Pizza!

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  Oh my God, there are so many pictures of Erin!  I looooove Erin.  I love Erin so much.  I kept 2 to add to my slideshow.  One is the photo of you in the leather jacket.  Oh, you're so beautiful!  I'm so smitten.  You truly look like a rock star's wife.  😢  Brushing aside the tears, I also put the one with you and your athletic arm, shoulder and armpit in my slide show.  You look so sculptured in that photo.  I'm sure you don't want to put in the work to get that look ever again, and that's fine with me, Honey.  Just promise me you won't ever let your arms and shoulders get bloated, OK?  Let's stay fit.  I only keep 36 photos in my slideshow at a time.  I guess you could call it "psychic focus".  Spiritual, rather.

HI Natty Honey!  Are you feeling great?  Don't you worry Honey, everything will turn out great for you inshaAllah.  I will take care of you inshaAllah.  Want some pizza?  I love pizza!  I love pizza more now than I ever did before.  Because I don't work in a restaurant!  Today's pizza was supposed to be sausage and basil, but I had one leftover hot pepper left which I had to use up.  It's as hot as a jalapeno, but it's red and it tastes red.

To make great pizza at home, you have to cook the crust first.  The crust is awesome today.  Tender but crispy.  I put the sauce and toppings on.  The raw sausage is under the 5x basil and peppers.  This is what it looks like before going into the oven:

I love basil, especially with hot sausage.  Here's what it looks like after the sausage is cooked:

I can't afford mozzarella right now, so obviously these snapshots are without cheese.  Mozzarella would look and taste better, and sliced cheese is so unphotogenic.  But the flavor is acceptable, as long as you don't overcook the cheese.  Want some pizza?

Anchovies

Hi Honey!  How are you feeling today, my love?  You're so beautiful.  I love that photo of you with the glasses.  I put it in my slideshow.  I just got done frying up some anchovies.  It's not for my pizza, but for rice and my peanut snacks.  They are crunchy anchovies.  You have to fry them perfectly if you want them to taste good.  Cook them too little, and they won't be crunchy.  Cook them too long, and they taste burned.  The key is lots of oil, and medium heat or lower.  Submerge the anchovies with oil.  I always reuse the oil, for fried noodles or whatever.  I like anchovies on pizza.  The key is to top them sparingly, and not use the whole fish per topping.  Just a quarter inch would do.  So a whole 12" pizza would probably use only 2 anchovies.

Hi Natty Honey!  Are you feeling good?  I hope you are, because you are beautiful.  I was about to make a pizza, but my Mom gave me some tomato rice.  So I will make the pizza tomorrow inshaAllah.  I made my famous homemade halal beef sausage just now, so the pizza will be a sausage and basil pizza.  My favorite.  The basil is growing wild outside, so that's why I decided on pizza.  Yes, I know how to toss a pizza.  The guy in the video pulls the edge towards him, so it spins counter-clockwise.  I always push the edge away, but it still spins counter-clockwise.  And if the dough is big enough, I can keep it spinning.  Whatever.  The pizza dough I have right now is too soft to toss. 


 

Spaghetti again

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  Busy as usual?  Everybody wants my girl.  No wonder, she's beautiful.  Are you hungry?  Tonight is spaghetti night.  Or pasta night, or whatever.  I actually wouldn't mind at all having spaghetti more often.  I must have a million recipes for spaghetti sauce.  Well, a lot.  So many, that I can't remember when I used the same recipe twice in a row.  Lately, I've been more interested in utilizing local ingredients in my marinara sauce.  For the simple reason of being too lazy to drive around looking for items like oregano and parsley.  Plus, I've been wanting to use one sauce as an ingredient in another.  It's kind of like stacking containers to save space.  Today I used "sambal tumis" (which is rehydrated chillies, onions, belacan (you know, the fermented shrimp stuff), sugar, salt fried in oil until saturated) in my marinara sauce.  Sambal tumis is a great sauce for local rice dishes.  I've been making marinara sauce from fresh tomatoes lately.  There's already a lot of water in tomatoes.  Just stuff tomatoes in the blender and press down.  With garlic and a cilantro bunch.  No additional cooking!  The spaghetti sauce is awesome, I tell you.  Delicious.  But I did cook the chicken breast in the sauce.  I mixed the pasta with the sauce, laid the sliced chicken on it, poured more sauce on the chicken, then garnished it with mint.  Want some?

Hey Natty Honey!  Want some spaghetti?  What's the rain all about?  Are you feeling a bit blue?  Don't be blue, because I love you.  Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part.  Please pray.  I've been waiting for a loooooooooong time, and for the worst thing: money.  But I must be the one who pays for my family.  Perhaps you are forgetting that this is Rock and Roll, and you are a Rock and Roll Princess.  I think you need an attitude check.  The computer wants you to watch "Pandora's Box" again.  The world is a stage, my dear.  Don't copy Lulu's actions or hair.  Copy her aura and attitude.  Heartbreaker.  Femme fatale.  Movie star.

Hi Honey

How are you today, my beautiful love?  I hope you are doing and feeling great, whatever it is that you may be doing.  Oh, I love that photo of you with that pay phone.  You're so pretty!  Are you here in town?  I would love to see you.  What would I do if I saw you?  I hope I would be smelling good and wearing some sort of perfume.  I think I have a little mouthwash left... I have no guarantee on my clothes though.  I'm not pretty like you, so I dress so as to not go around naked.  If I saw you, I would definitely go and get you.  Hold and kiss you, and undress you, and make love to you...  I guess we should get married first.  Are you hungry?  I made some steak and onion burritos for dinner.  Want one?

Hi Natty Honey!  Aw, don't you worry about a thing Sweetheart, everything is going to turn out great inshaAllah.  You are beautiful, and people love you, and I love you, and I will marry you inshaAllah.  Are you getting ready to go back to work?  Make as much money for yourself while you can, and stay safe OK?  Come here, let me hug you and hold you tight and squeeze you and kiss you...

Prophet Salih and the she-camel of Allah

Hi Honey!  Are you keeping busy?  That's good.  Please have fun with your work, and don't forget to pray.  There was once an elderly teacher in this village, who used to teach at the local mosque.  His name was Salleh.  He was 78 when he died, but he remained active until then.  He was very vocal about how secular the establishment is, and often preach against it.  His death of heart failure was sudden in light of how active he was, and thousands of people came to the mosque to pray for him when his body was laid to rest.  Prophet Salih was assigned by God to the people of Thamud.  He brought them a she-camel, and declared that it was from Allah.  Salih warned the Thamud to allow the she-camel the right to graze and water, and not to do her any harm.  But they disobeyed and hamstrung her, thus the Thamud were destroyed by an earthquake and explosion.  By the way and I haven't mentioned this before, but I have no running water to my house.  Been almost a year now.

Hi Natty Honey!  Oh, you were so pretty when you were young!  I don't have the nerve to keep your baby photos, though.  I prefer how beautiful you are now.

The she-camel of Allah

Hi Honey!  Sorry I'm running a little late today.  Late dinner, and lots of running around during the day.  Not that I can actually run around a lot, with these big feet of mine.  I was driving around, running errands.  I assume you are very busy.  Busy, with a lot of details to attend to.  I noticed you filtered out a lot of your followers.  That's still a big chore, what with 872k followers.  I'm happy you are keeping busy, and I'm sure you are more social and public than you make yourself out to be to me.  I love you with all my heart, and I want you to be happy, with me and with your work.

Hey Natty Honey!  Are you back home yet?  Please travel safely.  I'm sure after this safari you just had, you'll be back to business.  Please take good care of yourself and the beauty that God gave you.  Make as much money while you can.  I will be at the computer a lot in the next few days, writing music.  That's what I will do after this letter.

Check out this video.  I represent the female.

Sunday

Hi Honey!  How are you today, my beautiful love?  It's Sunday today.  Just another average day, every Sunday morning I clean my mother's bedroom.  I had ramen for lunch, and I ate out at Ina's for dinner, because I didn't want to be bothered with cooking, since I cut the grass at the side of the road.  I won't be on Second Life for about a week, so don't look for me there.  I will be putting bass tracks to the first song on Shadowplay's next album.  I'm keeping the name of the album, the names of the songs and all of it secret.  Just for the fun of it.  It is a concept album, I guess it sort of picks up where "Woo Hoo" ended.  I liked the way the story went on "Woo Hoo".  It's like there are many ways to tell the same story, because it's pure music.  If it were a movie, then there would be many movies about the same story.  I like this approach so much, the next 3 albums are going to be the same way, 4 concept albums in a row inshaAllah, and I have the stories, and the music, written out already.  It's all in my head.  Not having a drum set is an irritating compromise, but not a paralyzing one.  I wish I had a fretless bass, but I don't.  But that's the way the story goes.

Hi Natty honey!  Oh you beautiful sweetheart, please look after yourself.  Don't scar up your beautiful skin.  I suppose you have the travel bug, you might as well travel, it's something to do.  I used to be very into photography.  I had an slr camera, it was 35mm film though.  The old days.  I didn't do any developing.  You have probably never seen or touched 35mm film.  I like digital cameras so much better- just delete the crappy shots!  But now I have no more time for photography.  It's been  many years since I took a selfie!  Anyway this next video is for you, Natty.