This table is one of my friend Josie's many pieces of folk art that I got a picture of before it was whisked away to California. I find it completely adorable, especially those legs.
The top lifts off and on the inside of the apron, its maker has told its story.
THIS TABLE WAS NOT MADE IN A FACTORY ~ IT WAS MADE BY FREDERICK A HEUSER IN ROCK HILL SC (?)FROM SECOND USE PINE TEXTILE MACHINE CRATES??? THAT HOLD IT TOGETHER ARE ??? BLACK GLASS ?? WALNUT PEGS ???
I couldn't make out the entire description -- the wood is rough and the writing is hard to read. There is a date - 1994.
The little table makes me think of the quilts of Gee's Bend -- making something marvelous out of leftovers.
It was an ominous pre-dawn sky yesterday morning -- suitable for the day I'd marked down to get our tax information together.
We're approaching the equinox -- the sun's almost in the middle of our due east view.
But that's not what I'm here to blog about. I want to tell you about a recipe that has stood the test of time. It's from The Gasparilla Cookbook -- produced by the Tampa Junior League back in 1961 and still in print. It's the food of my childhood -- Southern, Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Greek.
I got my first copy in 1962, the year before we got married, and it was my go-to cook book for a very long time. I wore that first copy out and got a replacement in '89 -- it's fairly stained and battered now. And the thing is, all these years later and the recipes are still terrific.
Bef Piquant is a good thing to do with a cheap cut of meat -- add in the potatoes and carrots and you've got a meal. I also served some buttered broccoli and a salad.
After this was well underway, I realized, with something of a shock, there's no garlic in it. Another time, I may add a bit but honestly, it's awfully good just this way.
The smell filled the house for hours and when it was time to eat, I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Oh, my, it was good. The meat falls off the bone and is a big mouthful of flavor.
Try it -- you'll see.
Beef Piquant - in preparation
2 to 3 pounds chuck or round steak, at least 2 inches thick
1 lemon
2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
3 generous dashes Tabasco sauce ( I used quite a lot (2 tablespoons, maybe) of Sriracha hot sauce instead for more heat)
2 medium onions, sliced and sauteed in 2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon capers
Optional -- potatoes and carrots
Place steak in center of a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil in a shallow pan. Rub both sides of steak with cut lemon. Spread both sides of steak with mustard. Place under broiler and brown both sides. Remove from oven, salt and pepper, squeeze lemon juice over the steak. Sprinkle with Worcestershire, brown sugar, and Tabasco. Add capers and onions, which have been sauteed. You can add in potatoes and carrots, if desired. Bring foil up to seal in an airtight package. Bake at 300 for 3 hours.
The cardinal is looking disgruntled. Small wonder -- he's sitting in a crab apple tree, surrounding by swelling pink buds, and the rain is turning to snow.
The slide show follows some of the weather fickle Mother Nature brought us Sunday and Monday.
We watched the film "Master and Commander" again last night and once again I was seduced by the accuracy of detail, the wonderful acting,the beautiful score, and the faithfulness to the sense of the original books, if not to the plot line.
I've mentioned before my fondness for O'Brian's 20 book Aubrey/Maturin series. I've read the books multiple time and listened to them on CD read by the amazing Patrick Tull more times than you would believe. An O'Brian book is my default listening in the car at any time.
But don't take my word for it. In a cover-story in The New York Times Book Review published on January 6, 1991, Richard Snow called the Aubrey-Maturin books "the best historical novels ever written. On every page Mr. O'Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don't, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives."
And in a Washington Post article published August 2, 1992, Ken Ringle wrote, "The Aubrey/Maturin series far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart."
It's as if the close observation of human nature, the dry wit, and the elegant prose of Jane Austen had gone to sea during the Napoleonic Wars and I find something new to admire with every re-reading/listening/watching.
Need I add, highly recommended?
(Book cover illustration and sea battle painting by the renowned marine artist Geoff Hunt)
If you're creeped out by snakes, you may want to make a graceful exit along about now. Come back tomorrow. But Martin H. over at Square Sunshine asked what dangerous snakes we have in the US and here they are, beginning with the Copperhead, of which we have quite a few on our mountain.
Copperheads are venomous but rarely fatal. (I have a friend who was bitten by one and she said it was the most pain she's ever experienced.) They are fond of wood piles and rock walls so we try to be cautious around both.
The darker race of copperheads look a lot like our Northern Water Snakes but Copperheads have the slim neck and wide head of the pit viper. They also have vertical pupils whereas the water snake's pupils are round -- a handy identification reference, if you can get that close.
The other venomous snake in western North Carolina is the rattle snake.
There are many varieties of rattle snakes (rattlers) in the US; here in the mountains we have the timber rattler. Or so I'm told. I've never seen one on our place but that doesn't mean there are none.His scientific name is crotalus horridus but there are few recorded fatalities from his bite.
No Water Moccasins in the mountains, thank goodness.If you ever sawLonesome Doveand the scene where the cowboys are crossing the river- well, never mind but talk about creeping you out. . .
Water moccasins are also called cottonmouths. When disturbed, they will hold their heads up and open their mouths wide, displaying the pale interior.These snakes are aggressive and highly venomous.
We don't have any Coral Snakes so no need for the rhyme Scouts learn-"Red and yellow -- kill a fellow/ Red and black--friend of Jack."
(The harmless Scarlet King Snake looks very similar, but in the King Snake, the red and black bands are touching, not separated by yellow.)
Coral Snakes sound pretty scary -- related as they are to cobras, mambas, and sea snakes. But they are highly reclusive and non-aggressive. They aren't pit vipers and don't inject venom into their victim -- they literally have to chew it in. I've never seen one in the wild, though I lived in Florida (which has all four venomous snakes) over thirty years.
The pictures of snakes came fromHERE Click the link for lots more information on venomous snakes of the USA. Or just enjoy a snake-free clump of daffodils.
A few warm days and the Autumn Joy sedum's green rosettes are pushing aside the mulch . .
Lilac buds are swelling, eager to burst free of their leafy swaddling...
The weeping willow is a veil of chartreuse-green.
And in the dark basement, last year's potatoes are sprouting . . .
I spend a little time on the porch, rubbing those spindly white sprouts off before returning the potatoes to the darkness. They'll keep longer de-sprouted (which is why most commercial potatoes are treated with something to prevent sprouting.)
My friend Josie is heading to California today -- a cross-country move that's been in the works for quite a while now but is suddenly and horribly A Done Deal.
The windows are blank and bare in her house and all the folk art and books and paintings that made it such a friendly place have been loaded on a truck, along with her furniture and even her car, and are probably making their way through the Midwest along about now.
Josie's been a part of our family for a long time. I met her in a painting class over ten years ago and was drawn to her because she always had a quiet smile as if she saw a bit of a giggle in everything.
I even wrote about Josie in Art's Blood - she was the one who ushered the obnoxious woman on the cell phone out of the class -- something that actually happened.
We'll stay in touch by the internet and I plan to go visit Josie -- and she says she'll come back to see us.
But still -- there's an empty spot in our lives today and even the spring flowers look a little sad..
Q: Do you make a detailed outline before you begin to write a novel?
A: I'm often asked this and up till now my answer as been "No, I send my editor a few pages indicating a bit about characters and plot -- what's the main problem, what are the conflicts, what are some high points, and what's the resolution."
But things have changed. The novel I want to write next isn't about Elizabeth Goodweather nor is it a spin-off like The Day of Small Things. It's still in the mountains, still in mythical Marshall County. But it's a whole new cast of characters and not really a mystery.
And since I'm not a best-selling author, getting a new contract isn't a foregone conclusion. It's not my editor's decision alone. The new novel basically has to be pitched to a group of people - including marketing -- who will be asking one question. And that question isn't Is this novel going to be a well-written book?
No, the question is Will this book sell a lot of copies? Because, like it or not, publishing is a business.
So I've been directed to write a really detailed proposal -- almost a chapter by chapter synopsis. I make a start -- and I find I'm writing the book rather than a synopsis. Arrgh!
Which is why I'm giving the Snowflake Method a try. Back in the fall, one of the students in my writing class told us about this way of working out a plot and I was intrigued. (I'm not going to try to paraphrase it here -- check the link if you're interested.) Now I'm working through it, trying to come up with a dynamite proposal.
It takes time -- but I'm hopeful that the hours spent on this meticulous outline will save days when it comes to writing and I won't be up in my workroom in the wee hours of the morning, trying to figure out what should happen next.
