A couple of hardboiled eggs

A couple of basil leaves from the back garden

A couple of squeezes of fresh lemon

Combine/chop above and spread on a couple of slices of fresh baguette.

My brother Bill and his good friends’ recently formed nonprofit helps children whose poverty forces them to make fireworks. Details on ways to help at www.gunpowderchildren.org

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, thickly sliced

Uncooked corned beef from butcher (packaged kind with the seasoning packet works great)

1 small green cabbage, quartered

3-4 carrots, peeled and cut

2-3 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed

3 slices uncooked bacon

1 bottle or can of Guinness beer

1-2 shots of apple schnapps

2-3 bay leaves

Prep:

Grease a crockpot with margarine. Cover the bottom of the pot with the onion slices. Put the corned beef on the onions. Wedge the vegetables around and on the meat. Put the bacon and bay leaves on top. Pour the beer over all. Add a shot or two of the apple schnapps. Sprinkle a little pepper. Put the lid on and set it to cook for 8 hours on low. If you want crisper cabbage, add it about half-way into the slow-cooking.

Eat:

Serve with Irish soda bread, Irish beer and Irish whiskey, of course!

Irish Soda Bread for Two

Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl. Add 1 cup of buttermilk and 1/2 cup of raisins. Form into a ball of dough – if sticky, add a bit of flour. Bake on a pizza stone sprinkled with a bit or sugar or cornmeal, flattening the dough to about 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. Score an X in the center. Bake at 350 degrees on the middle rack until lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Don’t over-bake. Just before pulling out of the oven, pour a bit of melted butter to the X and sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.

Ingredients:

Roasted chicken carcass from yesterday’s dinner, including fat from bottom of pan

Beef bits from Sunday’s pot roast

Fistful of small onions, peeled and sliced

3 or 4 seeded, sliced jalapenos

2 tablespoons minced garlic

Maybe some red, yellow or orange peppers for color, diced

1 large can Brooks Hot Chili Beans

2 cups of assorted dried beans, washed, soaked and cooked: kidney, chili, navy, pinto, black, etc.

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 bottle Zing Zang Bloody Mary Mix – don’t add the whole bottle; use to taste

Prep:

In a large Dutch-Oven-type pot, sauté onions, jalapenos and garlic (and peppers) in the chicken fat (left over from the bottom of the pan that the chicken was cooked in).

Add the cooked chicken bits (discard bones) from the carcass; add the cooked beef bits (mine happened to be chipotle-seasoned). Stir a bit to coat the meat with the chicken fat.

Add the Brooks Hot Chili Beans and the prepared assorted beans plus the can of diced tomatoes. Gradually add Zing Zang to taste (I used almost half a bottle).

Bring to boil then simmer. If you can’t watch the burner, turn it off after having brought to a boil, cover, and let the contained heat do the cooking. Or, put it all in a crockpot. Add more Zing Zang or water a douse of beer if the chili is too thick.

Eat:

Serve with crackers, corn bread and cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!

My uncle, stubborn Dutchman and union rallyer, taught me to waterski on that lake.

Tiparillo in his teeth, he took off from the raft, slalom. I took off in the water, wooden skis bobbing. The yellow umbilical cord snaked along the water’s silky surface all the way to the little speedboat.

“Ready?” Uncle Dominic throated.

I gave a tiny thumbs up.

The rope yanked. My knuckles clenched and knees buckled.

The pike and pan fish: “What the hell?! Stand up!” …

“Stand up!” Uncle Dominic garbled.

I let go. The skis had already ditched me.

I surfaced and saw the little speedboat circling ’round. Uncle Dominic coasted into the silver water, neatly ending up beside me. His Tiparillo glowed and the descending sun left a swath of glimmer on the lake that still smacks of heaven.

“Let’s try our luck again.”