This post is courtesy of my wife Rachel:
Most people have eaten a Caesar Salad at least once in their life. Many assume incorrectly that it was named after the Roman Julius Caesar. Actually, the salad’s creation is generally attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. Cardini was living in San Diego but he was also working across the border in Tijuana, Mexico where he avoided some of the restrictions of Prohibition. His daughter Rosa has recounted that her father invented the salad when a Fourth of July 1924 customer rush depleted the kitchen’s supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing “by the chef.” In the following years a number of Cardini’s staff also said that they invented the dish.
Generally, the Caesar salad is a green salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper. Many people aren’t overly fond of anchovies, so the dressing has evolved a bit into several incarnations. Here is the home-made simple to make variety that we use:
Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe
. 2 tbsp mayonnaise
. 2 tsp Dijon mustard
. 2 lg garlic cloves, pressed
. 1/2 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
. 1 tsp salt
. 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
. 1 cup mild olive oil
. 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
. Combine with a whisk, adding oil in a steady stream while blending
We store our dressing in a Mason jar in the refrigerator and stir it vigorously before each serving. It’s delicious on all kinds of salads. It also tastes great on fresh steamed broccoli and other semi-raw vegetables.
Enjoy and let me know how you like this recipe!
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GUEST POST BY RACHEL RIZZI
If you haven’t eaten alligator, you should really give it a try. You may have heard the old adage that it tastes just like chicken. Not really. It’s actually a lot better. Alligator used for food preparation usually only includes the tail meat so don’t try this with a dead gator you find on the side of the road. Packaged alligator tail meat can be found nationwide. It tends to be a bit pricey, usually at $15 per pound, but a little goes a long way. For those of you with an adventurous streak, here’s a recipe that you’re sure to enjoy.
FRIED ALLIGATOR
INGREDIENTS
1 lb. Louisiana alligator meat (tenderloin or sirloin cuts of tail meat), cut into chunks
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Flour, for dredging
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup hot sauce
1 bottle store bought ranch dressing, for dipping
DIRECTIONS
1.) Lightly season gator meat with salt and pepper prior to dredging them in flour.
2.) Combine buttermilk and hot sauce into 1 mixture.
3.) Dip the gator meat into the buttermilk and hot sauce mixture and dip, once again, in flour.
4.) Then place in deep fryer until golden brown, just a couple minutes.
5.) Drain on paper towels and serve with ranch dressing.
It’s finger snappin’ good. Let us know here how you liked it!
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This is part of my presentation of my Top Five favorite movies (in do particular order).
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is a William Wylder classic that studies three World War II veterans who return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been changed forever. Although the time signature may date the film for some, it is timeless in its statement of what is and isn’t important in life.
The film stars Myrna Loy, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O’Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael and introduced Harold Russell who was a real life amputee and the only person to receive two Academy Awards for the same role in the same picture.
It is an uncomplicated film that is full of complicated moments and blunt realities. I am always surprised that so few people have seen this film. It is one of my top five favorites and I recommend it 100%.
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The question is practically as old as fishing itself: Who is better at fly fishing, men or women?
To be sure, there are more men in the water at any given moment and the sport has been dominated by men since the early days in Scotland. But these days, even a casual glance at a stream as you drive by will yield a number of female anglers. So what gives? Are men better or are women better? Let’s take a closer look.
For sure, men can claim they represent the bigger number when it comes to percentages of fly fishing anglers. According to most recent studies, the numbers break about 65% men and 35% women. So, almost twice as many men are on a body of water at any one time compared to women. But again, who is better at their sport?
Many fishing guides (including this one) agree that women listen a whole lot better when receiving instruction in casting, reading water, etc. Men, by their very nature, often revert to the macho mentality that interferes with learning. Women tend to ask when being instructed about casting, “You mean like this?” Men will often utter the same words in the same situation but with the emphasis on the word “mean.” At the end of the day, women tend to take away more for their money when being instructed, guided, etc. than their male counterparts. That’s the human nature angle.
Physically, men tend to be stronger and hence have better endurance for casting all day long. They also tend to be stronger waders. However, women tend to think a bit more before they do either with their results often matching or exceeding the boys and men out there. Many men will wade into a stream a bit too quickly without giving the water a thorough read. Women tend to tarry a bit on the bank and give things a good look before proceeding.
There are exceptions to all of these examples of course. In my 65 plus years of fly fishing, I would have to say men and women are equal in the water. Their individual approaches are often different but their results are more often the same. I use me and my wife as examples. Rachel is a better caster. She learned patiently from my father a very correct, fluid and beautiful cast whereas I learned the same things years before from the same instructor but forced my bullheadedness onto the process. If we had a “cast-off,” she would beat me hands down! However, I am in the water more days a year than my wife and therefore I have more practice. To be sure, when we are fishing together, I usually do a bit better…. the old practice makes perfect thing.
The picture above illustrates the point about results often being about the same. That’s Rachel with a Brown Trout taken on Montana’s Clark Fork with a number 16 Blue Winged Olive in 1996. I believe the fish count was dead even that day. Points for casting had to go to Rachel. I probably edged her out just a little in the “reading the water” category, but again just a little. So who was better at fly fishing that day? We were probably equal.
It’s sometimes tough for men in this world of “winners and losers” to simply concede that it’s really not a contest after all. Who is better at fly fishing? Probably the one with a fish on at any given moment. That would make us all better than ourselves in the end.
For more on fly fishing, read my collection of short stories: The Blackest of Canyons and Other Micro Tales of Fly Fishing
Read author Allen E. Rizzi’s latest books available at Amazon.com
Cole Porter is one of my favorite composers, both for music his and his clever lyrics that often use internal rhyming. I have written here in the past about In The Still Of The Night which I consider to be one of his finest works: https://rizziallen.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/in-the-still-of-the-night-2/
Throughout his prolific career, Cole Porter wrote many, many great songs, some of which have become the backbone of American composition. I can think of four or five of his songs that are truly great. They served as inspiration for my own song writing for so many years in addition to being just plain enjoyable. One of my favorites is So In Love from his 1948 musical Kiss Me Kate. This show had 1,077 performances before closing on July 28. 1951.
Here are the lyrics:
Strange, dear, but true, dear,
When I’m close to you dear,
The stars fill the sky,
So in love with you am I.
Even without you
My arms fold about you.
You know, darling, why,
So in love with you am I.
In love with the night mysterious
The night when you first were there
In love with my joy delirious
When I knew that you could care.
So taunt me and hurt me,
Deceive me, desert me,
I’m yours ‘til I die,
So in love, So in love
So in love with you, my love, am I.
So In Love employs an unusual musical score and great lyrics that simply make most normal people feel the joy of love with a tear in their eye. It is such a popular song that many people have recorded it throughout the years including:
Julie Andrews, Josephine Barstow & Thomas Hampson, Shirley Bassey, Mimi Benzell, Vikki Carr, Rondi Charleston, Andy Cole, Chick Corea, Bing Crosby, Deborah DeDe Wedekind, Plácido Domingo, Tommy Dorsey, Alfred Drake, Lara Fabian & Mario Frangoulis, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Renée Fleming & Bryn Terfel, The Four Lads, Sergio Franchi, Lily Frost, Roberta Gambarini, Lesley Garrett, Robert Goulet & Carol Lawrence, Kathryn Grayson & Howard Keel, Jane Harvey, Dick Haymes, Edmund Hockridge & Janine Roebuck, Mark Jacoby, Betty Johnson, Allan Jones, Stan Kenton, Dave King, Lisa Kirk, k.d. lang, Mario Lanza, Steve Lawrence, Peggy Lee, Liane & The Boheme Bar Trio, Guy Lombardo’s Orchestra, Julie London, Joe Loss and His Orchestra, Lulu, Patti LuPone, Gordon MacRae, Sue Matthews, Marin Mazzie & Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nichola McAuliffe & Paul Jones, Robert Merrill & Roberta Peters, Vaughn Monroe, Diana Montague & Thomas Allen, Patricia Morison & Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison & Bill Johnson, Joan Morris, Georg Ots, Patti Page, Johnny Prophet, John Raitt, Patricia Routledge & David Holliday, Diane Schuur, Dinah Shore, Cesare Siepi, Frank Sinatra & Keely Smith, Dakota Staton, Enzo Stuarti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Trio Désolé, The Tymes, Jerry Vale, Marlene VerPlanck, Dinah Washington, Julie Wilson, Will Wright, Earl Wrightson, Rachel York & Brent Barrett, Caetano Veloso, and Bob Dylan.
That’s a monster list and I’ve included it here to show just how popular this song was and still is. If you have never heard this song, please give it a listen and let me know what you think. You can leave a comment here on this blog.
Here the clip from the 2004 movie De-Lovely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-buP_U0cEos
Here is another recording by Mario Frangoulis and Lara Fabian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZtnURkNOk
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I had long wanted to visit Vienna, Austria but not completely for the usual tourist reasons. The year was 2005 and my wife and I were living in Northern Italy. The trip by car wasn’t really that long so we decided to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams. We planned the trip for November 2, ironically the Day of the Dead, and set out for a hotel in Pressbaum, located on the outskirts of Vienna near the Vienna Woods.
Pressbaum
We chose a route that took us from our home near Meran, Italy up the Brenner Pass, into Innsbruck and east to Pressbaum. The trip was delightful with many things to see and do along the way. We poked about a bit in Innsbruck because it is a city that we truly love. Once we got to Pressbaum, we settled in for the evening and planned our days in Vienna. By the way, if you wish to visit Vienna but want to stay out of the bustle of the city, Pressbaum is the perfect choice. Vienna is accessible from Pressbaum by train as well as car in just a few minutes.
Schönbrunn Palace
The top things we wanted to see as tourists were the Schönbrunn Palace, the Prater and of course Mozart’s grave. The palace was spectacular as I expected. But it was freezing cold and the normally beautiful gardens were devoid of life. We soaked up the history inside the palace and thoroughly loved the visit. If you visit Vienna, it is a must see. Strangely, the nearby McDonalds had curious advertisements on the outside of their building written in Japanese. I guess a Big Mac is a big deal for Japanese tourists. It definitely added to the charm as we are both super international.
Wiener Riesenrad
I had heard about the Prater (large public amusement park) from my father when I was a child and was thrilled to see it in person along with taking a ride on the famous Ferris Wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad. On April 7, 1766, Emperor Joseph II declared the Prater to be free for public enjoyment, and allowed the establishment of coffee-houses and cafés. Throughout this time, hunting continued to take place in the Prater, ending only in 1920. The Prater is now full of entertainment including a haunted house and the like. The Riesenrad is the main attraction however. The Ferris Wheel is composed of large cars and was completed in 1897. It is located at the entrance of the Prater in Vienna’s Second District (Leopoldstadt). The view of all of Vienna from atop this wheel is truly amazing. You can see all of Vienna and well beyond. You can even get married in one of the cars if you wish!
Mozart’s Grave
Finding Mozart’s grave proved to be easy. I must admit that I stood there in front of it for a very long time with tears in my eyes trying to picture his life and the music I knew so very well. I was overcome. St. Marx Cemetery is not Vienna’s largest but it is probably the most historic. Mozart’s grave is rather simple and it should be noted that it is actually just a monument; Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave. However, many music loving tourists and Viennese residents alike visit the monument daily. It is a pilgrimage of sorts. I was just another humble pilgrim that day but one who was most humbled to be in its presence. I swear I could actually hear Mozart’s Requiem in the cold marble as I touched it.
Number 9, Glasergasse
Remember that I mentioned that we were visiting Vienna not completely for the usual tourist reasons? Indeed, we had greater plans for exploring the city. My father Gene Rizzi went to music school at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium many decades ago and thus lived in the city’s Ninth District for several years. Although I knew my father lived in Vienna, I had only recently tracked down the exact address. We had to do a little driving, parking and walking to find the house. But at last, there it was: Number 9, Glasergasse in the Ninth District. My father had lived here so many years ago, both as a budding violin student and as Concert Master for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. I drew many a deep breath as I gazed at the building and tried to recall my father’s youth. The building had been owned by the mother of one of his musician friends, Fritz. The only memory of all of this I have is contained in a few old photographs. Here’s one of the violin trio my father played with in the early 1930’s. (L-R Gene Rizzi, Fritz and unknown)
I soaked up the local history, visited the nearby church where my father attended mass and walked many of the streets and alleys that my father surely walked some 75 years before. That was the real reason we had come to Vienna. I even brought some of those old family photos from the 1930’s and asked a couple of older locals what they knew about them. The answers were surprising and informative. I was definitely glad that German is my second language and that I was able to speak the Viennese dialect. I learned a lot. As I had imagined that my father and his trio often played locally, I also perused several locales that featured such music decades ago. We covered a lot of ground. The whole trip really brought my father’s past as a young man and musician clearly into focus.
Then of course I recalled that Hitler shut down the famous music school my father attended along with most of Vienna’s music venues. The Golden Age of Music had come to an abrupt halt with the anschluss. Fortunately my father had seen Hitler speaking in Vienna shortly before his rise to power and had a premonition of things to come. He later recalled that he became certain just listening to this madman that it was time to leave Vienna. As my wife and I left the Ninth District, I stared at the old cold buildings and wondered what my father might have done if not for that upheaval so many years ago. Would he have stayed in his beloved Vienna? Perhaps, but then again I surely would not have been born.
PS – Ironically, I have been able to locate only one recording of my father’s music. I found it on YouTube a couple of years ago. It is a 1931 recording of the Vienna Maiden’s Waltz by Carl Michael Ziehrer. That’s my father on first violin with his Stradivarius. Here’s the recording:
Top Photo: My father Gene Rizzi as a young Concert Master in Vienna. Trio by unknown photographer. All other photos copyright 2005 by Allen E. Rizzi and Rachel Rizzi.
Note: My newest book, Neues Wiener Konservatorium – Ein Blick Zuruck Aus Amerika, is available in both English and German editions. It is available on Amazon.com here: https://www.amazon.com/New-Vienna-Conservatory-America-English/dp/B0884JYGFV/
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Indovina dove! Guess where!
Foto © Allen E. Rizzi
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Every morning when I wake, I am forced to reflect upon the many great gifts of life that I have been fortunate enough to receive. They are many but the most precious of all is my wife. While I have written here about songs, politics, books and life, I have rarely said a word about my wife. My wife is in fact my whole life. Who is she?
Her name is Rachel and we may well be as unmatched as any two people. She is from New York and I come from the surfing culture of Southern California. She is east and I am west but the twain have met and we have been the most important part of each other’s lives for over four decades. People like Rachel are a rare gift in life. She has enriched my life immeasurably and I am grateful to have her with me every day.
Friends and strangers alike often ask us why we are so happy. Like everyone, we have our share of life’s problems and confrontations. In fact, life is often a bitch, especially when you let it be so. At the foundation of our relationship, we share a mutual respect, admiration and acceptance that can not be diminished by stress, finances or even the nightly news. We smile and laugh every day and we talk with each other constantly. We have no special gift; we are simply very much in love after many, many years together.
Rachel, she is my love and my life and will ever be so. It’s simple really, don’t you think?
Read author Allen E. Rizzi’s latest books available at Amazon.com
Some of you may remember that I published and then reblogged a post entitled Chiara. The post served as a springboard and I recently transformed it into my latest novella of the same name. Here is the original post:
“When you arrive in the midst of my years, you reflect upon what was done and what was not done and of the quality of your life. I have lived a very rich, full life and I have done, in the main, every thing that I wanted to do. Most of my goals have been achieved without regret.
When I was 14 years old, my goal was to become a writer and teacher. I became both at an early age. I also wanted to see the world and so I travelled extensively and even lived in Europe for many years. I wanted the best of wives and after two tries I achieved that goal as well. As I approached my elder years, I constructed various “bucket lists” and scratched off each task one by one.
However, there remains in my heart one simple task that will elude me forever. All of life I wanted a daughter. After a failed first marriage and the birth of my son, I had high hopes of remarrying and helping bring into this world a little girl. Of one thing I was always certain: she would have the most beautiful of names, Chiara Apollonia Rizzi. I had chosen this name in my youth and the fact that no such sweet daughter exists haunts me a bit every day.
Of the Megans, Chelseas and Tiffanys, I would still prefer my Chiara Appolonia. Time is often a severe judge. Chiara Apollonia will not be by my side when I leave this world. Perhaps she will be there by the side of some other hopeful father years hence. I hope so.”
The new novella askes three important questions:
Have you ever wanted something all of your life only to be eternally denied?
What would you do to make a dream reality?
Could you change the future, if only slightly?
Chiara will provide the answers and is sure to provoke a few more questions.
Chiara is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R3HQ1JG/
This is a new genre for me but I think you will love this one. Please give this a read!
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allenrizzi 
I Woke Up This Morning And…
I woke up this morning and in the first foggy moments it seemed like any other day. The sun was up, the birds were chirping outside my window and my wife was beside me in bed. And then it hit me like a flaming comet from nowhere: I was 70 years old!
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Honestly, throughout my years I never thought I would actually reach this milestone. I lay in bed and thought about the long road that brought me to this morning. I was born seven decades ago in an age that is foreign by today’s standards. It was a sepia toned time, full of family and community and thankfully lacking in today’s stress and anger. Growing up in the 1950s was fun, full of adventure and enthusiasm and comparatively harmless. I really can’t recall anything truly bad happening in my youth. That era set the stage for my opus that now played before me as I took full measure of my life.
Memories sift in like flower in the breeze. I remember teaching my sister her multiplication tables as I walked her to grammar school in 1959. The days now blur a bit but the sounds and smells of our little town of San Fernando come back at will. I recall hearing small planes at a nearby municipal airport on Sunday mornings as I listened to Wolfman Jack on my 8-transistor radio. The smell of orange blossoms was everywhere. My whole small world hummed like an electric train firmly on its tracks.
Fishing was the name of the game back then as it still is today. What began as an awkward accompaniment to my fishing father at age three became a lifelong passion. I remember fondly each and every fish that I lifted from the water and then released with the hope that we would meet again.
Junior high school toughened me up. There were the inevitable fights between boys trying desperately to become men. I lost a few and I won a few. Life was generally a draw back then. Ironically my right leg was shattered into hundreds of pieces during a friendly wrestling competition. The next two years were spent in casts and on crutches and canes. I was even shipped off to a handicapped school where I learned real humility and a great respect for the truly handicapped.
High school found me as a bronzed surfer, one of the very best of the day. Surfing healed my leg and the sport gave me a much-needed confidence and a healthy life style. It was fun being on top of my game and having the adoration of the many young girls around me. It was nice having a big head; I felt I deserved it.
Having been an overachiever all through my life, I burst through college in three years and completed two post-graduate degrees in the next year and a half. In the whole mix I found the time to write a successful play, Storybook Children. Some from the old off-Broadway days still remember it. However teaching was my goal and teach I did, first in high school and later in the university setting. It was rewarding. I am still in touch with many of my high school students from the 1970s. They remind me that age is transient.
The early 1970s found me married, divorced and a single father. I look back and describe those years as my toughest job. There’s a hell of a lot involved in raising a very young child by yourself. Strangely, credit is rarely given for such efforts and gratitude is often lacking on anyone’s part. The single parent must chalk it up to that fuzzy category we call life and move on. I did.
I also merged into life’s fast lane as a songwriter and producer in the mid to late 1970s. With the fortitude that I had learned from being a top surfer, I pushed my boundaries and became successful in securing commercial recordings of my songs as well as producing the works of others. It was the second ego booster of my life and again, I felt I deserved my success.
Often our most important life’s achievements are found not in the heights of success but rather in the quiet moments that punctuate our lives. In a hiatus from my life as a musician and songwriter, I found my current wife in such a still moment. We have been so very happy together for the last 38 years. We have explored most of the world together and truly have been there for each other in sickness and health. People ask me now, “What is the most successful thing you have ever done?” My answer is always swift: “Marrying Rachel!”
For the last 16 years, Rachel and I have lived in Northern Italy in the tiny village where my father was born some 105 years ago. This life has not been without its problems and disappointments. However, we have been blessed by being immersed in different cultures and languages. It has added a ribbon of richness to our lives and allowed us to travel to most of Europe and meet new friends from around the globe. We now spend our time divided between Italy and the United States but our travel bug has slowly been feeling the effects of the insecticide of age. Now we are happy just to say we’ve been there and done that.
I have been anticipating this 70 year affair for a while. Just last month I corrected my doctor when he referred to me as 70 years old. “That would be 69 and 11/12ths,” I barked as though somehow it actually made a difference. A larger than normal quantity of geezer jokes have come my way recently as well. It does make one think and so that’s exactly what I did this morning.
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Finally, Rachel was up and in the kitchen and I realized that I would have to get up and begin my day another year older and as a septuagenarian. It’s funny: I didn’t have bitter feelings of being older. Rather I felt rejuvenated in reflecting upon a life well lived and in the knowledge that I have so much more to live for.
70? Who knew? Happy Birthday to me!
Photo: The author 68 years ago somewhere in the snows of Iowa.
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Read author Allen E. Rizzi’s latest books available at Amazon.com