Deep Fried Kudzu

Well, it's a couple of days late, but I'm going to be mailing Lisa's Christmas present to her this week! Av and I have been Big Brother & Big Sister to Danny and Lisa for about seven years now - right after we got married we contacted BBBS - and the four of us have made a great match. We started when Lisa was in the 8th grade and Danny was in the 2nd grade.

Lisa is all grown up now and in the Navy and is stationed in San Diego, but she wanted me to knit her a lightweight scarf (since it stays pretty warm there) - this one is the Karabella Cosmos that I bought at Serendipity Needleworks in Tuscaloosa. I knit it on size 17 needles, 12 knits per row. I only used 1-1/2 of the 3 balls I bought for it, so if any of you would like the other 1-1/2, just email me ( ginger AT deepfriedkudzu {dot} com ) and I will send them to you! I'm sending her some other things, but this one I am most proud of since it is made by me. I thought of her with every stitch.
Speaking of knitting...I don't remember what I was searching for the other day, but I found this really neat website called "Knitting in Color" that shows how to make knit curliques! I would love to try that sometime...

Leslie and I had another "craft day" and one of the many things we made was a project that used the same Pebeo Porcelaine 150 paints that I had used before when decorating some bowls (that project page is here, which also includes a series of emails about the food-safety of using these paints) to decorate some glass plates I bought to play around with.

Pebeo Porcelaine paints can be found at Dick Blick (their catalog is great), and I got mine at the local Michael's shop.

This is the plate Leslie made:


...and this is the plate I made:

I'm going to keep mine in my craft area - the paint is completely set (even safe to go in the dishwasher) after 35 minutes in a 300* oven. I think they came out really nice!

Another idea I had was to take some more of the clear glass plates and paint in reverse, on the bottom side of the plate. This way, there's no paint at all on the top of the plate where food would be, which would be *completely* safe to serve on...I might try that this week or next.

Oh! And I hope all of you that celebrate Christmas had a really wonderful holiday!

Pensacola has a knit shop that I visited - King's Sewing and Knitting Center at 2633 Creighton Road. They have so many pretty things in stock - and some brands that I had never even seen before (and they have a really cute little 'guard dog'!)! One of the new yarns (for me) was this Juliet yarn by Skacel - it's made in Italy, and has "dyed tufts and sheer ribbon suspended from a woven base thread."

I got two skeins of it in color 4041, dye lot 768 and one ball of Berroco Ultra Silk in black #6117, dye lot #101 to knit the Juliet together with. I can't wait to start on this one today or tomorrow!

This is the "Dome of a Home" at Pensacola Beach. The home's shape helps it deflect a lot of the damage from incoming storms - there's a lot more about it at their website, here. Oh! And you can rent it for vacations, too!


Super-bright colors on this beach house:


This is the Spaceship home on the beach, which is a Futuro house - there's more about Futuros here here here and here. This is how it looked originally.




Back in Pensacola, this is Christ Church (their website shows how pretty it is on the inside, too):


This is St. Michael's - I love the color of the copper roof!


This is the courthouse:


...and another dome home, under construction near Navy Blvd:


One of the last things we did before leaving for home was to go by Joe Patti's for some fish - and outside, we got to see these three pelicans swimming around!:

Once we left New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, we headed over to Pensacola for a day, and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on the beach. This is our room:


The people at the desk put us on the far right side of the hotel so we wouldn't look straight out at the new construction they're doing - it's this new tower of condos:


Thankfully, our view was of the beach! One thing I did notice this time, though, is that the Hampton Inn next door also has balconies like our room, and the whole hotel is closer to the water, too. It was closed for a while after Ivan, but it's been open now for a while and is actually ranked higher on Tripadvisor than the Hilton Garden Inn that we stayed at. Hmmm...

We had a nice lunch at McGuire's, which is my favorite place there, and then supper at Flounder's, which is owned by the same people. It was really-really good, too! We were going to play putt-putt, but the place was closed - I think because it had been raining - so we just spent our time enjoying the beach!

Av and I went to Ocean Springs to see how far Shearwater Pottery had gotten to reopening at its original location (which was devastated by the hurricane) - there was a sign that they were open right now at the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center at 1600 Government Street in town.

This is a pic of the building:


Upstairs in one of the former classrooms is the Shearwater Gallery - here's Av paying for everything!:




We bought these four egg cups - I love the shape of these, and that the glaze (and shape/height) is different on each one:


This is the marking on the bottom of each egg cup:


This is the marking on the bottom of the other piece we got - it has a stamp:


I asked what glaze this is, and the nice lady that helped us said that it somewhat resembled "Sand & Sky" but that all the glazes are different now and mostly don't have names yet (they're working with a new kiln, too).

I love it and am so happy that they're open. They'll reopen the shop at their original location in late January or early February, so I can't wait to go back then too!

Av and I went to the Mississippi coast and New Orleans for a couple of days this week for some meetings, and we stayed at the Hollywood Casino Hotel in Bay St. Louis. This hotel used to be the Casino Magic, but after the hurricane, it changed ownership. The last time we stayed here was January of 2005, and when I just looked at the pics from that visit, it looks as though the rooms must have not been damaged by the storm, because everything looks pretty much the same.

This was our room:

I saw a press release for the Raw Arts Festival 2007, which is going to be held in New York. The last three years it has been in either Spain or England, and the promoters are holding it up as an alternative to the annual "Outsider Art Week" which is put on by the American Folk Art Museum there.

The list of featured artists for the Raw Arts Festival includes someone from Mississippi - Joe Moorman. Joe grew up in the Mississippi Delta just outside Greenville, and he has this wonderful insight of not only growing up there, but also of growing up LDS (there's a section on his website of artwork drawn from that experience here). My favorite piece of his has to be this one of him flying with a catfish under his arm, right back to Mississippi.

I have really vivid dreams too, but I would be so tickled with myself if I dreamed of flying with a catfish!

I looked on his site to see where his art is available, and it was only in October of this year that he decided to start selling. He writes:

"Like most artists, my preference would be to give away my paintings to whoever appreciated them the most. However, I am seeking representation by a reputable gallery so that I can work less and paint more, and thus I must charge a minimum price that is in line with the professional marketplace.

Any offer of $1000 or more will be accepted for most artwork provided the piece in question isn't one that my wife and I have decided to keep. Please keep in mind that the process of selling art is extremely stressful for artists who are making art primarily for personal reasons and not the marketplace."

Last week, the link to files from the Southern Pottery Symposium was posted to the Alabama Folklife group I belong to. The files are right here, and they include Joey Brackner talking about his new book, Alabama Folk Pottery, and others discussing Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Mississippi pottery.

Since Louisiana pottery wasn't mentioned, I decided to look that up - and I found a pottery in Ruston, LA called Follette Pottery. It began in 1979, and is Louisiana's oldest production pottery. What makes Follette Pottery really interesting is that they use a glaze that the owner and a friend developed, that they named "Flambeaux". Flambeaux glazes have zinc as one of the components, and the zinc makes some really neat crystalline patterns appear when a piece is fired.

Since it's Chanukah, I made latkes for supper - they are *so* easy and yummy!

My guide is that one potato will serve two people - so this recipe is based on four people/servings:

Ingredients:
2 regular-size baking potatoes (I leave the skin on when grating)
1 medium yellow onion
2 eggs
4 tbsp. flour
salt and pepper
olive oil for pan

First, I grate the potatoes in my Cuisinart, then grate the onion:


In a large mixing bowl, I add to the potato/onion mixture the two eggs and flour. I stir that up really well, then add olive oil to a skillet to get that started (when I do this for a party, I use two skillets plus an electric skillet, then set the ones that are done on a paper-towel-covered cookie sheet in a 225* oven to keep them warm until all the latkes are cooked). The skillet should be put on a medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot - it must be hot - I just lift out of the bowl a large spoonful-size amount and gently add to the skillet.

One of the secrets to really great latkes is to make a nice mound in the middle of each latke (so they are nice and potato-y when you bite into the center), but to also have potato strings on the edges (so they have that great crispy bite).


I salt and pepper both sides pretty generously. After just two or three minutes when they have a nice golden color on the bottom - I peek underneath them with a spatula first - I flip them, then let them cook until they're a nice color on the other side:


I have a paper towel-lined plate ready for them:


While I was busy making broccoli salad and the latkes, Av fixed our steaks, which turned out great! I think this steak was big enough for both of us, though!

Yum! Happy Chanukah!

One of the places we went shopping in Nashville was Hatch Show Print (there's the HSP downtown, and the Country Music Hall of Fame Shop sells lots of their things, too):


We spent a good amount of time inside - there's lots to look at. The CMHF has some of their prints for sale online, too.

I liked Hatch, but my very favorite two are still Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr's Kennedy Prints! in Akron, Alabama, and Yee Haw Industries in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both Kennedy and Yee Haw exhibit each year at Kentuck. We got this set from Yee Haw two or three years ago:


It hangs in our kitchen:


One thing I got from Yee Haw this year is this illustration of a PawPaw tree branch:


...and this year's Chanukah cards!

One of the days we were in Nashville, we took the advice of DixieDining and Chowhound (and lots of others) and had lunch at the Belle Meade Cafeteria.


Nashville is supposed to be really big in meat-and-threes, so we thought we would give the Belle Meade Cafeteria a try (you can't live in our part of the South without loving meat-and-threes!). The Belle Meade has been in business since 1961. It's the usual cafeteria setup, where you walk through a corridor, get a tray and roll of silverware, then go through the line, letting the servers know what you'd like. At the end of the line, a gentleman will ask what you'd like to drink, and will carry your tray to whichever table you'd like to sit at. There are two main dining rooms, and this is the one we had lunch in:


Av had: salad, fish and salmon cakes, fries, dressing, a roll, and chocolate pie:


I had: grilled chicken livers with onions, dressing, greens, toast, and egg custard pie:

They serve a *lot* of food and I don't think I even ate 25% of what was served (Av too)! Everything was really, really good - especially the dressing and liver!. The pies were a little disappointing, but we would definitely go back and just skip the dessert!

Av and I went walking each day and I took *lots* of pics from all over the hotel:






This is the Italian restaurant - we had supper there one night - it was okay. We also ate at the Irish restaurant, but for the most part we called and had the valet deliver the car so we could try some new places around Nashville! One of the things about staying at this hotel, though, is that it is just *so easy* to stay here and not leave once during the stay. They pretty much have everything here...even a sushi bar...


This is in the convention area:

In the convention area was "Treasures for the Holidays" craft show. The sign to the show read, "this enthralling craft show features a variety of hand-made and novelty gifts, ranging from candles and jewelry to clothing, artwork, and food. A huge selection of vendors from the US and Ukraine will be exhibiting this year...." Sounded nice. It was $5/ea to get in. That show was so...bad...very bad... We didn't see any artisans - just mostly people selling (cheap-looking) stuff they got out of a catalog or something. Soooo disappointed. Oh well - maybe for next year the hotel will take a different view of that and make it more like a gallery of artists, where they sell items of local artisans on commission, with a selection of local arts in all different prices that people who visit the hotel can take home and enjoy. What they had this year wasn't really, I thought, a good reflection on the hotel.

There were lots of other things that the hotel had going on that we considered...the Rockettes have a show they do at the Grand Ole Opry building, there's something called "Ice" where they took 1.5 million pounds of ice and carved all kinds of things out of it, and Pam Tillis does a supper concert. We passed on all those (probably the Rockettes and Ice are better for families with children, and we're not big Pam Tillis fans) and instead spent our time relaxing around the hotel or shopping and playing in Nashville.

I think this was in the Delta area:






This is a tree made of poinsettias:






This is in the Delta, where they have a little guided boat that people can get in and tour that section of the hotel!


I really liked this stained glass skylight in the reception area, with the pretty magnolias:


This little bird was so friendly! He landed on our balcony railing while we were sitting there one morning and was so happy to have company! He stayed for a long time. Av tried to get him to perch on his finger, and got really close, but the bird wasn't too interested in that. He visited us and some of the other people on their balconies. So sweet!