Photos Tidbits and Trivia

My wife Sharon took the photo below of Greg Jansky, conducting a tour at the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. The rendering under the photo, with the central character of my book inserted, was one of my first efforts as an illustrator. A bit overstated for a cartoon-like picture, my labor to capture the faithfulness of the moment correctly embodies the lighthouse and the real live character, Greg Jansky. I hope the meticulous depiction, my humble effort to portray the scene as accurately as possible, one brick at a time, gives the reader a true sense of the grandeur of this old lighthouse.

FUTURE PROJECT

Operating a restaurant is more than knowing how to cook. A customer wants good food, but most want it fast, a connotation a restauranteur would rather not associate with his establishment. I hope to transfer the experience garnered during my years in the restaurant industry to the pages of my future project and create a recipe book unique to the home food preparation devotees; a cookbook, using Joe DiMaggio's original recipes, pictures, and words, to make an easy to follow guide to some extraordinary dishes that excite gastronomic proclivities and improve one's appreciation for preparing and eating good food.

Check out new cover on left; and does this bread look good enough to eat, or what. baguette

Joe Di Maggio's Restaurant had its start in Houston, Texas in nineteen-fifty. An unpretentious hole-in-the-wall on Shepherd Drive, it wasn't the best choice my parents could have made for their first mom and pop bistro. Beer sales exceeded food sales; so they moved farther south on Shepherd Drive and set up a quaint little place that seated seventy-two. Candles stuck on top of old Chianti bottles adorned the emblematic checkered tablecloth creating a romantic storybook Italian restaurant. The wonderful pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, and the original specialty dishes started to flow from the small kitchen. Houstonians began to gather in large numbers to enjoy some good ol'home cooking. Sports figures, movie stars, astronauts, and other famous people found their way to the little eatery and dad began to hang their signed photographs on the walls. He soon ran out of wall space. Years later, forced to move to a new location, they set up shop in a place that seated three hundred and sixty-five. As they say, the rest is history. Dad and mom handled the seventy-two seater with no sweat, but the new place gave them a problem. Mom was used to fixing all the orders herself and could not bring herself to accept someone else working in her kitchen. I left my job with NASA to help them and eventually ran the restaurant the last ten years of its existence. I remember the first time I heard someone ask my dad, "How do you get off using Joe Di Maggio's name?" His answer was simple, "I'm not using the Yankee Clipper's name; he is using mine. I am thirty-five years older than he is."(actually 17 years older) When the famous Joe Di Maggio came to Houston to participate in the old-timers game at the Astrodome, he always stopped in to eat, visit, and drink some velvet hammers in that order. One of my favorite things is eating good food and drinking good drink; I look forward to working on this project.
Bon appétit!

SAMPLE RECIPE FROM COOKBOOK

It occurred to me that you might like to see sample recipes presented on this web site with the guiding principles described above in place. I have selected an artichoke dish that is unusual and delicious. If you like it and would like to see other samples, please e-mail me; I will add others. Of course, I will appreciate any comments you may have on the clarity of the recipe and how easy or difficult it was to prepare. Click on the Page 4 Sample Recipes link at bottom of page to see recipes.