BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: November 2008

For the last eight years, every Thanksgiving I have shared this extraordinary recipe.  (If you're not interested in how I obtained it, scroll down now to the recipe. ) It's the perfect solution to left over Thanksgiving turkey. 

And just so you'll know, from time-to-time when Patty and I are planning a dinner party, our guests who have been served Turkey Mornay before, will ask that it be the entree.    

THE TURF GRILL'S FAMOUS TURKEY MORNAY

(Serves 4)

Dallas Realtor Bill Cherry

214 503-8563

THE STORY 

For years and years, after I left Galveston for college, I frequently thought about the Turf Grill's Turkey Mornay.  It cost about seventy-five cents back in the late '50s. 

After a movie at the State or Martini, taking your date for the first time to the Turf for Turkey Mornay was the sure sign of an impeding love commitment.

For after all what more could a date want?  The Turf Grill was below the famous Studio Lounge where Hollywood and Broadway stars entertained, and they, too, were frequently seen in the Turf eating the famous Turkey Mornay.

"Sinatra and Becall love the stuff," we'd tell our dates.

Some years back I asked both Slick and Gigolo Maceo, whose family had owned the Turf, if they would give me the recipe now that the Turf was closed and only a memory.  Both of them told me that for some reason it had been lost and neither of them had it or knew where to get it.  I knew they were telling the truth. 

I thought about the irony that their restaurant's most famous recipe was lost.  I told my mother the story. 

She said,"I have it."

"No, I mean the Maceo recipe," I said back. 

"That's the one I have," she said.  She led the way down the hall toward her kitchen.

It turns out that in the mid-forties, another Maceo that everyone called Little Sam and who lived near us, had managed the Turf.  One day when he and his wife, Delores, were visiting us, my mom told him how much we all liked Turkey Mornay.  He told my mother that he'd give her the recipe, and he wrote it with a #2 pencil in the front of a zillion year old cookbook my grandmother had given her when she and my daddy married.                                      

So when she and I got to the kitchen and opened the pantry where she kept her cookbooks, she pulled out the old book, opened it to the fly page, and then set it down on the kitchen table where I copied the recipe. 

It might just be that until I started sharing this recipe a year or so ago, no one but my mother and I had it.  And now you're getting ready to also. 

THE INGREDIENTS

2 cup of flour

2 cup of unsalted butter (don=t use margarine)

1/4 cup of chopped yellow onion

1/8 cup chopped parsley

2 cup of chopped green onions including the green stems

2 cups of heavy cream (not half and half.  Use whipping cream)

2 cups of good, dry white wine (Make certain it's a good quality otherwise it can make the sauce taste bitter)

1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

2 ounces of grated Swiss cheese

8 drained artichoke bottoms chopped very fine in a food processor

2 pound of fresh mushrooms sliced thickly

3 tablespoons of grated Romano cheese

DO NOT ADD ANY SALT

1 loaf of good French bread

1 lb of fresh steamed asparagus (don't overcook!)

THE PROCEDURE

In a 2 quart sauce pan melt the butter over a medium heat.  Add the flour and keep stirring and cook it for about 5 minutes until it becomes a white roux.  

Don't stop stirring while you're making the roux...not even for a moment.  Stirring is what keeps a roux smooth and creamy.

Reduce the heat a bit, then add in the onions and mushrooms and cook another couple of minutes (don't brown the vegetables).  Stir in the parsley and then start gradually adding the cream and allow the whole thing to get hot.  Then add the wine, the white and cayenne peppers, and the artichokes, blending well and bringing the whole thing to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Simmer for five minutes or so, then stir in the Swiss cheese, cover the pot, turn off the fire, and allow it to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.  (I usually make the Mornay sauce a day or so in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until I'm ready to use it.)  Never use a microwave to reheat Mornay sauce.  Do it over a low heat in a pot on the stove and don't forget to stir it frequently during the process. 

When you're ready to make the Turkey Mornay dish, cut the French bread loaf into slices about 3/4 inch thick.  (Sometimes I cut the crust off of the bread, other times I don't....the Turf removed the crust) Baste them on one side with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle each with Romano cheese and then bake them in the oven on a cookie sheet (425 F) until they are dry and appear to be crisp, but not brown

Line each plate with the baked French bread slices, then put a layer of fresh steamed asparagus on top of the bread on each plate, add fresh sliced turkey on top of the asparagus, then a generous amount of the hot Mornay sauce.  Sprinkle the top with Romano cheese.

Use the same sauce with boiled shrimp or lump crabmeat.  Extraordinary!

Copyright 2000 - William S. Cherry

All rights reserved

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America!

214 503-8563

The auto manufacturers have the idea we should give them a bunch of billions of dollars to keep them solvent until they can reorganize their royally screwed up finances.  Who's to say they can or will?

I'd rather the US give the manufacturers X thousand dollars for every vehicle they sell to a U.S. citizen in, say, 2009-2010.  So the production will resume, workers will keep their jobs, and we'll see just how clever management really is, or isn't.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

OUR 44TH YEAR SELLING AMERICA

214 503-8563

One of the primary contradictions of a democratic society with a free-market is that to survive, we can't allow most business monopolies.  When one company gets the upper-hand, it likely destroys its segment of free enterprise.

The United States did a pretty good job of balancing this, at least since the end of World War II.  We had anti-trust laws with teeth in them and legislators watching over them because the public demanded it.

But that has changed, and it has changed almost exponentially in recent years.  Huge banks controlling billions of dollars in customer deposits and loans.  Carpet mills sucked up by others until now when almost all of the carpet used in America is manufactured by just three mills.  Brokerage houses, once general partnerships, turned into stock companies so that they could grow to gargantuan size, and those running them not have their own entire personal wealth on the line.

The economic trouble the United States is in today is primarily the result of lax anti-trust laws that allow and approve monopolies.  And those laws became lax and monopolies grew because our system doesn't see anything wrong with having paid lobbyist influence and often times write our legislation. 

What should Americans do?  What Americans should do is find one or more good locally owned, locally managed commercial bank...ones whose business doesn't take place at counters in grocery stores, and move their accounts there.  And under no circumstance exceed the amount of insured deposits.

Here's why because here's what's in store for us next.  You'll extrapolate why monopolies are so dangerous to us and our society.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc is looking at putting risky assets in a government-supported "bad bank" -- a step to reassure investors that the rest of its assets were safe, reports said on Sunday.

Following are five facts about Citigroup, whose shares have plummeted 87 percent so far this year.

* City Bank of New York opened for business in New York City on June 16, 1812 with $2 million in capital. Today, Citigroup is New York City's second largest private employer.

* Citicorp merged with financier Sanford Weill's Travelers Group -- itself a combination of insurer Travelers, brokerages Salomon Brothers and Smith Barney and financial planner Primerica -- in 1998.

* Citigroup has 200 million customers in more than 100 countries across six continents. It is the world's largest provider of credit cards.

* Citigroup was the world's largest bank by market value as recently as 2007, when it was worth more than $250 billion. At Friday's close it was worth just $20.5 billion, making it smaller than each of Canada's top three banks.

* Citigroup had been the top U.S. bank by assets until it was overtaken by JPMorgan Chase & Co in October. Citigroup ended September with $2.05 trillion in assets, compared with $2.25 trillion at JPMorgan.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

All rights reserved

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America

214 503-8563

800 314-7110 

I thought you might find this bit of sociology interesting and worth pondering.

At Thanksgiving in 2000 the book I had written comprised of historical stories about Galveston, Texas was published.  It was a trade paperback -- that means a regular hard cover book-size paperback -- and it sold for $19.95.

Over the following years, amazingly literally thousands have sold.  I had told the publisher when they first approached me that I doubted more than 500 would sell, and I advised him not to print many more than that.  Instead, the first printing was 5,000 and there has been a second printing but I am unsure of how many thousand were in that printing.

Nevertheless, since Hurricane Ike hit the island, apparently there has been a re-surging interest in my book by the public.  Add to that that they are in short supply.

I noted today that according to amazon.com, used copies of the book are selling for over $40 each.  New copies are as high as $80. 

That does not feather my nest.  I still receive the same per-copy royalty.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

It was the hopes of Congress, Realtors, Mortgage Lenders and recent home borrowers that the program instituted by HUD on October 1 would rescue many of the 400,000 homeowners who are in trouble with their home loan lenders.

Interestingly, though, almost two months later, very few have taken advantage of the plan.  I suspect that's because it is a voluntary program on the lenders' side.

So earlier this week, the Bush administration signed into law a modification of the program with the hopes it would bring thousands under its umbrella.

The modifications will:

• allow lenders to reduce the mortgage principal to 96.5 percent of a home's current market value instead of the current 90 percent writedown;
• require HUD to make up-front payments to get second lien holders to relinquish their rights to future payments;
• allow lenders to extend 30-year loans to 40-year loans; and
• eliminate the requirement for borrowers to undergo a three-payment trial term before being permanently qualified for a mortgage modification.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America!

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

My mother, Naomi Speakman Cherry, was a wonderful cook -- a gourmet cook before it was the rage.  Born and raised in Louisiana, her recipes bore the influence of the French.  And I'll be cooking several of her holiday recipes at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  That's primarily because my family and our guests expect me to.  But it does bring me great pleasure because it's like having a bit of my mom with us for the holidays.

Add to that that my daddy was a respected and celebrated dinner guests throughout the fine restaurants of America, which was because of his acute knowledge of food and wine. 

So you can see that I have no choice but to love to cook.

As I got older, I tried to acquire an appreciation of the cooking styles of TV chefs Julia Child and Craig Claiborne, but it just didn't take.  They cooked so differently than my mother did, and I thought their recipes were unnecessarily convoluted.  If I chose to cook one of their dishes, I always tinkered with it and modified it.

Interestingly, once I found and became a disciple of Ina Garten ("Barefoot Contessa") and Emeril Lagasse, I was able to hone and bring my cooking to a level I could be proud of.  And that's because they both cook like my mom taught us.

<<==Ina Garten

I suggest that if you plan to give anyone a cookbook this season, that you pick one of Ina Garten's or Emeril Lagasse's.  Their recipes are so interesting, both to make and to share at the dinner table. (See the bottom of this post for my two recommendations.)

And even if you have only a smidgen of talent in this area, you'll be successful.

There was a wonderful choral group in the '50s called "Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians."  Perhaps you remember them.  But even if you don't you'll surely be familiar with Mr. Waring's invention, the Waring blender. It was the original blender.

 This Christmas season, the Waring company is introducing the Waring Popcorn Maker.  While it's a cut down version of the kettle popper used at movie theaters, it uses the same principal.

They are available from Sur la Table (On the Table) for $99.95. The regular price is $190. It's a great addition to a media room, and a fine present for kids, and dad and mom, too. 

The best of the cookbooks are Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home and Emeril Lagasse's Emeril's Delmonico Cookbook. 

Emeril's is in honor of one of the finest restaurants in the New Orleans Garden District on St. Charles Avenue.  We used to eat there after church on Sunday when I was a student at Tulane.  Emeril added the restaurant to his stable a few years back.

Both cookbooks are easily available at bookstores and on the Internet.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America!

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

My nephew emailed the other day to tell me about an acquaintance who has not only learned that her sister has pilfered their mother's estate, but that the chances are she won't be able to afford the legal costs to get the probate court to do anything about it.

Think about that.  Here's a mother who retained an attorney to help her give specific directions to her survivors as to how she wanted her estate handled.  One of the beneficiaries chose not to honor those directions, and the legal fees to force her to do it are beyond the reach of the other beneficiary.

Want to know what's worse?  I wasn't the least bit surprised, even though I was deeply sympathetic.

You see, this happens with great frequency.  And it does because the one who wears the black hat usually has power of attorney for their parent and is also the executor of their estate or the trustee of their living trust.  And to make matters worse, it isn't difficult to find a notary who will attest a forged signature.

Probate courts -- at least those in Texas -- just don't seem to be able to enforce the wills of those they are set up to serve.  The district attorneys and the secretary of state do little, if anything, when they find out a notary is attesting in violation of his oath and the law.

So all of this gives that person a tremendous advantage.  First, with the power of attorney, they can cause business decisions and transactions to be made without the knowledge or approval of the Trustor (also known as the "Grantor") while the Trustor is alive.  And secondly, if anyone contests those decisions other than the Trustor, the person with the power of attorney or who is the trustee has the full value of the trust (estate) behind him to fight off a law suit.  The trustee is not using his own money.  What has he to lose?

The person contesting the trustee's decision has to use his own assets to pay his attorney; and further, in many wills and trusts a provision was added that says that if a beneficiary contests the decisions of the trustee or executor and the court rules against the contestor, the contestor forfeits his beneficial interest.

Parenthetically, what moron dreamed up the idea that this was a good provision?  Why do others follow the moron?

I have come to some conclusions I would like to share with you:

• Notify in writing every beneficiary named in your will or trust that they are, in fact, beneficiaries and what they may expect to get when you pass away.  Have your attorney write the letters.
• If you are using a trust rather than a will, file a Memorandum of Trust within the public records of your county; that way, the trustee can't hide the fact that you've named, say your church, as a beneficiary.
• Require that your accounts be paid and deposits made by a professional public accounting service, not one of your children or a friend.  The service should also file your tax returns.  All checks payable to you or your trust should be sent by the payor to the accountant, not your trustee or the person with your power of attorney.
• Have your estate administered by a bank trust department, regardless the size of your estate's corpus.  They are bonded against losses because of their wrong doing.  Ironically, in most cases, wills naming individuals as administrators specifically say they are not required to be bonded.
• Do not put anyone on your checking account, stock accounts, real estate deeds, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship for the purposes of avoiding probate.  Your attorney and CPA or financial planner will explain the reasons why this is so very dangerous.

If you have more than one beneficiary, this is especially important.

And now the disclaimer.  I am not an attorney.  Check my opinions with your attorney or a trust officer at your bank.  This is important stuff.  You've only got one chance to get it right.

AMENDMENT TO THE ORIGINAL POST.  Perhaps I should explain my understanding of how the Living Trust/Testamentary Trust normally works.  It starts out being what's called a Living Trust because it is established and funded during the lifetime of the Grantor.

All of the Grantor's assets are transferred to that trust.  Its side kick is a document called a Pour Over Will.  The Pour Over Will's purpose is to let the "world" know that the Grantor has decided to set-up the Living Trust, and that upon the Grantor's death, any and all property that was inadvertently not previously transferred to the Living Trust, now is.

The Pour Over Will also often times serves to give certain items to beneficiaries without those items actually being transferred to the Living Trust.  Perhaps, a car.  Perhaps the Pour Over Will will say that the Grantor's 2007 Lincoln will go to her grandson at the time of her death.

Now as soon as the grantor passes away, the Living Trust will have a provision that changes it from a Living Trust to a Testamentary Trust.  It's actually the same instrument.  That's when the Trustee is noticed it's time to pay the final bills and distribute the estate in accordance with the instructions written in the Testamentary Trust.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America!

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

Permission is granted to quote or copy the contents as long as proper credit is given of its authorship.

With sincere apologies to my AR friends in Michigan, I am one of those who thinks it would be best for America if congress were to let the U.S. automakers either swim, float or drown, and let them do it all by themselves. 

If the bankruptcy laws are as I understand them, by being forced into bankruptcy the exculpatory contracts between the companies and their executives, unions, and on and on could be reviewed and renegotiated.  And those reviews and renegotiations would be in front of the court and require the court's approval.

Executives and unions are at the base of the financial problems.  It isn't the owners, who are the stockholders, and no one has spent anytime looking after them.

For a CEO to earn, say, $15 million a year plus other expensive benefits and bonuses and it was under his administration and direction that the company cratered, is just unacceptable to reasonable people. 

Here's the chance to stop it.  In the meantime, I suggest that the CEOs sell the corporate jets and learn to travel like the rest of us ---coach!

Our neighbor across the street is William B. Vandivort, II.  Forget that he is a prominent CPA specializing in trusts and oil leases and properties.  What he really is is a community activist.  He's involved in anything that has to do with Republican and his  alma mater, Austin College in Sherman.

He also is the chairman of the Dallas Country Central Appraisal District.

So since Patty and I have only been living in Dallas for three years, Bill's my lifeline to the city's political history, what's going on and why, and who people are and how they fit into the puzzle.

Early this morning, we went to the monthly meeting of a club that evolved to serve those whose children are now grown, and that caused them to be former members of the Lake Highlands Exchange Club.  Now they meet to hear from speakers who are on the cutting edge of what's going on in Dallas.

This morning, the speaker was Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.  Here's part of what the county court's web page says about him:

John Wiley Price brand of advocacy and activism can be summed up in this way: John Wiley Price addresses real issues, advances real change and achieves real results . He has earned the full respect of the constituents within his district and in the County at-large. Additionally, he has placed himself in the vanguard for those who have been historically locked out, especially for African-American people. He campaigned initially as " Our Man Downtown ", and has proven himself as such over the years.

John Wiley Price , in his sixth term as Dallas County Commissioner for District Three, became its 17th in the counties' 142 year history when he took the oath of office on January 1, 1985 . For 20 years now, Commissioner Price's service on the Court has been responsive to the needs of all of Dallas County citizens. Prior to his debut on the Court at Dallas County , his priority and pledge was to ensure that Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE )ventures were accorded a fair share of Dallas Counties goods and services contracting. Since 1985 procurement via MWBE vendors and professionals has risen from a paltry $50,000 per annum to over $112 million through the fiscal year 2004.

I found Commissioner Price to be an extraordinarily good speaker, well-informed on the business of the governments and the city as a whole.  And this guy starts his work day at 4 AM, 7 days a week. 

I'd recommend to any civic organization that they schedule Commissioner Price to address their group at least once a year.  My intuition tells me that he's a self-made man who has really made a difference.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

If I were going to post a photo here, it would be of a huge man with a trimmed goatee and mustache in a Paul Prudhomme flat-top chef's hat and Bermuda shorts.  And when I say huge, we're talking about mega-hundreds.

The guy's a cooking genius and he owns and runs a place in a shopping center near our Dallas Lake Highlands house called Eat the World.  Don't ask me where the name came from.  I kind of find it a bit disgusting if I roll it over in my mind for very long.

The huge fellow with the trimmed goatee and mustache in the Paul Prudhomme flat-top chef's hat's name is Toby O'Brien, and he's one of Dallas' most talented chefs.

O'Brien was the visionary who was behind the famous Yegue Creek brewpub on Henderson in the 90s.  After it closed, he moved into catering, and in no time, his catering business far exceeded the ability of his home kitchen.

So he rented a goofy-looking worn out ex-convenience store, threw in some good commercial kitchen equipment, added Salvation Army decor in the adjacent dining room, and began preparing every kind of take-home casserole imaginable. Which is not to say you can't eat there, too.  Don't expect candle light, tablecloths and starched white napkins.  And there's no strolling violinist.  Remember, that's not why you're there.

On Fridays he has a barbecue extravaganza, and you've never eaten better barbecue -- ribs, chicken, pulled pork, beef, tamales stuffed with barbecue brisket.  The whole nine yards.

And he cooks circle-cut hams and turkeys right there, nothing frozen or sent down from a commissary in Paramus, New Jersey.  He recoils at the sound of the name "Sysco."

So with Thanksgiving coming, I thought I'd tell you about this gem -- Toby O'Brien and his Eat the World Cafe.  You can order all or part of your Thanksgiving dinner there.  Patty says his dressing is better than mine, so she's ordered a quart for our family and a quart for her friend Cindi and her family. 

I'm still the one who will cook two big birds, my special sweet potatoes and the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner.  But then I don't cater.

EAT THE WORLD

9850 Walnut Hill Lane at Audelia Street 

214-340-3663

1-02-09:  Here's an update.  My stepson, the true master chef Randy Norman, bought one of Toby's specially smoked, glazed hams to serve us all for Christmas.  Let me tell you, we'll be talking about that ham for years to come!  Patty called Chef Toby today, and ordered another one -- one for her and me.

By the way, if you're looking for his place, here's how you can find him.  His neighbors are a nail salon, locksmith, Mexican grocery store, mail center, some sort of immigration office, a store front church.  and a bunch of vacant store fronts.  Don't let this distract you.

BILL CHERRY, REALTOR

DALLAS

Our 44th Year Selling America!

214 503-8563

800 314-7110