Deep Fried Kudzu: July 2010

Strange Jello

Posted by ginger On Thursday, July 29, 2010

Here at home, I have a cookbook that includes a recipe from Mrs. Albert Brewer (published in a time when so many women went simply as Mrs. Husband's Name). Her name was actually Martha, and her husband's name is familiar because he became Governor of Alabama when Gov. Lurleen Wallace passed away (in 1968), and then George Wallace, who had been Lurleen's husband, defeated him to win the office back into the family in 1970.

Well, back to Martha. She contributed to the cookbook her recipe for 'Pimento Cheese Salad'.

Are you thinking: pimento cheese on top of lettuce?

Maybe pimento cheese embellished with some other vegetables?

Me too. I mean, I did.

Pimento Cheese Salad turns out to be a 'salad' in the '50s and '60s sense, like an aspic, or strawberry/cherry/pineapple/cranberry/whatever-fruit-you-like salad (w/ extra points for marshmallows and orange sections!). It's molded salad, made with gelatin, like our grandmothers made.

That pic above is of my attempt at Martha Brewer's pimento cheese salad. When I read the recipe, I was intrigued: lemon jello, pimento cheese spread, extra mayonnaise, vinegar, celery, onion, and bell pepper.

(and yes I took the two extra minutes to make my own pimento cheese)

Now for the question: could lemon Jello and even-better-homemade pimento cheese taste good? Could I put it in a pretty mold and everyone be amazed?

...welllll....

It was good in an odd way, but I don't think I'll be trying it again.

I just like the idea that someone thought to themselves, "you know what would be great? How about..."

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Last month, the Gowanus Studio Space in NYC held its second annual Jello Mold Competition.

Love that logo:

Not only were the contestants asked to be innovative, part of it was that they had to construct their own molds (no Tupperware or pretty copper fluted pans!). The Chicago Tribune, of all things, had an article about it in their Opinion section that read in part:

The event drew 200 spectators and 27 entries, plus one "meltdown," reports Michelle Zata, one of the organizers. Grand prize went to Shelly Sabel, for her creation, "Aspic Ascension — Tastes Like Heaven." Her concoction featured a church altar made of pickles and olives and a gelatinous statue of the Virgin Mary.

Art with a dash of blasphemy — there's the perfect recipe for East Coast elitism. Indeed, the judges and contestants were largely drawn from New York's design and artisan circles.

Still, Sabel's victory was indebted to tradition.

A New York lighting designer, she said she was inspired to enter the competition by her grandfather's recent death. Sorting through her grandparents' attic in Houston, what did she find?

"An old recipe book put out by the Knox Gelatin company," said Sabel. "My grandmother's."

While many spectators applauded Sabel's creativity and craftsmanship, none said her mold reminded them of one that sat on their family's dining-room table. She can understand that mixed reception, noting: "Mine wasn't the kind of thing that inspires nostalgia."

Um, Our Lady of the Jello? I'm not a blasphemy fan. We can do better. How about this? 100% jello - cups and all:

Used courtesy Bekathwia under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Here's my favorite. Or maybe this one with the deviled eggs.

One of the contestants has a blog called 'The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn' with pics of her creations - some of the really fantastic ones are on Flickr here, here, and here.

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I just noticed that she made one of my favorite jello recipes of all time - Strawberry Pretzel Salad! Here's a pic of mine from a few years ago:

Here's the recipe - I'll try to fix those image links from 2006. When I made the migration to the new, no-FTP support Blogger, they got broken.

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One last Jello thing! Liz Hickok made this cityscape of San Francisco:

Image used courtesy ifindkarma under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Tomato Pie And Happy, Happy Things

Posted by ginger On Monday, July 26, 2010

Back in early April, Shug and Av put in our garden - tons of different tomato varieties, okra, bell peppers, crookneck squash, watermelons, blue dent corn...

Last night, we had an amazing tomato pie. We took basil from our herb garden, and picked tomatoes straight from the garden. They were still warm from the sunshine when I began slicing them.

Ingredients:
1 deep dish pie crust (make your own, or not...)
12 basil leaves
3 large tomatoes, sliced medium thickness. Dab them dry with paper towels.
3 oz. shredded Parmesan (approx.)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
splash buttermilk
1/2 large Vidalia onion, sliced into medium thickness half-rings
6 oz. mozzarella, sliced (I love fresh mozz. but use the regular packaged kind for this, it was fine)
small amount olive oil for drizzling
salt, pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400*.
Take a handful of Parmesan and lightly cover the bottom of the pie crust:

In a circular fashion, put in the first of what will later be two layers of tomatoes:

Salt and pepper the tomatoes, then add half the Vidalia slices. Not too thin, because the onions give the pie a nice little crunch besides all that great flavor:

In a Ziploc bag, put the mayonnaise inside along with a splash of buttermilk. Close the bag and 'squish' it to mix the two. Cut a small opening into either of the bottom corners with scissors:

This way, you can use it pastry-bag style to add half of the mayonnaise/buttermilk mixture atop the onion layer.

Now add half the basil:

Add half the mozzarella slices and another handful of parmesan:

Now the whole process over again - tomato slices, salt & pepper, Vidalias, mayonnaise/buttermilk, cheeses. With your hands, gently press all the toppings down into the pie shell so it's nice and compact.
Add a splash of olive oil on top...maybe a bit more salt & pepper if you like...
Place it on a baking sheet:

Start checking at 30 minutes, this was perfect at 35:

Yes, yes, yes.

First slice:

That was *fantastic*. The cheeses, the crunch and sweetness of the onion, and you can never go wrong with tomatoes and basil. If you eat it with a fork, you'll maybe even (probably even?) want a spoon for the leftover juices. It's that good.

I've had some great things happen the last few days - Leslie got engaged! And not only did she get engaged, she got engaged to a boy I have known, who has been one of my very best friends, since 6th grade (for those of you who know me from school, it's Jeff!!! Yes!!).

Jeff and I met when I was in 6th grade and had P.E. at the same time. We always chose each other as square dancing partners (because, friends, six weeks of square dancing - and clogging - were taught each year of middle school).

If you ever feel like dosado-ing, or promenading, maybe even a half sashay - you can call on me. And while we're at it, I do love to do the Virginia Reel, too! (...seriously, I do.)

Okay. Anyway. Leslie and Jeff are getting married! It makes me so happy to know that we went all the way through school together, even through college, so all this could happen. I set them up this past winter and it's been one of the best things I've ever done in my whole life. Seeing their happiness has made my heart just *full*! Can't wait for my boys, who already love their Aunt Leslie, to know that she and Uncle Jeff will always be together, and be there for them.

Aaaaahhhh....dreamy....

And! One of my other wonderful friends, Jenifer, just had a baby girl this past week. Can't wait to get to see the whole beautiful family back at home. Those first few weeks are so busy, I'm hoping she will let me do a little housework for her while I visit. Jenifer's a vegetarian so I'll make one of these tomato pies to help fill her fridge so she doesn't have to cook.

Oh, don't you just love sweet little babies....

Amish Mississippi

Posted by ginger On Thursday, July 22, 2010

This month, we visited the Amish community in Mississippi again - I think we're going about once every three or four months now, which is great because this way we're able to keep up with what they're making seasonally.

Oh the way I love these signs.

One of my favorite places to stop is at Mr. Gingerich's workshop - I must've bought ten baskets from him already. He's always incredibly friendly and loves to just talk and swap stories. When I went in to visit him this time, though, there were only three or four baskets on the shelves rather than the twenty or so that he usually has. I asked one of the young girls if he was around (we've gotten to the point where he 'knows' me), and she said that his wife passed away back in April and he's just not in the workshop, visiting like he used to be. I met his wife once and she was so nice; if I remember correctly, she helped him a lot with staining the baskets. The only walnut-stained basket he had was this one he signed that he made in June, so I brought it home.

Hope I get to see him next time and he is in better spirits. Bless his heart.

Another home was selling queen-size quilts and baby quilts as well as potholders.

We picked up some pickled beets at one home, and peanut brittle at another.

At another home, I purchased this watermelon-inspired rag rug. It's perfect for our new screened-in back porch. Rag rugs are perfect for places that you're coming back in from going barefoot.

Squishing your toes in all that fabric just feels fantastic! That hose in the pic above is for the sprinkler - we've gotten a lot of new sod in the backyard (pics of all the newness soon!) so it's getting watered a lot.

These are a couple of rag rugs that I've gotten in the past. So useful and so pretty.

If you'd like directions to their community outside Pontotoc, just email me! It's a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

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There's a new shop in Toronto called Urban Amish - the National post ran an article about it that read in part:

When it comes to sleek, style-conscious interior design, the word "Amish" doesn't necessarily come to mind. Sure, this community is known for its carpentry and craftsmanship, but the lifestyle -- no phones, electricity or modern conveniences -- would seem to be at odds with the concept of urban chic.

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Specializing in custom-designed tables, beds, cabinets, side tables and other home pieces, they hope to lure customers in with their stylish floor models and seal the deal with low prices (overhead costs are minimal when your supplier comes from a self-insured community, uses a horse-drawn carriage for transportation and requires no more than $50 in diesel fuel once a week for his workshop).

"A lot of people think our name is an oxymoron," says Ron Walton, who co-founded the store with business partner Craig Stewart. "There's a misconception, and it was one that I had, too, that Amish refers to a style of furniture. But it really denotes quality, not style. And it's not just clunky, rural stuff that belongs in a country home; it's for the city."

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Running a contemporary furniture business that must adhere to the values of a technology-resistant, somewhat ascetic population is not without other logistical problems. First, Walton had to track down a handful of Amish families that would be willing to work throughout the year.

"Usually, they build seasonally," he says. "But when you're in a retail environment, you can't sell someone a coffee table in March and say 'It'll be ready in November, when farming season is done.' So we had to track down some people who would agree to work full-time."

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More specifically, it's a three-hour circuit that takes place each day. They fax stuff to a central location, then it gets sorted into colour-coded file folders, which someone drops off at each farm by horse. Then, when the furniture is ready, a guy with a 34-foot horse trailer goes farm-to-farm once again and picks everything up.

Scrap Wood & Wheels

Posted by ginger On Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A friend sent me this article today about the new Vermontasaurus (pic here). Part of it reads:

POST MILLS, Vt. – Does a 25-foot-tall, 122-foot-long dinosaur need a permit to avoid extinction?

That's the unlikely dilemma posed by "Vermontasaurus," a whimsical sculpture thrown together with scrap wood by a Vermont man. The oddity now faces opposition from neighbors and regulatory challenges from government entities that he fears could force him to dismantle it.

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Last month, he decided to turn a pile of broken wooden planks and other detritus on the edge of his property into something more. Boland says was the idea was to build a sculpture that could be a community gathering place, with no admission and no commercial element.

Using a dinosaur model as his inspiration, he put out a call for volunteer helpers and went to work.

He cut a huge pine tree into four pieces and, using a back hoe, planted them as the bases of the four feet. Then, over nine days and using dozens of volunteers, the ersatz sculpture began taking shape.

A splintered 2-by-4 here, the rotted belly of a guitar there, half a ladder from a child's bunk bed here, Boland and his volunteers worked under basic ground rules: No saws, no rulers and no materials other than what was in the scrap pile.

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Dirk Koppers, 40, who lives next door to Wilson, said he loves it.

"It shows such creativity," he said. "You just don't go to places and be surprised anymore. Everything's always so controlled or so governed."

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There's also a giant turtle made from wheels in Dunseith, North Dakota:

Image of Dunseith-Wee'l Turtle used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Anyone else know of any newish large-scale roadside sculptures?

Gee's Bend + Pottery Barn

Posted by ginger On Monday, July 19, 2010

(screenshot of Pottery Barn's new Museum Craft Collection)

A few years ago, Anthropologie was offering their take on Gee's Bend quilts, and now Pottery Barn is doing the same:

We worked closely with the Gee’s Bend Foundation to re-create these works of American art. Each of our quilts is a close replica of the original piece, hand quilted using the same technique, similar fabrics and the same dimensions – an approximate Queen size. The women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama have developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American and African American quilts. The quiltmakers have passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present.

I hope if this is a success that they will consider some of the bolder designs.

The Museum Craft Collection isn't only Gee's Bend quilts, but also items inspired by the collections at the American Folk Art Museum and the Shelburne Museum.

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AFAM curator (and other) issues published at New York Mag this month.

Tequila Mockingbird, And Boudin Booms

Posted by ginger On Friday, July 16, 2010

Ever go somewhere that you've heard wonderful things about, and for whatever reason - maybe because it's been built up so much in your mind - that once you get there it's just okay?

We had a Mommy-Daddy date this week at Little Savannah in B'ham. It had been a while since we'd gone out alone so above all the expectations I already had, I was really wanting this to be terrific. The boys were asleep, Mimi was there to listen to them sleep, and we tiptoed out for a little evening...

Oh! And you know why I really-really wanted to like it? The chef has done at least one James Beard event that I know of, and just last weekend prepared a supper party in Monroeville as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of TKAM which included fried chicken, sliced tomatoes, turnip greens, collards cornbread, Lane cake, and a special drink: Tequila Mockingbird. Oh yes.

The menu was broken into three main sections: "Little Vittles" or appetizers, "Middle Vittles" or entrees, and the sides, "Herbaceous Vittles". There were five entree choices: flounder, 'Southern cioppino', chicken, grilled pork loin, and skirt steak. Av chose the skirt steak (Meyer Ranch skirt steak, poached egg, potato frites, marchands de vin, truffle oil). That's the bottom-right of this pic:

He said it was pretty good but not amazing. None of the mains really attracted me, so the waiter suggested I go with two of the appetizers that looked more appealing: four fried chicken livers (bottom left of the pic above) and a small plate of shrimp and grits (upper right).

Unfortunately, someone had forgotten to salt the livers so I had to ask for salt (which...in a restaurant of this caliber, generally frowned on...they had to go to the kitchen to get me a teensy saucer of it), and - well, see the grits in the pic? The blue/purple grits with the pinky shrimp just did not make for an appetizing dish. I think this is one of those cases when regular white grits would have worked better in a visual way. It also was just okay flavor-wise, and I love shrimp & grits otherwise. It was little disappointing, even.

You know I would so much rather be positive about things.

Here's something I can really be positive about - Denise Gee, the restaurant's mixologist and creator of the Tequila Mockingbird. The drink is made up of strawberry-infused tequila, honey-black pepper syrup, and sparkling wine. It's the top-right in the pic below:

Excellent. All the way to the left is Av's Pimm's cup (nice), and another drink that I had - can you believe I had two cocktails? - the 'Zelda Sayre'.

Can I even tell you how much I have always loved Zelda Sayre? She was the beautiful girl from Montgomery who went on to marry F. Scott Fitzgerald and be known as the first American Flapper. I can go on & on. Anyway, I can't recall exactly what was in the drink (um, because it was my second cocktail?!?) but there were notes of lemon, and lavender-infused vodka especially.

Our waiter said that the drinks' creator was a fan of literature. Nice! So guess what else was on the menu? The Walker Percy: bourbon, muddled cucumber, honey-violet syrup, soda.

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I have to share this - in today's email from Tom Fitzmorris, he listed what the chef has on his new menu at Louisiana Bistro:

BPQ Shrimp $9
Jumbo gulf shrimp in a black pepper sauce

Boudin Booms $9
Roast boudin sausage links protecting a "beach" from caramelized onion pork glace

Dirty Bird $26
Crisp broiled oil-poached duck leg confit with dirty rice covered by a mysterious dark goo

Pork Barrel with Leeks $24
Braised pork grillades and gravy in an Idaho potato barrel with crispy leeks

"Top Hat" Surf and Turf $34
Pan roasted prime filet mignon topped with crawfish tail scampi on roasted garlic mashed potatoes

Junk Shot Jambalaya $27
Ever-changing mix of Louisiana fish and shellfish with andouille sausage in a Cajun style tomato rice pilaf

Take a look at the menu page, too...hilarious!

Jose Fuster's Art Environment In Cuba

Posted by ginger On Thursday, July 15, 2010

I've been wanting to show these pics for so long now! They were all made by Av's father, during his trip to Cuba last summer. This is the home / art environment of Jose Fuster, who lives in the Jaimanitas neighborhood of Havana.

He has exhibited all over the world and uses the funds he makes at those shows to improve not only his home but those of his neighbors.

Reuters ran this article about him last year.

Part of the article reads:

By standards in Cuba, where people receive various social benefits but earn an average of $20 a month, he makes a bundle of money and has freedom to travel abroad that most Cubans do not.

But he views his sales as a source of hard currency for his cash-strapped country. He happily pays the required 50 percent taxes on art income and says he invests most of what's left in Jaimanitas, either in the art works or in helping his less-fortunate neighbors.

"I have the idea that I have to give back part of my money," he said. How much has he invested in Jaimanitas? "I don't know. Everything," he said, shrugging his shoulders. His neighbors use the funds for home repairs and other needs.

Thank you, Papa, for sharing your pics of this *amazing* art environment! xoxoxo!

Thursday

Posted by ginger On Wednesday, July 14, 2010

...back on Thursday with a *really* wonderful art environment!

Better Buckets

Posted by ginger On Monday, July 12, 2010

If you live in the Deep South, it's not too late to plant more tomatoes so they'll still be producing in October before we get close to the first freeze. Thing is, my garden is full, so like many people, container gardening is the way to go.

One of the best/easiest ways I've heard of to grow tomatoes is to use one of those orange five gallon buckets that are so inexpensive (and usually right by the front door) at Home Depot. Thing is, these are going to be pretty visible so I was trying to think of a way to make them look a little bit better with some help from acrylic paint, Mod Podge, and the gorgeous RH Shumway catalog...

Supplies: Bucket, Drill (for drainage holes), Spraypaint primer, Acrylic paint for whatever design you like plus brushes, newspaper/catalog pages, Mod Podge in matte or gloss, Clear enamel spraypaint to help with weatherproofing

1. Punch holes in the bottom of the bucket with a drill, then spraypaint the bucket all over with white primer.

2. Get craft paints ready for whatever design you'd like to use (and this step can be completely removed if you like the look of the pages you're going to Mod Podge without any extra ornamentation). Remove pages from the newspaper or catalog and paint on your design.

3. Since this is a tomato container, I painted...a tomato.

4. Liberally apply Mod Podge (those sponge brushes that are $.20 at the craft shop are perfect) to the bucket, then lay on the pages you're using to decoupage, then Mod Podge again all the pages, on top all over. Make sure to get those edges especially.

5. Wait for the Mod Podge to dry, then paint the top of the bucket (where all the ridges are), handle, etc. with a complementary paint color.

6. Once all the paint is dry, let it set overnight then seal the outside (while you're outside) with the clear acrylic spray. Let that 'cure' for a day before using as a container.

Much better!

Whitefish Salad

Posted by ginger On Thursday, July 08, 2010

Before we left Pensacola, we had breakfast at Bagelhead's - Av got a chocolate chip bagel with peanut butter, and I had a salt bagel with cream cheese, red onion, tomato, capers, and lox:

Can I even? No, I can't even say how good that was.

On our way out of town, we stopped by Joe Patti's as we always do...

This pic of the interior is from a previous visit, but you can get an idea of how big and busy it is:

We filled the large cooler we brought (they'll pack it to travel, too), and one of the things I had to have was a smoked whitefish.

To make whitefish you don't even need a 'recipe' - just a couple of extra forks so you can taste, add some of this, some of that, then taste again with a fresh fork, and so on.

Just remove the skin from the fish (it peels off super-easy), flake the meat into a bowl with your fingers so you're sure to catch any bones, then add, for example, onion (I used 1/2 a vidalia cut chunky because I like the crunch it gives) plus capers (1/2 a small bottle, drained), and a little mayonnaise (Duke's, always). Salt too. Taste and add more of whatever. You could add dill, sour cream, celery slices, yogurt, maybe a little bell pepper for extra color and crunch.

Great on a bagel, in the scoop of a celery stick, in a bowl with a few plain Captain's wafers...

LEGO Table

Posted by ginger On Wednesday, July 07, 2010

When we were shopping for Shug's birthday, I really wanted to get a table for him to construct his LEGO creations. I looked on Amazon and was really surprised that the ones that weren't made by LEGO were getting some negative reviews because they didn't perfectly fit the blocks; and tables made by LEGO, which were of course perfect, cost so much.

Surely it wasn't going to take upwards of $300 to get a good surface to play on...right?

Just have to add here, I played LEGOs on '70s shag - love the shag! - carpet and so did Av, and that was perfectly fine...but you know...the kiddies these days, they like their LEGO tables...

Last month when we were at IKEA (are all these four-letter, all-caps words bothering you? me too, and we haven't even gotten to how the table is from their LACK line. I'm officially ignoring how these things are supposed to be typed from here on in this post.) among the goodies we brought home was a Lack end table. Its dimensions are 21-5/8" x 21-5/8" and we were able to get the 'walnut effect' finish which doesn't clash with the existing furnishings in Shug's room. Giant plus: all the Lack end tables are on sale right now for the crazy-low amount of $7.99.

Then I went onto Amazon and bought four packs of official Lego small building plates, 10"x10", at $6.80/ea.

Going by the dimensions, this leaves a nice space of about 3/4" around all the plates so it actually looks like we *meant* to do this - or even bought it this way. Pretty nice! Even more nice? It cost just over $35 to make this Lego table with real Lego building plates.

Finding and marking center:

IKEA Lack Table Becomes LEGO Table For Preschooler

Starting to apply Gorilla glue, which worked perfectly:

One plate down:

Av's idea of clamping the plates together with Lego blocks to keep them from slipping any while drying and to make certain that they are completely even between plates:

All done!

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A couple of months ago, I read 'Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices': the author was on Martha's show, and in the book she listed some mattress companies that had the 'greenest' product (turns out, the fire retardant in many mattresses is made up of some pretty nasty chemicals). The best mattresses included Ikea's; they have ones that are 85% natural latex and cotton. So of course Shug got his big-boy mattress there too.

Oh, and you know that smell that new shower liners give off? Not good. Yucky PVC. Ikea sells non-PVC shower liners for less than $2/ea.

So you know I bought everybody I know one.

Can't you just imagine?

"Guess what Ginger got me? A $2 shower curtain liner from Ikea."

"Well, for goodness sakes."

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My favorite thing to do at Ikea? Dream about kitchens.