.

For one of our early Supper Clubs, we hosted a group of our college friends at Joan and Brian’s on a meal centered around bountiful crop of late harvest zucchini. We made a dish that our buddy Ron Iles aptly called: “Seeds Parmesan”. It didn’t matter, like most of the meals at Joan and Brian’s table, it was consumed with relish. It is amazing how a little wine can mask over a slight culinary imperfection.

Fast forward over the next 50 years there have been so many great times.

Summers in Westhampton watching our kids grow up together.
Holidays between New York, Virginia, New Hampshire and Memphis.
Most recently, visits to Bayside Island in the Thousand Islands, where Joan and Brian have restored what was Brian’s Great Grand Parent’s vacation home.

Joan & Brian’s Island in the Thousand Island today

To celebrate the anniversary, Joan and Brian’s children, Katie and Emily, hosted a party at the island. Emily created a wonderful meal that centered around a beef roulade that would be the delight of any Supper Club. Both Joan and Brian are better than good cooks and some would say that apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Emilie’s Culinary Masterpiece for the anniversary party

Fifty years have gone by in a flash. Some things change and some things remain the same. Our definition of culinary excellence has changed from Seeds Parmesan to a Barefoot Contessa quality beef roulade. The cornerstone of love that justified getting married fifty years ago is still a cornerstone today.

To Joan & Brian …congratulations on your 50^th Wedding Anniversary

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Magical Tricks

In cooking, and entertaining, there are many magical tricks that turn something ordinary into something special. In this blog I have waxed upon more than a few such as:

Ultimate “Secret Recipe” Brownies

Doubling the recipe or reducing the pan size makes thicker “Magical” brownies.

Adding lime zest to any dish or dessert

The zest adds a “Magical” freshness to the flavor.

Welcoming guests with signature drink

Having something “Magical” prepared for friends as they enter a party can

One of the most magical things I have ever seen is NANA’S CHOCOLATE CAKE. The magic started with my wife Susan’s mother. Helen, (Nana to her grandchildren) used to make a chocolate cake that everyone raved about. The grandchildren especially loved this cake. On the surface, there is nothing special about the components of the cake. It is made with Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix and Chocolate Icing made off of the recipe on the box of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate. But there is a magical trick.

Helen was a beauty queen at 17 and at 80

Nothing gave Helen more joy than her grandchildren (Todd, Brian, Lindsey & Jennifer)

Back in the day when Helen was making this cake for my children, I used to run a division of Baker’s Chocolate for General Foods. One day I had a group of food scientists and chocolate experts in a room and described Nana’s cake and asked what made it magical? The magic was in the icing. It was the icing that the kids really loved and the difference was in the texture. It is firm, almost like a helmet on the cake. One nerd of a scientist, started going off on the fat system, saying Nana might use a specialty fat that made the icing firm. Then Rudy Meznick, the real chocolate expert, asked: DOES SHE PUT THE CAKE IN THE REFRIGERATOR. That is a magical trick.

The beauty of this trick, and the story, is that it is multi-generational. Susan is now Nana to our grandchildren. There is nothing more magical to them than Nana’s chocolate cake. They love it and ask for it around every birthday or other family event. They don’t care anything about the food science. To them…the cake is pure magic

Susan – Nana to this crew Hadley, Max, Dylan, Declan & Emma

Nana’s Cake is Magical

Just remember to put the cake in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours before serving

The grands sharing (or fighting over) the last piece of magic

Happy Father’s Day

My dad (pop-pop to the grandkids) was a college dean but more importantly, student of language:

He had a doctorate in rhetoric
- “The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing”.
- He probably didn’t appreciate his son saying “He had a doctorate in BS”.
He had taught English, Latin and Greek.
He had learned to speak German when he was in his teens and his older brother was in the monastery in pre-war Germany.
He took French in high school.
He went to Italian classes in his 70’s

It is safe to say that dad had a gift for language and some would say, a twisted sense of humor.

A few years ago, on father’s day, my son Brian suggested that we come up with a list of Pop Pop’s lines. A good example of one Dad’s comes back with this memory. Dad would take me to his college and his co-workers would comment that I look like my father and he would say: “We all have across to bear”. Some might say that apples don’t fall far from trees. While I have nowhere near is language and writing skills, I definitely bear the cross of his twisted sense of humor.

As I put this list together, the realization hit me that these lines are multi-generational. One vivid example is the line my father used when he would say

There are two common spellings of the Kenny name, with and without an “e” between the n and the y. Dad would say: “Never trust an “ey” Kenney because they are probably from the north of Ireland”.
- The problem with this line is that his mother was from the North of Ireland. It is proof that the line passed down from his father who was from Tullamore in central Ireland
At this point, I am pretty sure, 4 generations have used this line

THE LIST

At dinner he would randomly ask: Can I ask you a personal question? …Can you pass the salt?
In reference to his carpentry skills, he would say: “Carpentry, I can do it, but it looks like I did it”
About his carpentry in general…”Paint covers a lot of sins”
In refence to a Broadway musical he would say: “You know it is a good musical when people are humming the tunes as they leave the theatre”
Every time he ate at a Chinese restaurant, he would open his fortune cookie and pretend that it read: “Help I am a prisoner in a Chinese bakery”
With no reference: He would say things like:
- You hold the baby I’ll shoot the baskets
- You with the sneakers…out of the pool
- Blood and guts all over the floor…I told you the baby wouldn’t bounce.
- Bread bread they cried and the curtains came down with a roll

On seeing a Lazy Susan on the table, he would say, “Susans’ got a bum rap”
He would tease the grandkids (and my mother) by saying: “Mom-mom is on the roof in her panties again”
…He would refer to Parmesan cheese on pasta as” Snow on the roof”
When introducing mom-mom to a stranger when they were in their 70’s: Let me Introduce you to my first wife
God only made a certain number of perfect heads, the rest he put hair on.
The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut…is about two weeks
He didn’t curse on the golf course, but he would say: Your mother’s mustache
About NYC mayor John Lindsey “He is filled with dilutions of adequacy” Quoted in the NYT for John Marchi’s obituary. Marchi was dad’s best friend from the 3rd grade on. John was Conservative Republican state senator in NY for 50 years. Ran for mayor of NYC twice and lost both times to John Lindsey, Dad, a liberal educator, was his speech writer. Go figure…
About his finance guy at Pace: “He knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing”
About my two older sisters… He said the first word he taught them was “ELOPE”. And, for their 16th birthday he bought them ladders
Your mother is the “Brains of the operation”. Mom had the equivalent of 3 master’s degrees. Dad had a doctorate. Mom never got a doctorate
Under your arms its… “semper agusto” and inside joke with John Marchi
About dinner: “Not bad considering that you threw it together”
“We are off like a flock of turtles”
While he was waiting in the driveway for mother to leave: It won’t be long considering that she still needs to vacuum the kitchen
About mother ordering a poached egg for breakfast: They can make any egg in 5 minutes except for a poached egg. Order a poached egg and you should expect a half hour wait. They have to research the recipe. they need to find the egg poacher…
“Langsam Langsam” Pronounced Lahhgsahm or something like that… German for slowly, slowly.
Here’s one that wasn’t frequent, but I will never forget it: when mother walked out in her long blue and white dress at my wedding Daddy said: “Jesus Christ Dorothy you look like the BVM.”
Bread, bread, they cried and the curtain came down with a roll
The cut off the thumb trick
He used to say this to his granddaughters Jennifer and Katie when they were barely more than toddlers and he would be calling them from his bedroom after knocking on the wall-“Where is she?” In a sort of sing song voice. Katie used to call it the knock knock game. When Pop-Pop died that is what she lamented : “but who will play the knock knock game with us?”
Whenever he saw a tee shirt saying: PHYS ED…he would say there they go talking about me again
Never leave a job before you have another
No matter how bad your job is, at least you are not selling used cars
On career advice: Dad was an college dean and professor, mom was educator as were many others in the family. When it was time for me to set a direction for my career dad told me: “Kid, everyone in this family is a teacher, but you will do a lot better in business. Trust me, I work with a lot of businessmen, they are not that smart and they make a lot more than teachers”. At the time, dad was the dean of a business school
He taught me to keep golf score by 5’s. 9 X 5 =45. The good news, to this day I can look at a scorecard in seconds and tell you what you shot. The bad news it takes the focus away from par
Mercy buttercups instead of merci beaucoup
“Tower of Jell-O” In reference to my ability to handle pressure on the golf course, long before I worked for Kraft
Actors have it made. They are never out of work. Never unemployed. They are between engagements. It sounds good
Paul’s nickname Lu. Short for Luap or Paul spelled backwards
On the golf course we would be waiting for the group in front of us to get out of the way and dad would say: “You might hit them, but you won’t bruise them that too bad”.
Referring to how I cope with pressure on the golf course he would say: “Don’t worry, he folds like a cheap suit”
Referring to certain of his least favorite corporations, he would say: “They are like Barney’s men’s store, they have 6 floors of empty suits”
Dad would refer to mom as the “War Department”. As in: Do you want to go out to dinner: “Don’t ask me you better talk to the WAR DEPARTMENT”.
He is a good kid he brings home everything he steals
He would say that mother would intentionally serve dinner late because when she did serve it people were so hungry that “Even the wallpaper would taste good”
House on dune road look like they were designed by Frank Loyd WRONG.