Mother always said, “Eat your vegetables.”  I’ve consumed a lot of broccoli over the years.

Speaking of movies…. 

Ian Fleming’s James Bond books were adapted for a short-term television series in early/mid 1950s, with Peter Lorre as the ongoing villain.  Later in the ‘50s, there was a lackluster Bond movie.  It wasn’t till 1962 that producer, Albert Broccoli, showed us what Bond could be like, starting with Dr. No.  After his death, his daughter, Barbara took over the franchise and together, they produced 28 movies in about 60 years.  There were also 2 non-Broccoli Bond films that did better than they might have, by riding on the franchise’s coat-tails.  I have seen them all.

In the 1930s and ‘40s, there was a Jewish musician and comic, who took his stage name, Ish Kabibble, from a running joke.  It’s a Yiddish term, meaning, “I don’t know.”  Whenever shit happened, that was the answer.  Rowdy young Broccoli was much the same, and was known in his neighborhood as Ish Kabibble.  Soon, the ‘Ish’ was dropped.  Then, ‘Kabibble’ was shortened to ‘Kabby’, which finally morphed to “Cubby.”  This was a pet name, and term of endearment that Broccoli treasured and retained his entire life, much like my Archon alias.

In the early 1800s, he had an ancestor who was a botanist and horticulturalist, who managed to cross-breed kale and cauliflower.  The family name, and the vegetable name, both came from the Italian word, ‘broccolo,’ which is the spiky, flowering top of cabbage.  And so, beef and broccoli Chinese food was born – although it had to wait until chop suey was developed.

We boil small pieces in chicken broth, buzz it down to a purée with a hand-held wand blender, and stir in finely shredded sheep cheese, for a warm and filling winter meal.