#10: Fly Me To the Kitchen & Let Me Cook With Gregory Peck

Cooking Prep: I must admit, I'm a little over my head with this post. Frank Sinatra is the kind of prolific that makes you feel like you know everything and nothing about him at the same time. You know him well because he's woven into the cultural fabric of America, from decades' worth of music, cinema, awards, and red carpet events. Chances are, you don't remember where you first heard Fly Me To the Moon or Strangers in the Night, but you've always known about them. But once you try to look past the old Hollywood imagery and the songs, you can't tell where the man ends and the legend begins. 

Alright - that's about as serious as blogging on the topic of celebrity cookbooks gets, folks.  My own early experiences with Sinatra were from Saturday Night Live skits.  Both Phil Hartman and Joe Piscapo did great impersonations (albeit slightly racist and homophobic now that I look back) of older Sinatra.  Still funny, if you can look past some of the things that were apparently fine to say on TV in the 80s and early 90s.  

While digging around for a good Sinatra profile shot, I've discovered that Sinatra never had a bad photograph of himself taken. Seriously, Google his image.  It's just pages upon pages of suits, fedoras, tuxes, and class.  Granted, Sinatra grew up in a generation where TMZ wasn't waiting in the bushes outside his gym with a camera, or some 13 year old with a smartphone could take a shot of him during the one moment he loses his shit in public or gets arrested.  He's probably lucky to have avoided the internet era, when any misstep a celebrity takes ends up on a website (I'm talking to you too, Yanni, Shaun White and Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey).  Sure, he could shape and control his image more easily than today's celebrities, but you'd think at least one 'unsuited' image would emerge.

I even tried googling 'Sinatra beach', to see if he ever wore a t-shirt, flip flops, and/or shorts, and this is what I came up with:

Strolling the Boardwalk

Suited up on a Yacht

Catching some sun

The man never took a day off from being classy.  And that even includes the cover of his cookbook (to a lesser extent):

Cookbook:

Sinatra pulled a fast one over on me with this cookbook.  Actually, I pulled a fast one over on myself.  I should have realized that 'celebrity cookbook' actually meant yet another compilation of celebrity recipes, rather than a cookbook by a celebrity.  This compilation book, released in 1996, balances out a wide range of stars with whom you're most definitely familiar with a bunch of older no-names popular in the 50s and 60s who are now probably dead.  Today we're going with a celebrity who falls right in the middle:  Gregory Peck.  This is someone you've heard of from the 50s and 60s (Roman Holiday, To Kill A Mockingbird)...and dead.  I'm only doing one recipe today, because it's a breakfast/brunch recipe - I figured I should get at least one in before concluding this challenge.  

Cooking Soundtrack: Tony Bennett - The Classics

Theme For the Morning:  'Happy Pappy'

Cooking Companion: Kate Beever, AGAIN! Glutton for punishment.

Recipe:

Sunday Morning Happy Pappy Eggs

8 eggs

1/3 cup whipping cream

2 tsps butter

1/3 cup chopped chives

4 slices of ham, cut in 1/2-inch squares

salsa

hot sauce

Blend eggs with cream. Scramble eggs in butter in large skillet over low-medium heat to soft consistency, adding chives and ham, and continue cooking, stirring constantly and gently with long-handled fork; do not overcook.

Serve eggs with salsa and hot pepper sauce.  Serves 4

**Special Warning From Gregory Peck**

'Children may not favor the chives or the hot stuff.  This is really a grown-up recipe. It will serve four adults with or without hangovers.  For those with hangovers, add a generous helping of home-fried potatoes, black-eyed peas or chili and beans.'

I tackled the eggs while Kate figured out how to use my grinder and french press to make coffee.  I chose this recipe for a couple reasons:  I HAD most of the necessary ingredients, I've never made scrambled eggs with whipping cream before, and it was simple and reasonably healthy.  AND IT WAS NAMED HAPPY PAPPY EGGS.  What better time to try Sunday Morning Happy Pappy Eggs then on Sunday morning?  Even though we were NOT hung over, I made home fries so that we'd have something other than just eggs to eat.  The whipping cream actually made the scrambled eggs better than I've ever had (sure beats the 2% or non-fat milk I usually use).  Since we weren't entertaining kids, we used a liberal amount of sriracha.  This is very simple and chives make everything look and smell better.  While we didn't use salsa (because we didn't have any), please feel free to apply liberally.  

Verdict: A very good, basic recipe.  Scrambled eggs with ham, chives, salsa, and a ton of hot sauce.  You can't go wrong with this on a Sunday (although you could challenge yourself with a more difficult recipe).  Here's what breakfast looked like:

Grades:

Cookbook Variety: A (there are a million recipes in this book.  You'll find something you like!)
Cost:  (eggs are cheap, yo!  The hot whipping cream will be your most expensive purchse)
Ease & Time of Preparation: A (10 minutes for the eggs, a little longer for the home fries)
Taste: A+ = (scrambled eggs, chives, ham, and hot sauce? Duh...)

Bonus Grade:

Level of Pappy Happiness: A-

Overall Grade: A (fuck it - this is the last recipe)