Bachelor Cooking! My Columbus Week Italian Recipe: Sausage and Spinach. Extending The Day’s Festivities!

Its been a long time since an episode of “Bachelor Cooking” posted!

Not a single recipe since I was dating Inna earlier this decade, and while the hurt from those failed relations (nobody’s fault but the money) will never go away until I mend that loss with a more stable Украина женщина, I decided to follow up my “Columbus Day Top Ten” reasons post with what I created for my Italian-style Columbus Day After-parade dinner. I’ve been on a cooking “roll” (no pun intended) lately, and its a shame that I have no lady to share them with. I digress…back to the dish and not the “dish”.

This “hot” Italian sausage and spinach dish came out “restaurant quality” in my opinion. You can use just about any firm pasta as the base so long as it withstands the sausage and tomatoes; I chose Rigatoni, but Penne, Rotini or shells would work!

In the wake of Columbus Day 2019 and the inspiration of watching it from outside of NYC on WABC7NY television that glorious Monday, I wanted to extend and so I imagined, what kind of food I could make similar to what would be enjoyed in the Little Italy that evening for my own post-parade party. Before a recent trip, I stocked my provisions in the fridge and I had a craving for hot Italian sausage, which I hadn’t had the opportunity to grill all summer as I would have in normal years past. 2019 has not been a “normal” year; I’ll tell you why in a couple more posts.

So, I came up with this simple celebration of taste where you’ll only need one pot and your large black iron frying pan to create a restaurant-quality dish! I’d just recently became reacquainted with my heavy pan which was in storage, seasoned it with some extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and put aside overnight in a cooling oven.

Therefore, when I began this dish by sauteing three hot Italian sausages on number 2.5, if your range is electric or medium-low if gas, it was ready to rock and roll. Simultaneously, prepare half-pound of Rigatoni in another two-quart pot with a dash of seas salt tossed in the water. Make sure you put three cuts on each sausage like you would a hot dog on the grill – it will make them easier to chunk with your metal spoon, spatula or precise-knife!

While that is cooking, get one onion, three garlic cloves ( or a couple teaspoons of pre-minced from the jar, half a bag of frozen (unless you want to do it yourself fresh) pre-sliced “three peppers (yellow, read & green) mix”, one can of diced peppers, a half can of tomato paste and half-bag fresh spinach (not “baby”) ready on the side to join the action. When the sausage starts to sizzle, I turn them and lace with a hand-full of Italian seasoning from my spice carousel. Cook your pasta according to the directions on the box and set aside.

After about 7 minutes, take the chunks of sausage out of the pan put in a little tin warm-foil and set aside on your stove top. Drain any excess oil from the heavy pan – but not all! Lower heat and add your garlic, chop three-quarters of a yellow onion, stir and raise the heat to medium or 4.5 on the electric range. Stir a lot and add your tomatoes (with juice),tomato paste, a splash of a red-wine beet marinade and four drops of Filippo Berio Raspberry Glaze with Balsamic vinegar and a little palm-full of hot red-pepper flakes from my spice carousel. Cook it about 10 minutes and stir often to mix it up! Remove from heat.

Drain the Rigatoni, toss with a splash of evoo and couple dashes of dried Basil. Add spinach. I transferred it to my big, silver chef’s bowl and mixed all up really good with my chef’s wooden spoon, until the spinach was wilted. Add sausage and really mix-up and toss as all ingredients now have a party going on in the bowl!

Transfer a portion to a serving dish and top with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese… “Viola!”

A nice, room-temperature glass of authentic Chianti completes this meal!

This definitely extended the Columbus Day feeling for the rest of the week as I (of course) have copious leftovers in my brand new resealable container, tempting me to munch every time I open the fridge.

As with a stew, it was even better the second serving! “Light-bulb!!! Maybe you can use this recipe for your upcoming NFL Super Bowl party!
Enjoy and please let me know how you liked it!
And now a word from our classic commercials…

Check Me INN To Sleep Long And Deep

On-shore intentional,
(prayer)
Mid-week deep thought therapy meditational;
(Dependable incoming waves)
Positive, personal and focused,
(Stay)
Demons of Doubt cast away,
(Strong)
Settling Sea reinvigorates me.
(Tough)
Otis Redding watching the tide
(Disciplined music)
Mature enough to finally be an adult;
(Centered)
Still much of an only-child kid at-heart;
(Safety)
Keeping my head “on the swivel” on the stealth.
(Rebelliously streetwise)
James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”
(Healthy)
Start my day with H2O Green tea,
(detox)
Vitamin and antioxidant augmented;
(Wealthy)
Pay myself first and I need another gig now!
(Banker)
Find a corner as ‘Aunt’ Nashville ‘second Mom’,
Della recommends I pray;
(Spiritual communication)
Alive so long as the sun rises and desires;
(Good habits)
Mama used to say.
(Timeless advises)
It is the calm-before-the-storm…again dammit.
(Cherish downtime)

My Vinyl Tune Wedgie: Al Green’s “Your Love Is Like The Morning Sun”

In my insanely contemporary musical Disc jockey mind, this “tune wedgie” appears most mornings while I try to make breakfast, wake-up and convince myself that I have a purpose in life to move on towards. Yes, it is lonely like that unless I am strengthened via prayer.

The lyric, “Its me that’s missing your love, and I….” repeats most often.

You are listening to vintage Al Green from 1973 “Call Me” album, with a song of unrequited yet reciprocal love that endures because every day the dawn will happen with a renewed chance for healing romance. I always appreciated how during his vamp-to-fade, he listed his previous, at that time, hit song’s names, lol.

This light-listen and “B-side” selection garnered major market airplay and herein is dedicated sometimes to the Ukrainian lady I thought I’d be married to by now, Inna-Nina. I blame myself for not being able to raise enough money to import her to the USA ahead of the Russian intervention and her mother’s cancer diagnosis in the spring of 2014.
This is likely the sad climax conclusion for “Cafe` Skype” because something is amiss. I will put it point-blank: If you are my girlfriend or fiancee` and my elderly mother or father becomes ill, I will not push you away or go to a mental clinic for a “breakdown”. To the contrary, I would need you more to lean upon through troubled times – even if five thousand kilometers away via a five year relationship as difficult as that may be – or if it honestly will not work anymore and I have a person in the same area of the opposite sex (maybe a past schoolmate) who fulfills that role, I would tell you. Or maybe that’s just me.
Here is when needs begin to challenge that I am a loyal, faithful man.
Murphy’s law seems to stalk my female companionship quest…

Tell me what should I do in your comments, please

Subway Life Again (?)

Clean train at the first stop in the morning,
An annoying dark Jamaican man,
Preaches at we the passengers on the bus to it.
Who wants to hear that shit first thing?
Back in the good days,
Bus driver would have tossed his loud ass off!
I am back to subway commuting life again for now;
I am not happy about it.
My knees ache walking up and down stairs to connect.
Wearing thoughts of you keeps me putting one foot,
In-front of another foot;
I wear you like an army helmet, baby,
Head up and sometimes down;
Pushing forward in the struggle to repay you;
It is my debt to continue.

Subway life is not as a score before!
Now knees and Achilles tendon intermittently remind of time;
I am staring and snoozing,
Catching some Russian conversation after the Forest Hills station;
Going and coming dodging crowds;
Dashing coolly to find a seat and take load off my old feet!
Walking down a tunnel with impromptu musicians begging,
Every step I imagine is towards you there in Europe.
I remind myself why I am doing this;
“Keep good thoughts” like I asked her to do” I say.

I see vivid fashion independence,
Eccentric strangers plugged into handheld devices.
Nod-off upon past Skyped words you said in-remembrance,
Every “date” I recall is decisive!
While now canned announcements utter ignored warnings;
Life in a time capsule called,
“Watch the Closing Doors, please…”
Again, “Remember I am doing this for her and me!”
I remind myself through the present noisy uncertainty.

Walking on queasy knee,
To fulfill happily fulfils my obligation to thee;
Foremost like a bee’s quest for honey.
It dwarfs my self-indulgent desires,
Feeding anticipated sexual fires!
Those who “think” they know me cannot understand.

I have much time to ponder my life while underground.
I hate it.

Are you ready again?
All former trusted people here,
Lately have said, “Nyet” to helping me helping you;
So now I am going to extract my pound of time.
You’ll get yours and I’ll get mine;
For us and it ALL for you!
It is finally TIME!

Just drop who you are doing!
Please wait again for ME!
Just a little bit longer!
Makes our story stronger,
As the cat for a fly to happen by;
Like I wait on the platform for the “F” train!

On the subway (metro or underground)
One has much time to think about,
Your life or the girl you want to be
your wife.
Good or bad;
Happy and sad.
I like commuting to this work;
Even though I know I am better than this,
I should have a driver and a limo at least!
Or my own car again,
Which I will have soon.

With my physically distant Inna on my mind constantly.
We will unite,
For SHE is my future family destiny.
“Watch the closing doors please and thank you for riding New York City Transit!”

You can Comment

My Sweet Freedom Angel

Hey, my special Freedom Angel!
It was two years ago around this time,
I knew that you were forever mine.
You proved to help me
You became my Freedom Angel.

I knew you were sent from the heavens
I learned how it feels to be truly enamored
With a special blessing in a woman
Who for so long I have searched!

I finally got it right;
I looked in the right place,
The Ukrainian country!
I found the best Slavic woman for me.
Now I soon will travel to have Inna at my knee.

You are still my ultimate destination, Baby.
I’m coming again!
I want you to know,
Whatever the problem or obstacle,
That you can depend on me because
You have divinely inspired,
I will find a way to solve it –
Just like I did with the Passport situation.

I live for that next day or night,
When I step from a plane into your gaze and then arms;
A first real kiss that we both have missed all these months.

Whatever time we have together,
Will be great!
It will will be worth the wait!
I Pray daily to Jah,
Allow us to get this thing together!
Before we are too old to enjoy each other youthfully!

(“C’MON!!” Please hurry, cosmic forces of prayer, Dammit!)

“HotellHer” (to the tune of Beatles’ “I Feel Fine”)

THIS little ditty came to me during the first overnight hotel stop of my recent “Exodus” from Nashville, in Bristol, Virginia…after the power outage!

Nina is my friend you know,
She loves me til the end ya know;
She once said SO!
(“We can remain the friends, if you want.”)
“Babychka!”
We were already friends and that is so!

Nina was my friend you know,
She don’t like me to talk about it,
Unless I DO it!
Unless I soon come there to her in Ukraine…
Nor proudly post her photos on my website;
(She sent me over one-hundred!)
That IS so!
I’m in love with her and I feel fine!

Nina is my pink panther playmate ya know,
She Calls me a Cheetah too you know,
Yep, she “said So!”
Nina is my scherzando Honey,
In love I call her “silly bunny”
I’ll fun love her forever!
I shout it!
She’ll come back to me and we’ll be fine.

Nina is magnanimous, and I am so glad!
I dig her until the end of time,
Never say “never”, she said it so (true)!
I keep in touch with her and I’m so glad!
“When you Naphtali will begin to travel, you will not stop any more. Believe me, I know!
Kiss you Cheetah“

Ooooh!
She SAID SO!
I’m in love with her and I feel fine!

“Cafe Skype”: International Love Story Docu-Film Motivation

The Following is submitted under the heading, “Anything Can Happen”

People are still asking, here in 2014, “What is next for the documentary story and couple known as “Cafe` Skype” ?

It should not have been this difficult for a Ukrainian, Russian-speaking, Woman and an American man who solidified the foundation of their love on the internet to overcome her Visa and his passport and financial hurdles in order to marry and live together – but it was. Can’t you just hear the deep-voiced movie trailer announcer selling this? Now that the debt is paid…when will we see a picture of these lover together?…

Naphtali finally traveled to Kiev to see Inna-Nina! However, she had accepted a temporary Nursing assignment in Rome, Italy to earn money she apparently could not earn in Zaporozhye to help her ailing mama. So they missed each-other “like ships in the night”. That added another “twist” to the plot of our story! Do you want to be the film crew to reenact this historic and long-awaited event? Please read-on! Contact us! We need help to happen! Calling all film Investors! Get your name or company listed in our Rolling credits for $100.00!

” A short documentary-film about The Timing of Life and Money vs The Timing of Love…Ukrainian beauty meets veteran NYC radio/club DJ and Author who lived in Nashville at the time, they fall in “love” and both must overcome passport, cold war-era Visa rules,immigration financing, family elder care and financial challenges to be together…” The truth and one of the main sub-plots is that my bride-to-be has sent me money to help pay a debt that allowed my passport to be granted… I repayed it back to her after two years of expectations, hoping to ease our first and only rift. “Money isn’t everything…”, my Mum once said. However, in this story, it was what we thought was the final hurdle that will help us overcome the Visa issue to help get Her to the USA.
Meanwhile, Nina had to take work as a Nurse to help her family back in Ukraine in Rome, Italy part-time in silent, losing hope for their meeting, despair…as I flew to Kiev.

Video and text from our short-falling crowd-funding campaign for our international marriage story with important messages for the U.S. and Slavic world gov’ts. you can hear one of our protagonists, Nina, speak about it from our crowd-funder on Kickstarter two years ago, here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cafeskype/cafe-skype-a-lil-multicultural-love-overcomes-obst/posts/97291?ref=email&show_token=d02fa023d6daa5ae

There are sample videotrailers for you to view! just email us at the contact address to the right sidebar on this page, and you get the links. Personal interview and social media promotional video with the happy couple for $1,000!

All too often, when you hear about a romance between an American man and a Russian lady, people don't take it seriously, laughing with a wink and a nod behind his back, diminishing it as if the guy is getting scammed, tricked or insulting it as a mere "international booty-call" or something. Yes, often some women do try to con a guy via internet scams, but Nina never asked Naphtali for one penny! In fact, she magnanimously helped Naphtali overcome a debt and that completed his first U.S passport get! Don't sell US short on intelligence, OK? This is not the case with Nina & Naphtali. Forget the negative and accentuate the POSITIVE! What is going to happen next leading to the day when she jumps right through the Skype web camera, into his waiting arms?

You can help fund the film by using the yellow “donate” button in the upper-right of the sidebar.

Back-story:Naphtali finally achieved his U.S. passport, thanks to Inna and a Brooklyn long-time friend’s financial help to overcome an unjust tax from his past. So, if you truly want to see how this interesting story comes to a happy ending, donate now! We have the backing of the Fiscal Sponsor, “From The Heart Productions”, http://www.fromtheheartproductions.com/ making it easier for you to write-off your donations come tax time! The message of this film is necessary on many levels as a wake-up call, to achieve the path to unity that the Creator assembled us, various peoples on Earth for, as well as untangle some of the U.S legal system from uneven/unjust “taxtics” by states that can override the federal government’s rules and deny passports.
Proposed length: 27 minutes; Target audience: PBS, NPR, BBC, IFC.

Call our “legal Eagle” and head of fund-raising escrow, Bruce, at the law firm (718-855-6840) with your question, donation or comment! You can use your check, money orders, cashier’s checks, bank debit card so that the goal of funding this message film moves forward. 

One of Inna’s beloved artists is Lenny Kravitz, whose father just-so-happens to be Ukrainian and his mother a Black Woman! Here is the first Kravitz video that Nina ever sent to Naphtali to express how their communications via email, you tube, postal mail, telephone and Skype made her feel “in stomach” – ‘Butterfly’.

Thanks to you who look, like, listen, think pro-actively and “outside of outside of the box”. See you at the movies or in syndication.

Nina, Naphtali, Nate, Nan, Cheetah    

The “Cafe` Skype” docu-film project production team

For Perks descriptions & more information:

http://www.webspawner.com/users/cafeskype/index.html

How will the plot turn next? You write the conclusion and we will play it out in real life/on-screen for your $5,000 donation! There will be remixed versions!

PICKHIT: Naphtali has repaid his monetary debt to Nina and there will be happy updates into 2014, Your support will help both of our elderly Mother’s health issues. Will we just have to snag a random stranger to document the meeting at an airport? Or will your film crew be on-hand to save the moment? You have already lost two chances!

SURESHOT Urgent Update! February 28, 2013: After a great civilian protest that toppled Ukraine’s corrupt and Russian ass-kissing “President”, Putin the puppet-master orders troops to Crimea which is not all that far from where Nina lives with her elderly mother and son. What the fuck is next that will pop-up as a hurdle to our togetherness away from Ukraine? What is next?? I am so chagrined, you would not believe it – but do not show it. All help appreciated because this could become VERY bad, and then I become afraid that we might never fulfill our dream. ~ N.

World Premiere Update. It is now February, 2015 and thanks to paranoid Putin, the Russian “President” and his war by proxy, the prospects for our marriage and a happy ending to this story are grim. The frontline of the war is currently only about 225 miles from Nina’s city in southeastern Ukraine!! Help!! Unfortunately, my last crowdfunder only raised slightly over $500US and I sent her most of it for he family (aliing, elderly mother), the rest used to begin a savings account for eventual refugee status. Heaven only knows how far Putinitler’s goons will march into Ukraine now. I still prospect for any ideas to raise the major thousands of dollars to help. I pray that the United States, together with its allies going back to World War II soon send the necessary arms and assistance to help Ukraine deter any further Russian aggression. Your ideas are welcomed to help the “Cafe` Skype” story live on in the comment section of this post. Sadly…I thank you ~ N.

Thanks for Reading. We invite you to share this post. We still need your support to complete our story and this film as we rendezvoused together in London, U.K. in October of 2013!!!! What a journey…Look out for the book version to be released in early 2016. Someone will have to do better than “sorry”.

Your comments are strongly encouraged!