My recreation of a Susan Rothenberg painting. The original, below, was created using acrylic and tempera on canvas. The one above was created in Processing, using a screenshot.

Since this website is all about the things I love (cooking, eating, making wine, drinking wine, old houses, and listening to good music) I decided to share another part of my life: a new endeavor, school. I went back to grad school this month, studying digital media at Northeastern University.

One of the things I loved about college 30 years ago, I discovered is still true today: the classes interrelate. I’m taking two courses, an art class called Visual Communications and a computer programming class that allows you to draw and create animation.

When using the programming language, called Processing, it’s suggested that you lay out your design on graph paper so you can calculate the coordinates for the computer to draw what you want. For one of my first assignments I decided to recreate one of Susan Rothenberg’s horse paintings. I first saw her paintings in the text book, “Art Fundamentals,” a book we use in Visual Communications.

A photo of the Susan Rothenberg painting (US, 1975).

And now, one of the assignments for Visual Communications, has us creating our own graph paper to help us paint a self-portrait.

So does art imitate life more than life imitates art or is it vise versa?

I’m not sure. But I’m happy that these two classes imitate each other.

You bake this chicken but the sauce makes it taste like it was barbecued.

I invented this recipe probably close to 20 years ago. However, I made it last night for the first time in years.

It’s easy and very flavorful. The soy sauce makes it salty and the mixture of herbs makes it memorable. So I’m not sure why I forgot about it but I’m glad I remembered it.

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts with the bone in (About 3, each cut in half)
• Dijon mustard (About 1/4 cup)
• Soy Sauce (About 1/2 cup)
• Roasted sesame oil (1 teaspoon)
• Sun-dried tomatoes (I prefer the “in-oil” kind for this recipe, but the dry ones are fine too) (About 1/4 cup)
• Tabasco sauce (2-3 drops)
• Fresh rosemary (1 tablespoon)
• Tarragon (A pinch of dried, or a tablespoon of fresh)
• Chopped scallions (about 1/4 cup — chopped onion is fine too)
• Ginger (About a tablespoon of freshly grated or a pinch of dried)
• Mushrooms (About 6 or 7 small ones cut up)

What I did:

Put chicken pieces in lightly oiled baking pan.

Mix up all of the ingredients, except for the mushrooms, and spread about 1/2 to 3/4 of it over the chicken pieces.

Bake in a 350 oven until done (about 60 minutes).

Blend mushroom pieces into the left over sauce. And then spread sauce over chicken pieces during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Serve with corn on the cob, bok choy, baked potatoes, rice, corn bread or whatever suits your fancy.

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Make these individual parmesan baskets and you'll impress your guests.

This is a very special, yet very simple recipe, I got from my brother-in-law Billy Kelley, who spends several months each year in Florence, Italy. He isn’t a cook. He’s an artist who paints in his studio all day and then goes out to eat in some of that city’s best restaurants.

A few years ago he brought me back a small booklet from Trattoria del Carmine which contained several recipes including this one. They filled the parmesan cheese basket with a yellow squash risotto. Here I stuffed it with a plain risotto made with onions and celery.

You could use a light rice dish too. Just be sensitive not to overpower the crisp tangy taste of the parmesan cup. Be creative. Use your imagination. What else could you fill this with?

Ingredients:

• Imported parmesan cheese (Don’t skimp here. I once tried using the cheese they sell in a jar at the supermarket and it didn’t work. The cheese would not melt and it made me wonder if it was cheese at all.)
• Equipment: A nonstick frying pan.

What I did:

Warm up the nonstick frying pan.

Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of the cheese in a circle in the hot pan.

Let the cheese melt until it becomes an intense yellow color.

Detach the sheet of cheese with a spatula and place it flat over a small cup or 2-3-inch ramekin. Poke it down into the cup or ramekin with your index finger to give it a bowl shape.

Once it cools, remove it from the cup or ramekin. Put it on a plate and fill it with risotto or whatever you decide will work.

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You can use bacon or pancetta. I used pancetta here.

So you’ve had your fill of corned beef and cabbage. And probably eaten too much Irish soda bread or drank too many beers.

It’s time to travel south to explore some Italian cuisine and this dish is an old standard: as warm and fuzzy and comfortable as a glass of brandy on a cold day.

I got this recipe from Rita’s Catering. They used to have a small private restaurant, by reservation only, in Chelsea, Mass. where they served multiple course dinners at a set price. They now have their headquarters in Everett, Mass.  and I’m not sure if the dining hall in Chelsea is still open.

Whatever the case may be this recipe can’t fail to please. It’s easy to make, doesn’t take much time, and is delicious (although a bit fatty). It’s perfect for a cold, rainy day in March.

Ingredients:

• Butter (1 tbl.)
• Linguini (1 lb.)
• Bacon or Pancetta (minced, 1 lb.)
• Onion (1 small)
• Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese (grated, 2 tbl.)
• Eggs (2, large)
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Parsley (a small bunch, minced)

What I did:

Saute the onion in butter until soft, just turning color.

Add minced bacon or pancetta and saute until soft, not crisp.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook linguini until “al dente.”

Beat 2 eggs, add grated cheese and mix well.

Add pepper and 1 tbl. of minced parsley to bacon and onion in the pan. Stir to cook.

The rendered oils from the bacon or pancetta are a major flavor ingredient of this recipe so do not remove the oil from the saute pan.

Quickly drain the linguini and place in a large heated bowl.

Add egg-cheese mixture to saute pan (removed now from heat) and stir well.

The heat of the ingredients and the pan will cook the egg somewhat, so keep the mixture moving.

Taste, add salt if needed.

Add mixture to linguini and serve immediately.

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Roasted Pepper Shrimp Saute, made with a recipe from Joshua's Restaurant.

Here’s a simple and delicious way to cook shrimp. I got the recipe from a book called “Fresh From Maine, Recipes and Stories from the State’s Best Chefs.”

The book features more than 50 recipes and interviews with chefs from 20 restaurants in Maine, all of which get their ingredients from local farmers and fishermen to create all-natural and organic dishes.

My friend, Russell French took the photographs for the book and his friend, Michael S. Sanders, wrote the text. You may remember Russ as a guest photographer on Rootsliving when he took photos for my grandmother’s chicken and polenta recipe. I also wrote about Russ’s avocation as a food photographer for the Book of Odds website.

I made this for Christmas Eve dinner but I think it would fit well with any New Year’s Eve dinner plan.

From Joshua’s Restaurant in Wells, Maine:

Ingredients (for four people as an appetizer):

• Olive oil (3 tablespoons)
• Shrimp, peeled and deveined (1 pound, 21-25 count)
• Tomato, chopped in 1-inch pieces (1 1/2 cups)
• Red pepper, roasted, thinly sliced. (1 large)
• Jalepeno pepper, roasted, thinly sliced (1/2 pepper)
• Garlic, chopped. (2 tablespoons)
• Dry white wine (1 cup)
• Butter, unsalted (4 tablespoons)
• Fresh parsley, chopped (2 tablespoons)
• Salt, to taste

What I did:

Preheat saute pan. Put oil in pan and when almost smoking, add shrimp, tomato, peppers, and garlic.

Let cook for about 1 minute, then toss thoroughly just once to create a caramelized flavor.

After another minute when shrimp is about half-way cooked, add the wine and salt to taste.

Reduce wine by half, cooking off the alcohol. Then add butter and parsley to finish.

Serve immediately with a few pieces of grilled baguette, which is perfect for soaking up the sauce.

Find more recipes in the Food section.

I still have my turntable set up but hadn't played it in several years until Christmas morning.

My goddaughter Dani Siobhan gave me a vinyl record album for Christmas and on Christmas morning I dusted off my turntable and played it.

It was from 1975 and featured several bands of the British invasion including the Searchers, the Kinks, and the Foundation (did you know they’re the band that wrote and performed “Build Me Up Buttercup?”).

I loved it. Soon, I was pulling out a few of my old albums and enjoying them while sitting on the floor before the stack of stereo components. First I listened to Derek and the Dominoes Live in Concert (”Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?“).

Then I found my old “Frampton Comes Alive” album and it transported me back to 1976 (”Do You Feel Like We Do,” “Lines on my Face“). I read the liner notes and learned that he was only 25 when that album came out. I looked at his picture and could believe it. The first time I did that he was much older than me. Now, he was only a few years older than my oldest son.

The album held up in 2011, even the part in the solo where he yells, “Bob Mayo on the keyboards, Bob Mayo!”

More Pleasurable Than Digital Music

The whole experience was more pleasurable than listening to digital music from a CD or iPod. It gave me pause to think about how we as a culture continue to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This is nothing new. More than 100 years ago, industrialization made it more convenient and affordable to build furniture on assembly lines in factories at the expense of craftsmanship.

When the highway system was built in the 1950s, many people publicly lamented what was lost for the sake of speed and convenience. Taking the highway gets us there quicker but it doesn’t show us the countryside, small villages, cities or an opportunity to meet new people along the way.

The Convenience To Quality Ratio

Now technological advances seem to be coming at a faster pace giving way to more examples of convenience over quality and as that happens, I wonder if we’ve become oblivious to it all.

Microwave popcorn isn’t as good as popcorn cooked over the stove; online journalism isn’t as in-depth or thoughtful as some of the journalism that is written specifically for newspapers and magazines; and interacting with friends and family on Facebook isn’t as fulfilling  and uplifting as communicating with them in person.

It’s as though every technological advancement that replaces something also sacrifices something for the sake of convenience.

The late Robert Mapplethorpe designed this album and took the photographs.

Why Vinyl Is More Pleasurable

The listening experience of playing vinyl record albums is superior to listening to digital music.

First there is the sound. Analog sound from a turntable is very different than digital. It’s not as clean or effortless and that makes it more real, even with the rare, popping sound exploding from the spinning disc. And it was immediately apparent that the sound coming from two stereo NHD bookshelf speakers was far superior than the sound of my Bose SoundDock, even though the sound of it is pretty impressive.

Then there is the experience of listening to one artist’s complete album in one sitting. It gives the artist’s musical idea a chance to build, to ebb and wane. And the listener learns something through that, as well as through looking at the album art and reading the liner notes.

On Christmas morning while playing Patti Smith’s “Wave” album, which was released in 1979, I learned that Robert Mapplethorpe designed the album cover and took the photos. He was the artist who’s photographic work ignited a national debate over public funding for the arts and the definition of obscenity 10 years later in 1989.

I also learned that Todd Rundgren produced that album and that he played bass on “Dancin Barefoot.” And there was also a note on the liner notes that said the song was dedicated to the mistress of artist Amedeo Modigliani. I didn’t know who Modigliani was in 1979 when I bought that album but since then I learned who he was. I had a print of one of his paintings of his mistress hanging in my dining room for several years.

Acknowledge What We’re Missing

There are advantages to listening to digital music, getting your news online, taking the highway, and even microwaving popcorn. It’s all more convenient and we’re not likely to start sacrificing that convenience for quality.  But we need to treat ourselves, every once and awhile, to some old school quality experiences so that we can at least acknowledge and be aware of what we’re doing and what we’re missing.

There are some signs that a backlash is growing against all of this convenience over quality. In recent years, the Slow Food movement has been growing; more people are choosing to pay more for locally grown and locally raised food; and even vinyl records are being reissued and showing up in music stores, both online and offline.

However, just as the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century was a way of rebelling against the convenience of mass industrialization for quality, we won’t turn back time. Instead, there will be small movements and trends that will help us appreciate and celebrate quality.

This isn’t a war that must or can be won. We simply need to occasionally recognize there is a struggle.