Monroe's Page

Cliff died Thursday morning. He was working from home and when Mary got back from taking flowers over to my mother, she found him face down on the keyboard. He didn't make it to the hospital.

Cliff was part of "the lake crowd", the bunch of teenagers who thought we were so cool in our small lake community. He was the one to run up to Cropsey's, the local farm stand, to buy a watermelon which we would slather with Vaseline and use to play keep-away in the lake until it cracked or the lifeguards… Continue

Ok, so I didn't win. For some unfathomable reason they gave it to someone who had actually been writing a garden blog for a couple of years. Imagine that! I did, however, get by far the most hits. This is in part thanks to my son who lives and works on one of those Westchester estates, owned by someone whose name you might vaguely recognize.

Part of the security system on this estate is a revolving internet address. Soooo, I got about 200 hits from my son that all looked like discrete users!

A… Continue

From Vincent's friend Alfredo. I think he must have found an English version to send to us because the Note at the top says:
This is from Simetti's "Pomp and Sustenance - Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food"

which is out of print.

Anyway, here it is!

CASSATEDDI DI CECI (Sweet Chick Pea Turnover)

Makes about 3 dozen.

Pastry:
3 3/4 cups of flour
1/3 cup of white wine
1/3 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of lard

Filling:
2 cups of pureed boiled chickpeas (cooked without salt)
(My Note… Continue

Horticulture Magazine is having a contest to choose a new blogger for their website. If anyone is interested, my entry is below.

Is This the Face of an Expert?

or
All About Me

From commercial propagation to felling 60 foot pines, I’ve had a very varied horticultural c… Continue

When Vincent Martin was in Afghanistan (3/06 to 5/07), from time to time, while out on a mountain top, he would get hold of a satellite phone and call us.

There is a delay on a satellite line of about a seven count so it was always difficult to really say anything but just hearing his voice was such a comfort.

During the August of 2006 there was a lot of Taleban activity in the Hindu Kush with constant casualties. Early in this period, Vincent had called via satellite to tell us

… Continue