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Archive for the ‘Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country’ Category

Porch Sittin’

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It’s Book Club time again. Tonight we’ll be discussing Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. In our club, the woman who hosts that night at her house gets to pick the book, and I’m excited to discuss this 1930’s African American coming of age novel. Born in 1891, Ms Hurston grew up in the country’s first incorporated Black township in Eatonville, Florida. By the time she died in 1960, penniless and working as a maid, this Harlem Renaissance author had published several short stories, screenplays, eight novels and four childrens’ books.

I had trouble digging into this book simply because of the language. Her dialogue is pure early, Black Southern vernacular. “Speakin’ of winds, he’s de wind and we’se de grass,…he’s got uh throne in de seat of his pants,” is a good example of how grammar is exchanged for metaphor which I finally loved to read slowly and savor. Because I could identify with Janie, who was in some ways Hurston herself. Her grandmother wanted her to marry well and sit up high on the porch, listening to the stories of others and never giving voice to her own.

It was wonderful to see on CNN this morning our Black Congresswomen coming to the aide of a white Florida delegate, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after a Black male delegate, R- Allen West called her out in an email to shut her mouth and start acting like a lady! Are we still talking semantics or is there something more sinister here? The numbers of women in our Capital building are dwindling partially because of this patently absurd culture.

My first post-college job in 1973 was at the Fremont Street Head Start Pre-School in Jersey City, NJ. My four year olds were precious, and their parents wanted only the best possible education for them, not unlike any other Caucasian parents. But we had to deal with drug users and sellers in the alleys, broken glass on the cement playground where the equipment had to be hauled inside every night, and burnt out buildings in the neighborhood instead of parks. My eyes were opened as I began to understand their dialect, and the multi-generational language of poverty.

We’re having a heat wave right now on both sides of the mountains. Tonight will bring some cooler heads to this porch of smart Southern women.

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Summer Lasagne

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

We were having a few people over for dinner on one of those really hot mid-90s no breezey nights. And because yellow squash was at its peak in the garden, I decided to make a white lasagne, the kind my cousins in Ireland had made for us once. Usually, it’s not a great idea to try out a new recipe on company, but it worked. I found out later that Giada de Laurentis had almost simultaneously devised a similar royal lasagne for Kate and William out in California! Here is what you will need:

  • 1 box lasagne noodles
  • 1 container semi-skim ricotta
  • 1 giant yellow squash fresh from the garden
  • 1 container mushrooms
  • 1 bag organic baby leaf spinach
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 2 shallots, chopped
  • About 5 cups of Bechamel sauce + grated cheese
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
  • freshly grated nutmeg

Making a lasagne is like conducting a symphony. You assemble everything you need and then start layering. Cook the noodles and set aside in lukewarm water so they are easy to handle. Saute the shallots and add the turkey to brown, you can start this while the noodles are boiling. Cooking  is the one and only area where I can easily multi-task. Wash and slice up the mushrooms.

You will need a mandoline to slice the squash paper thin. I first saw one of these slicing gadgets on the FrenchChef, Julia used hers to make Potatoes Anna.

You can either make  your own simple Bechamel white sauce, which requires a roux (flour + butter) with milk or you can buy a fresh Alfredo sauce in the dairy section of your market. Add some grated cheese to it – whatever you have in leftover hunks in the fridge. Add nutmeg to the sauce and at the end over the top. Add the sauce to the browned turkey. Time to start the layering…Put some sauce on the bottom of the pan, layer the noodles. First spread the ricotta cheese over the noodles like you would ice a cake. Then place the mushrooms, squash and spinach (no stems please) over the cheese. Ladle on some white turkey sauce – repeat twice more. End with a layer of noodles and sauce with the grated mozzarella on top.

I made this the night before. Take it out of the fridge a few hours before baking, then bake covered with aluminum foil for a half hour at 350 (maybe longer if you don’t have a  convection oven). Uncover and bake 15 minutes more.

Very simple and elegant, although Giada baked hers in individual ramekins with mascarpone cheese and corn. Maybe next time? And maybe next time, the air conditioning won’t quit right before the guests arrive?

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Madison County Fair

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 18, 2011| 2 Comments »

It was a toss up. Should we go to the County Fair this past weekend, or the Bluegrass Festival? Demolition derby vs dueling banjos? The Fair won, but only for the High Horse Cloggers (girls + 1 guy in tap shoes),

since the Roller Derby (girls in fishnet) was scheduled for the evening back in town at the ice rink and we already had tickets to see the “Charlottesville Derby Dames” annihilate the Charm City Rollergirl’s “Female Trouble.” Country folk know how to party!

  

And just to show you how Cville is not just the epicenter of Locovore Lore (meaning we started the ‘eat local’ movement) – while sitting on the Mall for dinner with our newest, sweetest family of ex-Nashville residents and our MOH Jersey native Sarah on her way to Duke, we said hello to a friend, Melissa, visiting from Seattle! TJ would be so proud.

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B E Aggressive

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Thank you Billy Jean King. For winning the match against Bobby Riggs in September of 1973, for bearing the torch for gender equality and insisting that women athletes compete on the same economic playing field with men. The women’s movement was still in its infancy. In January, Roe v Wade was passed by an enlightened Supreme Court but, unmarried women still had trouble getting credit, and could not obtain a prescription for ‘the pill’ in many states. And another big thanks to that set of Supremes who just a year earlier, in 1972, amended the civil right’s act to include Title IX, thereby forbidding sex discrimination in any academic institution – and not just in sports! It also includes, “…Access to higher education, career education, education for pregnant and parenting students, employment, learning environment, math and science,” etc.

I’ve been thinking back today because of the World Cup in Women’s Soccer tomorrow. Abby Wombach has the determination to bring the prize home for our American team. I can’t wait to watch the game and have to think there is a new generation of young girls out there watching her fearless physicality. For my generation of girls in the ’50s and ’60s, there was nobody like that. We had the choice of cooking or sewing in high school. Luckily I was sent to Camp St Joseph for Girls early, where competitive sports was like breathing. I won basketball trophies each summer, then came home to Catholic School where we did jumping jacks next to our seat for exercise.

My Daughter learned to ski as an infant in the Berkshires. We could cross country ski right out our back door into a bird sanctuary

She was a fish in water at the Jersey Shore beach club that became a second home, she excelled on the  swim team. So imagine my shock when she declared her love for cheerleading! I was coaching the Rocker’s mini league soccer team while she was chanting “B E Aggressive.” Thankfully, she outgrew the Mustangs, and moved on to Field Hockey in high school. She had options. She became a runner, and now loves yoga and adventure hiking and rappelling off mountains! We’ve come a long way Baby!

Blonde, center, right…and the Rocker?

He got his little hands on a guitar, and except for the occasional ice hockey or lacrosse stick, he was pretty happy with the ax!

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Policy Deadlock

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged on July 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

So, one of the first things to pique my interest after I moved South was a sign outside of a restaurant on the Historic Pedestrian Mall that pictured a handgun with a red slash going through it. It read something like, “No concealed weapons in this establishment,” just in case you didn’t get the picture.

I had never seen such a sign before. No dogs allowed, no bare feet, but never no guns. It was a moment when I had to admit, this move is a BIG change, a cultural shift. Like learning to pump my own gas.

Our Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, is currently in a standoff with the University about gun policy. You see the administrators of Mr. Jefferson’s Academical Village have outlawed weapons on the campus for many years. To quote the UVA policy on Firearms, Weapons and Destructive Devices, the “…possession, storage or use of any firearm, weapon, ammunition or explosives” in any facility, including the medical complex, by staff, students, community or visitors is  prohibited, period. With only two exceptions: one being a police officer; or the written permission of the Chief of Police .

And now Mr Cuccinelli has stated that anyone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon trumps the school policy! In other words, it’s OK to walk into the hospital with a handgun on your belt. Now if you were an ER physician, or nurse or patient, would you like to see that sticking out of a shirt?

Should a state law always override a public institution’s policy? Right after we moved here in 2007, a horrific massacre occurred at VA Tech killing 32 people and wounding 25 others. I heard people say ‘if only’ a student or professor had had a gun that day they may have stopped the carnage. Or ‘if only’ the perpetrator had been diagnosed mentally ill. Not much was said about the assault weapon ban that was left to silently expire, or the ease of obtaining a gun in this country. Or the fact that more than 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence every year, claiming over 30,000 lives according to the CDC.

Being an old school policy wonk, I’d like to advise our schools to change their destructive device policy pronto. Perhaps a change to “Rules and Regulations” where certain politicians must keep hands-off. Also keeping those concealed weapons out of restaurants and bars? Good idea!

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Wooly Winery part deux

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 12, 2011| 1 Comment »

King Family Vineyard is one of the most beautiful wedding venues in Albemarle County, and now I know why. Brides and grapes benefit from the prevailing wind, keeping wedding guests cool and the vines free from mold, according to our tour guide, Tom. The  King’s French winemaker, Matthieu Finot, understands the importance of terroir –  a constellation of factors like soil, climate, aquifer and environment – in developing a great wine. Last Sunday, our fearless Needle Lady leader and chef, Mimi, set up a glorious picnic lunch under a canopy of trees, so that we could better understand the, “…secrets of the (knitting) world that can make our knitting projects more enjoyable and successful.”

                                                             We learned to make seams, we dished about dogs, and talked about our work and family life, the different ways we weave the things we love into day to day life.  Between our variegated group of UVA nurses, attorneys and sex educators, we had a fabulous day! The take-away for me?

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just knots!” Oh and well trained poodles will not chase polo ponies and my new favorite VA wine is King Family “Roseland,”  a blend of Viognier and Chardonnay. Cheers!

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Wooly Winery Part 1

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 11, 2011| 2 Comments »

Anita talked me into it. “It will be fun,” she said. And since I’m never one to avoid fun, I signed up for my very first designer weekend event at The Needle Lady. You remember, it’s the Best Little Yarn Shop in town. The designer, Chris Bylsma, came all the way from Madison, Wisconsin to instruct and hopefully inspire our motley crew of about 15 women. She was lovely and exuded confidence in our ability. Local C-villians mixed with knitters from Richmond, VA, Maryland and even one who flew in from Ottawa. Just like band groupies, this designer has a fair number of followers.

Chris Bylsma in Blue

Friday night was the “Meet and Greet,” and a chance to pick out our colors for Chris’ beautiful Coloratura jacket. Now I love all colors, and due to my many years spent in a Catholic school girl’s uniform, I stood in front of her luscious display of wool skeins like my son once stood in front of an ice cream display, or my daughter’s first trip to a candy store  – struck silent by the sheer terror of making a choice. I managed to say, “Turquoise is my happy color,” and Chris skillfully picked out a dizzying array of happy blues for me with names like, Alice, Oops, Turquoise Jeans and Ingrid’s Blues.  Claudia center in White

Saturday we got down to work. We had our six variegated yarns (in shades of blue for me, pink for Anita) mostly rolled into balls,  and one silk that would tie the many pieced jacket together like a “…virtuoso of runs and trills.” Chris gently told us to make swatches since we had to be “…on gauge.” She reminded us that we are each very different knitters and there is, “…no normal out there.”

Knitters who Lunch

How to describe a knitting circle that lasts all day? Chris measured each one of us so the jacket would fit perfectly. We laughed and shared stories of our children. We even dabbled with politics, but in a polite way. If only our legislators would knit! Claudia McClean of Claudia’s Handpaint yarns in Harrisonburg, VA had delivered all her yummy yarns the night before and stayed to help, explaining her process of dyeing those 19.5 micron hanks of Italian wool into the amazing rainbow of colors we knitters had in our hands.

Sunday everyone met at King Family Vineyard to learn seaming, have lunch, take a wine tour and watch polo of course,  (to be continued)…

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Atlantis

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged on July 8, 2011| 2 Comments »

We have liftoff! Our last shuttle flight for awhile and I couldn’t help thinking about that day in Boston, watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon in 1969. I was a mere college student, holding my breath with the rest of the world. How to describe that feeling, something akin to pride and awe – patriotism mixed with wonder? We need a new word.

Besides Apollo II, 1969 would prove to be a watershed year for our generation. Nixon was elected President and Vietnam was our bloody political baptism. A friend of mine became sterile from a botched illegal abortion. Bob marched on Washington and went to Woodstock.

…in a school bus.

It’s not right that we’re privatizing space, in my opinion. The first astronauts on the moon left a sign there that read:  “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” Of course, since then, we’ve had many female astronauts. Today there is a woman, Sandra Magnus, among the final four astronauts heading for the space station, so when we get to Mars, we may have to make that sign a little more gender friendly. What do you say President Obama? RIP NASA Shuttle.

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Twice Bitten

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on July 5, 2011| 1 Comment »

Mark Bittman, of the Minimalist cooking series in the NYTimes, posted a how-to video of his Watermelon and Tomato Salad on its front web page over the weekend. There are just a few things I will click to play on the Times site and they include: 1) anything Wedding; 2) that old, fashion guru on a bike Bill Cunningham; and 3) all things Minimalist. This watermelon salad, Bittman said, was an oldie but well worth a redo since it echoes the flavors and colors of Turkey. I was planning on making a special delivery dinner to friends who had just moved into town, so I watched the podcast and went shopping. Here is what you will need for this simple and refreshing dish:

  • 1 small seedless watermelon
  • 1 package of grape tomatoes
  • parsley
  • scallions
  • blue cheese

I love using my melon baller, it beats trying to slice a finger while sliding a knife through a juicy melon. So you scoop out the watermelon sans seeds, halve the tomatoes, clean and chop the parsley and scallions and then make a very simple vinaigrette. 2 T red or white wine vinegar mixed in a glass bowl with 3-4 T Evoo and freshly ground salt (just scored some pink Himalayan) and pepper. Mix everything together and sprinkle on the cheese. If blue cheese is too strong for your family, substitute goat cheese. Picnic anyone?Now everyone knows moving is right up there among the BIG stressors in life, and when you are moving with two small children then you have Stress to the 3rd power (move +  2 kids= 3). This particular Mom is a top-notch neonatal ICU nurse, so she can make moving two babies look easy. When we were packing up nearly 30 years of marriage to move south, and move the Rocker into college, I was also putting steroid drops into my eyes every hour. A West Nile virus carrying mosquito had the audacity to bite me, and that bout of encephalitis nearly took my sight.

That was Stress to the 4th power (move + last child leaving home + nearly dying and only losing partial peripheral vision thanks to one lousy mosquito = 4).  I’m beginning to understand why my 87 year old MIL wants to stay in her house. Here is my moving mantra – “Bloom where you’re planted.”

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Yearning to breathe free

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on July 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

I admit it, I get all teary on the Fourth of July. Something about that parade, with the school bands and fire engines and the troops of boy and girl scouts. But since we moved to Central Virgina, Bob and I like to go up the mountain to Monticello – the home of the author of these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” This year marks the 49th Annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony, and 77 people from 44 countries around the world will swear allegiance to these United States of America.

Last year we heard Tracy Ullman, the keynote speaker, talk about our spirit of American confidence, with a capital “C!” She spoke about her father, and how he hated paying for the Royals and thought he’d have a real chance at a better life in America. The sky was the limit he thought, whereas in the UK once a shoemaker, always a shoemaker. Other years we’ve heard the artists  Christo and Jeanne-Claude speak, who are known for slinging orange drapes over Central Park, and we’ve listened to I.M. Pei the architect extol our country’s virtues. In fact Pei was the speaker the summer we moved here, in 2005. I registered to vote that day in VA at the ceremony, in Jefferson’s garden.

I wonder if documentary film maker, Alexandra Pelosi, attended our unique event. She traveled all 50 states to interview newly naturalized American citizens right after the ceremony and before they hit the Olive Garden, to find out why they wanted to relinquish all ties to their ancestral homes and become US citizens. Maybe you saw her Jon Stewart interview? She attended naturalization ceremonies at the Mall of America, at a circus, and a number of baseball stadiums. They even had one at WrestleMania. Guess I’ll just have to watch her special on HBO on July 4th, or buy her book,  Citizen USA: A 50 State Road Trip – maybe she caught me taking a picture of Tracy along with our wedding photographer, Jack Looney.

A picture within a picture…if you see Monticello look for me. I’ll be the one in the big straw hat, crying.

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