Portabello and Asiago with Tarragon Aioli

Here's a recipe from the TOMM kitchen. It turned out delicious.

Ingredients: Per sandwhich.

1 Large Portabello Mushroom. ( De stemmed)
1 Large Red Bell Pepper
Escarole lettuce
Fresh Italian Flat Bread.
Asagio Cheese

1/3 cup of Lite Mayo
3 Roasted Garlic Cloves.
Fresh Tarragon
1/2 teaspoon Olive Oil
Two Large Scallions
Sea Salt
Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar

De Stemm the portabello and brush it with olive oil. Be patient, they get thirsty. Set aside.
Cut the bell pepper into flat slices, peel the skin and rind, no seeds. Then place the pepper slice in a plastic bag with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Set aside and let it marinate.

For the aioli, coursely chop about two teaspoons of fresh tarragon. Finely chop the roasted garlic cloves and the scallion onion part. Couresly chop one of the scallion greens. Whisk together with the mayo, olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and pinch of pepper. You can adjust the taste and add more garlic, tarragon to your taste. The Tarragon makes this sandwhich. Refrigerate.

Grill the portobello, skin side down until down while charring the bell pepper. When the portobello is done, turn it over and melt the asagio cheese slice.

Cut the italian flat bread into two slices about the size of the mushroom and spread the aioli generously on the top slice. You can lightly toast the bread if so desired on the grill brushing with a little olive oil. Place the mushroom on the bottom slice, topped with the bell pepperslice, add a leaf of Escarole and I like to slice it in half. You may want to use tooth picks to hold together.

You can pair this with a bold wine to match the meatiness of the portabello. A nice Cabernet or Zin would do the trick!

Guitar Hero

My cyber friend Amy emailed me to tell me she thought Neil Young was a great guitar player. She had been listening to him on the way to work. This is not only blasphemous but so imcomprehensible that it made me choke on my water. He did make Rolling Stones top 100 list of guitarists at # 83 but go figure. I don't put a lot of credence in these things. I do like Neil Young as an artist and songwriter but guitarist? NO WAY.

So after some dialog she asks " who is your guitar hero" and I couldn't answer the question. I had to give it some thought. It's kind of like asking who your favorite painter is because there are so many different styles. You have classically trained portrait artists that paint with great detail and then you have impressionists and abstract artists with unique perspectives. Likewise, you have classically trained guitar players like Brian May, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and you have what I would consider abstract players like Dick Dale and Jeff Beck. Impressionists, well I would put Clapton, Hendrix, Carlos Santana in this category... something like that.

There's a lot more to playing a guitar than picking and strumming. Artists develope their own styles by using the components of a guitar to get a particular tone. Different styles of picks create different sounds. Different woods create different resonation as do electric guitar pickups. Gibsons sound different than Fenders. A tube amp gives warm vintage sound ... whammy bars, effects pedals..... it goes on and on. I have a Line 6 amp that has a knob you can turn and get about 20 different amp modulations. But instead of hauling around a 50lb amp, I just bought a Digitech box for $99 with 72 different modulations, with wah pedal built in, a tuner and effects settings. Its about the size of a shoe box and I can plug it into the PA system. That rocks!

Ok, here is my top ten list:


1. Chet Atkins - He had to have three hands to play like he did. Deceased.
2. Eric Clapton - I was at a loss for words when I met him. No need to say anything here.
3. David Gilmore - Amazing stylist. He can bend a note further than anyone I know.
4. Dickie Betts - Plays alot in the major pentatonic scale. Love his style.
5. Jeff Skunk Baxter - My favorite lick of all time = My Old School, Steely Dan.
6. Jimmy Hendrix - He was actually a really good blues player.
7. BB King - Great solos only using one or two of his strings.
8. Mark Knoplfer - Dire Straits, brilliant.
9. Ted Nugent - Gotta love uncle Ted for a lot of reasons. Stranglehold baby.
10. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Probably should be higher on my list.

Special mention goes to: Duane Allman, Warren Haynes, Bonnie Rait, Van Halen, Johnny Winter, Jerry Garcia, Mo Keb, Derek Trucks, Gary Collingsworth, Eric Johnson, Carlos Santana.

Bob The Tractor Man

This here is the story 'bout a man who loved his tractor, his horse and Mama.

From sun up, till sun down,
Drove his tractor, all over town
Bob, Bob the Tractor Man,
Helpin out people whenever he can.

He plowed to the East, plowed to the West,
Came across a Damsel in distress,
Hooked up a chain, pulled her car out,
That's what is job is all about.

Bob, Bob the Tractor Man,
Drives his tractor as fast as he can,
Ridin tall, ridin proud,
Looks back over the land he's plowed.

Wears the same clothes , every day,
Dirt hides the color anyway,
Work's too improtant and he don't care,
He's not concerned 'bout the clothes he wears.

Now theres a woman in his life,
I'm not talkin 'but his wife,
They're not kin, but that's ok
Calls her Mama anyway.

Bob, Bob the Tractor Man,
Drives his tractor, fast as he can,
Ridin tall, ridin proud,
Looks back over the land he's plowed.

Sold him a horse, and they both went away,
Never did see him , since that day,
Then I heard, 'round Christmas time,
They were seen in the Valley Springs parade.

The Wrestler

It was July 2003, and I was sitting on a plane at SFO waiting to depart to Cabo to meet up with a couple of guys and do some big game fishing with Baja Raiders. Most of the plane had been boarded and the window seat next to me was still empty. I knew it was a full flight. Could I be so lucky? Most everyone was seated.


Just then, a Hulk Hogan of a man appeared in the front of the fuselage, bandana and all, an action figure come to life.... I kept my head down and tried to will away the fact that he might be coming straight toward me. Then a deep Steve Austinesque voice said " excuse me". The sight of us clearly amused the flight attendant and some of the passengers. In order to fit we spent the whole flight with his arm around the top of my seat and his head tilted to avoid hitting the overhead. Forget about the arm rest.

Turned out he was an actual professional wrestler, now retired. It was probably one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had. Super nice guy. He never reached the big league, had a $140,000 steriod habit at one time but now he gets hormone shots from his GP for muscle defintion. Enjoyable experience.

Anyway, what reminded me of this is that I watched the movie The Wrestler this weekend. Briliant movie, brilliant acting. It's about an aging wrestler has been ,that goes to extremes to get back in the game but age beats him back down. It's about men coping with aging and having to adjust. It's what all of us middle aged dudes struggle with to one degree or another. So I won't give away the story if you haven't seen it. I was fine with the ending by the way. Rourke was brilliant. A must see.