Deep Fried Kudzu: September 2010

Various

Posted by ginger On Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I heard news today that Vince Hanneman has gotten the city of Austin's blessing that the Cathedral of Junk now meets their requirements, and if he wants to add on to it, that he may simply request a building permit.

---

Oh wow.

---

Pics from collector Dale Fleishmann's home in Metairie in the T-P here.

---

Haydel's made the world's largest king cake last week! And in New Orleans John Folse made it into Guiness by making the largest macaroni & cheese last week, too.

---

My friend, artist Stephanie Dwyer (bottle trees!) exposed herself - on purpose, for a good cause - for the Mississippi Craft Center.

---

This weekend:

Bluff Park Art Show - B'ham AL (previous pics here)
Fall Pilgrimage begins in Natchez
National Banana Pudding Festival in Centerville, TN
Reelfoot Arts & Crafts Festival, Tiptonville TN
National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough TN
Red River Revel Arts Festival, Shreveport

Natural Chandelier

Posted by ginger On Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I picked up this brass chandelier for $15 at a sale and couldn't decide whether to cover it in moss (next time!), newspaper (time after that!), or rope/sisal - so...

I would have taken more pics, but all it took was a lot of hot glue and three different weights of rope / sisal:

I'm going to ask Av to hang it from one of the branches in this tree to make it an outdoor chandelier (I saw that idea in a magazine somewhere...) - can't wait to see!

Fried Everything

Posted by ginger On Monday, September 27, 2010

The State Fair of Texas is going on right now and the Big Tex Choice Awards have gone out for the eight dishes named best new foods at the fair.

Now, I grew up in a small town with a small fair. And I would have never-ever bought food from a fair vendor (not counting the Lions Club concession stand, which offers food by/from local businesses). But at the Texas State Fair, it's kind-of a thing to eat 'fair food' and there especially, to eat *fried* fair food.

So the eight new Big Tex best foods?

Deep Fried Smores Pop Tart
Fried Lemonade
Fernie's Fried Club Salad
Texas Fried Frito Pie
Fried Texas Caviar
Deep Fried Frozen Margarita
Fried Chocolate
----and----
Fried Beer

(the fried club salad has the most calories, with 1021.)

Just the words 'Frito Pie' make me hungry! Frito Pie is a 'thing' in Texas - you just open a bag of Fritos, add chili and cheese...yum! And it's perfect Friday night football food. For 1-1/2 years in elementary school, I left Alabama and lived in Texas. I loved it there.

I had long hair, lived in a pink house (I know! Pink! What is that!?) with pretty roses around it, could walk home from school, had a sweet dachshund named 'Winnie', took piano lessons, belonged to 4-H, and oh-gosh-what-else...

I had gigantic wings in my hair!

I got to represent 5th grade at Homecoming, too. That was exciting!

But back to the fair...

There's a set of pics on Flickr that someone took of a lot of this year's food, including the fried beer. Fried butter, too!

Some state fairs feature butter sculptures. These are all from this year:

New York's Dairyville 2020 village

Iowa's Dr. Seuss

Minnesota's Princess Kay

Cows eating ice cream in Utah

(and wow they've even done a Last Supper in butter previously!)

Joe Minter's African Village In America

Posted by ginger On Sunday, September 26, 2010

This past week, my friend Larry was in town from Houston. He loves art environments as much as I do (he also has the *fantastic* site, Narrow Larry's World of the Outstanding which covers not only art environments but architecture (he's an architect in 'real life')), so I called Joe and Hilda Minter and made arrangements for us to come visit and show Larry a really great time.

He *loved* it.

Well of course, I took him to Niki's West first and filled him up on catfish and fried green tomatoes and 'nana puddin, then we were off to see some Dionicio Rodrigues art for a surprise (more about that later this week), and the best-ever thing was spending time with Joe and Hilda for a tour:

I visit Joe and Hilda often; over 250 pics from their place, African Village in America, is here in my Flickr set.

I stitched these two photos together in Photoshop and they're not perfect, but at original size it's a better idea of the scope of things inside:

and outside:

Joe will be at Kentuck this year, too. Wonderful!

---email me if you'd like directions to Joe's. He loves visitors!

Restaurant Week

Posted by ginger On Tuesday, September 21, 2010

This is going to be good. It's the first annual Birmingham Restaurant Week this week, and 40+ establishments in town are doing prix fixe menus at $10.10, $20.10, and $30.10.

Just a few of those participating: Bottega, Dreamland, Highlands, Jinsei, Little Savannah, Ocean, Veranda, Bottletree, ChezFonfon, Dodiyos, 26, Nabeel's, Rojo, Sol y Luna, Brick & Tin...

We had a terrific supper at Veranda about a month ago: soft-shell crawfish for an appetizer along with a crab and corn savory beignet, Fudge Farms pork tenderloin, steak (I don't remember the cut), dessert was a cornmeal peach cake, and a peanut butter / chocolate concoction.

When the lighting is better for pics, Veranda's food looks better - these are from previous visits:

Shrimp Remoulade, The Veranda, Birmingham AL

Fried Soft Shell Crab, The Veranda, Birmingham AL

Chef Tom Robey came to Veranda from Commander's in New Orleans where he was sous chef, and the dining room manager, Stan Reynolds, is also from Commander's.

Thank you, Brennan family.

Well, as part of B'ham Restaurant Week, Veranda is doing a $30.10 prix fixe:

FIRST COURSE
House Made Boudin Balls with Bacon Braised Onions, Pickled Peppers & Jack Daniels Creole Mustard Honey

or

Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash & Granny Smith Apples, Baby Greens, Dried Cranberries and Sweet Onions Tossed in a Shallot Hard Cider Vinaigrette

SECOND COURSE
Seared Gulf Shrimp over Late Summer Corn & Okra Maque Choux with Jack Daniels Brown Butter

or

Colorado Lamb Shank with Smoked Crimini Mushroom, Tasso & Sweet Potato Hash, Mirliton Slaw & Natural Jus

THIRD COURSE

Fig & White Chocolate Bread Pudding, Jack Daniels Caramel & Chantilly Cream

---
Av took me to Brick & Tin last week for lunch and it was pretty good - especially the breads the sandwiches were on (I read somewhere that you can buy just the bread from them, which they bake fresh on the premises). Gorgeous ceiling:

L-R: New Orleans (salami, capicola, mortadella, provolone & olives) and field pea salad, Brisket, and a slice of multi-layered caramel cake which at first I thought might be a mille feuille (wasn't) or a mille crepe (wasn't) but wasn't a traditional multi-layered caramel either. Hmmm...

---
Many, many other cities do restaurant weeks: New York, Philadelphia, Austin... It seems as though restaurants in New Orleans get together often, like The Coolinary during summer (three supper courses approx. $35) and the Papa Noel promotions in December. Tom Fitzmorris has a list of the summer specials going on right here. I'll go with Ralph's on the Park.

Before & After

Posted by ginger On Monday, September 20, 2010

The J.C. Burrus / Baby Doll House, Benoit MS

Back in 2005, we were in Benoit MS and saw the Hollywood Plantation / J.C. Burris House / "Baby Doll" House. It's the only antebellum structure in Bolivar County, and is constructed of heart cypress.

It was called the Baby Doll house because that's where the 1956 Tennessee Williams movie had been filmed (I Netflixed it once and can only remember Karl Malden being flaky about his too-young wife) based on the TW 1946 play, 'Twenty-seven Loads of Cotton'.

I've read that the reason it survived the war is because Judge Burrus knew the invading Federal officer while he attended UVA. It was also used as a Confederate hospital and headquarters for Confederate officers, including General Jubal Early.

John Wilkes Booth is also said to have lived here for about ten days after shooting President Lincoln (but he was supposedly sixty other places, too, so...).

When the filmmakers for Baby Doll came out to Benoit, they promised the home's then-owners that in lieu of a fee for shooting, they would make some renovations to the home. Years later, people would come out to the house and actually take pieces of the house as souvenirs from the movie.

The home was placed on the 2001 list of endangered places by the Mississippi Heritage Trust. It's been under restoration for a few years now, and looks *so* much better now than in the pic above. Here it is.

Lustron Homes, Slave Cabins, Dan Phillips Is Amazing, And The Best Staircase Ever

Posted by ginger On Friday, September 17, 2010

A friend recently told me about Lustron homes - they were factory built homes in the late '40s (the company went bankrupt in 1950) whose structure was made up of porcelain-enamel panels, and that no-maintenance design was to appeal to young families. See the squares? This one is in B'ham:

The outside might not be the most interesting, but the interiors...factory fresh. From the lamps to the washer/dryer (a Thor AutoMagic that washed clothes *and* dishes - socks now and dishes this afternoon, yummy!), it was delivered ready to live in. There's a map of all or most of them in the US here.

---

Far, far away from tetris-looking homes is a project by Joe McGill. He is staying in slave cabins as a program officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and describes it this way:

As a Civil War re-enactor, I am accustomed to immersing myself in the history I interpret...I am already committed to preserving the built environment, and I have always been interested in African American history. I realized I could combine all three elements, and – more importantly – assist in bringing attention to an aspect of American history that is often overlooked by spending a night in slave cabins throughout the state of South Carolina.

He says he has also been contacted by Georgia and Alabama about extending the project to those states.

All Things Considered on NPR did an interview with him, and his blog is here.

---
One of my friends is working on a top-secret project with Dan Phillips from Texas (can't *wait* to tell more about it), who builds houses from salvaged items - and the NY Times put it this way:

AMONG the traditional brick and clapboard structures that line the streets of this sleepy East Texas town, 70 miles north of Houston, a few houses stand out: their roofs are made of license plates, and their windows of crystal platters.

They are the creations of Dan Phillips, 64, who has had an astonishingly varied life, working as an intelligence officer in the Army, a college dance instructor, an antiques dealer and a syndicated cryptogram puzzle maker. About 12 years ago, Mr. Phillips began his latest career: building low-income housing out of trash.

---

So far, he has built 14 homes in Huntsville, which is his hometown, on lots either purchased or received as a donation. A self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber, Mr. Phillips said 80 percent of the materials are salvaged from other construction projects, hauled out of trash heaps or just picked up from the side of the road. “You can’t defy the laws of physics or building codes,” he said, “but beyond that, the possibilities are endless.”

---

“I think mobile homes are a blight on the planet,” he said. “Attractive, affordable housing is possible and I’m out to prove it.”

Freed by necessity from what he calls the “tyranny of the two-by-four and four-by-eight,” common sizes for studs and sheets of plywood, respectively, Mr. Phillips makes use of end cuts discarded by other builders — he nails them together into sturdy and visually interesting grids. He also makes use of mismatched bricks, shards of ceramic tiles, shattered mirrors, bottle butts, wine corks, old DVDs and even bones from nearby cattle yards.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a complete set of anything because repetition creates pattern, repetition creates pattern, repetition creates pattern,” said Mr. Phillips, who is slight and sinewy with a long gray ponytail and bushy mustache. He grips the armrests of his chair when he talks as if his latent energy might otherwise catapult him out of his seat.

---

Phoenix Commotion employs five minimum-wage construction workers but Mr. Phillips also requires the labor of the home’s eventual resident — he tends to favor a poor, single mother because his own father walked out on him and his mother when he was 17, which left them in a tough financial situation. “My only requirement is that they have good credit or no credit but not bad credit,” he said.

---

Although it has a social agenda, Phoenix Commotion is not a nonprofit. “I want to show that you can make money doing this,” Mr. Phillips said.

The NYT slideshow (oh it is so fantastic! especially pic #8 & #17!) is here. A wonderful collection is here on Flickr too.

---
If you've ever been to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, it really is nice. It was one of the few places I've ever seen an old cork floor (it's wearing great) and the only place I've ever seen work installed by Philadelphia metalsmith Samuel Yellin (1885-1940). Staircases aren't usually one of those things to get really excited by, but one of Yellin's staircases is for sale right now by Urban Archaeology for $250,000. It is *amazing*.

Gail's Back!

Posted by ginger On Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sort of!

Well, so many of the girls I know can't think of having a china closet without having some Gail Pittman pieces.

Not to mention all the McCarty Pottery, and Peter's Pottery...

(Back to Gail, this opens the floodgates! I know some girls that are still upset that she stopped making the china here in the South, others that are upset that she even thought of sending it to be made overseas, others that couldn't believe she would do licensing with Paula Deen at Belk's, and others that either love or hate the Gail pieces at Southern Living at Home (now Willow House)).

And if you're upset Gail's-china-is-overseas-instead-of-made-in-Mississippi (okay, I'm that way too) you're likely to now cherish the pieces that were handpainted and sold in the years before all of that unpleasantness. This is my pre-allofthat chip and dip tray:

Aaaah, *real* Gail.

Well, Gail has opened a store this summer! In Ridgeland! Does that mean she's "back"? Is it being made here in the US again? I left a message on the Facebook page a couple of weeks ago but didn't hear anything back, so I called.

I could tell that they really didn't want to say. I started with that I'm a collector and can't wait to visit the new shop and all that, and went on to ask if it is being made in Mississippi again. The woman I spoke with said that actually a man in Franklin, Tennessee handled all the manufacturing now. So I said...does that mean it's being made in Tennessee now?

(this is the part where I'm thinking: "please say yes. please say yes.")

And she said that the man has manufacturing facilities all over the world.

So you know what that means.

Well, I'm just happy that she's happy and she's back. Even if it's made in China or wherever, I wish her the best and really can't wait to see what new patterns she'll come up with.

And I'll always be a Honeysuckle fan.

Graveshelters, Lovely Roadside Stand, Strange Chicken, And Covered Bridges

Posted by ginger On Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Recently, we were in Blount County, Alabama and got to look up some things - one thing was from the best website on graveshelters (the people who have it are just super-nice, too) - these shelters at High Rock Cemetery:

...and this one at Stewart's Chapel Cemetery:

Couldn't help but stop at this fruit stand, and got a big bag of Vidalias:

Lunch was at Benedikt's, on County Road 27 outside Oneonta. It was odd. I wanted to like it, but the fried chicken had this odd tempura batter on it (think super-thick Chinese tempura batter), and everything seemed just...(ouch)...bland. It was self-service everything, as the food was buffet-style and drinks were from a fountain.

If you needed service, a sign on the table instructed you to pick up the small American flag on your table, wave it in the air, and sing a patriotic song (seriously). Not to be a stick in the mud, but to be a stick in the mud anyway, that's not one of the ways I have ever been taught as okay to 'use' an American flag.

There's chicken under all that batter:

All this to say: can someone please recommend a good restaurant in that area?

We also wanted to see how the covered bridges were doing - we try to visit them every couple of years.

Horton Mill bridge - this was built in 1935 and is the highest covered bridge over water in the US:

Closed to traffic.

This is how it looked a few years ago when I was feeling arty and playing around with b&w film:

Horton Mill Covered Bridge Entry, Blount County AL

This is the Easley bridge, built in 1930:

See that sign on the inside right of the bridge? It begins "Isn't it sad the condition Blount County's three remaining covered bridges are in?" and goes on to talk about the level of neglect they have gotten. I have to say, it is surprising how much worse they appear each time we visit. I wonder how much anyone in leadership (elected or otherwise) in Blount County has done in thorough research on government grants or other avenues of private funding for restoration. Surely there is something out there.

An older pic I have of it:

Easley Covered Bridge Entry, Blount County AL

The saddest part of all was that we couldn't even get to Swann bridge anymore from this side. It was built in 1933 and is the longest covered bridge (324 feet) remaining in the state.

Old pics:

Swann Covered Bridge Entrance, Blount County AL

Swann Covered Bridge Span, Blount County AL

Last year, we were still able to drive on the bridge. I hope something can be done quickly to get these bridges in better condition. Blount County, after all, still has an annual Covered Bridge Festival.

This is a great list of old, gone, and new covered bridges in the state. All the states are here (open the .htm file so it looks best). If anyone knows of a covered bridge society in Alabama, like some other states have, please let me know. Thanks!

Moundville

Posted by ginger On Monday, September 13, 2010

It had been a while since our last visit to Moundville, so we brought the boys and visited the renovated museum (which is so much different from how the museum used to be that I'm not sure 'renovated' even does it justice).

It was a rainy day so these pics are dark, but this pic shows several of the mounds - there are about two dozen of them there. Moundville was the largest city in North America 800 years ago, with 1000 or so here and another 10,000 or so in the valley:

The chief's mound, with a recreated hut on top:

Inside the museum:

What were gone were all the dioramas that I loved from last time...

The funny thing is that a university found my pics of the old dioramas online and asked permission to use a couple for a documentary they were doing!

---
If the first thing you think of in Moundville is...well, the mounds, obviously...then the second thing might be (my favorite book) Let Us Now Praise Famous Men which was based in the area. Fortune Magazine went back in 2005 for this article and The Atlantic ran their own article in April of this year.

I've mentioned this before but the NYT did their own Walker Evans drive-through last year, and also really good is this seven-piece set they did called 'The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock,' after which this photograph is even more interesting.