Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Well, I liked the song the first 37 times I heard it.

(Continued)

So, Xavier would escort Graziella in the white limousine to the appropriate Gino Vannelli hosting casino where, according to Graziella, Gino would perform his hits with sweaty, hair-tossing abandon. Her only complaint was about the other attendees: “They’re a all so old! I couldn’t even bum a hit off of any of them. The only thing those broads have in their purses are estrogen patches and jars of Esoterica. And you can’t get high off an estrogen patch. Believe me, I tried! It’s a no good.”

After her return from her first concert, it was fun to hear the stories about the show and the people she had met. Her return from her second trip, well, not so much. I still enjoyed the stories, but on her arrival back to my house, she said, “The show was great, but it’s a so nice to be home.”

HOME!?! I did not know what I was going to do. But then a lovely little thing called You Tube provided divine intervention.

“There’s a this one song that a I love!” Graziella said as she expertly surfed the web. Her fingers flew over the keyboard with the manual dexterity of a technologically savvy teenager as she pulled up the video for “Black Cars”. “You a know, I hear his music and I a can’t sit still” And with this she began to start cleaning my house. She grabbed a dust rag and she started cleaning! It was an act of GOD. Okay, I have never been one to download music off the internet because I think it’s a little pricey and the radio is free, but I have never whipped out a credit card so fast in my entire life! For the low price of $ 8.99, I downloaded her idol’s greatest hits and I have never had a house so clean!


The only problem was that she liked to hear certain songs with a fair regularity. I’m convinced that water boarding would be far less effective as a form of torturing war criminals than subjecting them to 50 listenings of Gino Vannelli’s classic “I Just Wanna Stop” I almost told her enough was enough, but when she said she thought the tile floors could use a waxing, I thought it best to let nature take its course. I tried to put on headphones, but apparently Gino Vannelli was to be a shared experience. She said, ‘No, this is a the best part! Listen!” She wanted to listen with me! So, the best thing I could do is start making lunch and hope the sound of the food processor would provide me with a bit of reprieve. And it did. Lunch was served outside……….in silence…………thank God. 

Basil Pesto
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup pine nuts
⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
1. Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add ½ cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

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