February 2009

Want a dish that is hot, no super hot, and makes you feel great because it is chocked full of Vitamin C? It’s the “Weiskopf Pepper Extreme!” Just follow these easy directions:

1. Cook (5-8) whole (do not cut up yet) spicy or sweet Italian sausages or Turkey or Chicken-Apple Sausages in a pan with a little oil while you are cutting the peppers. Don’t overcook them. Use a little water with the oil, if necessary. 
2. Cut up in small pieces (between 1/8th and 1 inch per cut) thirteen different peppers and put them in different bowls. DO NOT TOUCH THE PEPPERS WITH YOUR HANDS OR FINGERS. DON NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR EYES. USE GLOVES!
3. First cut the: Scotch Bonnet and/or Habanero (4-6), Serranos (3), Red & Green Jalapenos (3 each), Thai Pepper (1-2) and put them in a bowl together and set them aside.
4. Next cut: Poblanos (2), Dried Cascabels (2-3), and Bananna Peppers (2-3) and put them in a bowl together. 
5. Cut Anaheim Peppers (2-3), Red, Green, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers (2 each), red and yellow sweet peppers (2-3) and put them into a large bowl. 
6. In a skillet, measure about one-half cup of olive oil and turn on heat (high). When oil is hot, put in the hottest peppers from the bowl (Habaneros, Serranos, Jalapenos, Thai Peppers) Cook them for five to ten minutes until they are done and have saturated the oil with their taste. Using a mesh skimmer or a Rosle skimmer or a brass strainer to scoop the peppers out of the oil and put them in a saucer or small bowl.
7. Take the sausage out of the pan after they have cooked (and cooled) and cut them into disks about 1/2″ wide
8. Put the sausage into the hot oil in the skillet (the oil out of which you scooped the hot peppers. Reheat the peppers. 
9. Dump the sausage with the remaining oil into a large deep pan, scrap the sides and bottom of the skillet with a rubber or plastic spatula to get all of the oil. 
10. In the large deep pan, add 6-8 cloves of garlic and two inches (finely diced or shredded) of ginger. Keep the heat on medium-hot and stir for 5-10 minutes. 
11. Add about 1/4-1/2 of the hot peppers (which you pulled out of the oil and put on a saucer) into the large deep pan. Mix them up with the sausage, garlic, and ginger. 
12. Add the Poblanos, Dried Cascabels, and Bananna Peppers to the mix. Stir and mix for five minutes. 
13. Add about 1/2 bottle of House of Tsang’s either Sweet&Sour Stir Fry Sauce or Spicy Schezuan Sauce into the mix and stir coating all of the peppers and meat for five minutes. 
14. Add the remaining Anaheim Peppers, Red, Green, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers, red and yellow sweet peppers to the mix and stir making sure that the sauce on the bottom is brought to the top of the peppers. Roll the peppers over one another as you stir. 
15. Let the 13-Pepper Mix simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes. Discard the left over hot peppers left in the saucer. 
16. Cook either linguine, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, egg noodles. Strain when it is done.
17. To serve dish: put down pasta, egg noodles, whatever in a bowl or plate and cover with as much of the pepper mixture as you want. SPRINKLE the top with sesame seeds and serve with mango chutney. 
18. BON APPETITE! 

                                     -John M. Weiskopf

On Saturday, February 21 author & legend Ray Bradbury appeared at the Palm Rancho Park Library in West Los Angeles, where he was given several commendations and Lifetime Achievement Awards. At 89 years old, Mr. Bradbury was funny, passionate and full of entertaining anecdotal stories. I was the Chairman of the Event for G.L.A.W.S. (Greater Writers of Los Angeles). More photos to come later.  

This is the second time that I’ve posted this photo, but this time it shows faces embedded in the digital photo. A friend of mine Rich took the digital photo at the House of Cenote, Tulum in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The beams of light were not in the camera viewfinder or visible to the naked eye, but they APPEARED in the digital photograph. Rich contacted me because my web site discussed the Mayan culture, and I had read much about the Mayans to write my novel THE ASCENDANCY. Rich sent me the photo to see and work with. I have not altered the texture, distorted any lines or edges or changed the architecture of the areas circled in the photo. I used infrared, red, orange, yellow, green and blue filters to bring out the faces. There are faces and animals peppered all through this photograph of the ruins. See for yourself.

People are scared today. Fear is rampant. Just listen to the news everyday. But each one of us can understand what is happening, if we step back and look at the “bigger” picture. We are in part of cycle that is a downturn, a pattern that has happened before, and will continue to happen as long as there is life. Like the sun rising and setting, the four seasons recurring, birth to death, the rotation of our solar system in the Milky Way, and the unfolding of life’s eternal peaks and troughs, we are in a period that is part of this “great process.” It is perhaps more emphasized in our consciousness today because of the world wide web, instant global news, and voyeuristic journalism which preys upon us with sensationalism.

by William Strauss and Neil Howe

There is a book by authors William Strauss and Neil Howe which takes a non-emotional, almost mundane, analytical look at the world in which we live, not just today’s world 2009, but our world over nearly a millenium. It is called THE FOURTH TURNING. It presents real patterns and cycles of social and political history that are “tuned” to the rhythms of the universe. It is an incredible book. It will open your mind, your awareness, your perception, and perhaps give you the strength to understand a “bigger picture.” In some ways, THE FOURTH TURNING is a tough read; it will demand much discipline from you. It might be good to go to the The Fourth Turning website first and navigate around to get “a feel” for the book and its message. I highly recommend it. Good reading. Spirits up. Intellects sharp. Eyes open.  – Best, John M. Weiskopf