Lucindaville Abecedary

My favorite type of book is an abcedary. Alphabetical listing of various ideas, thoughts, places and whatever. It seems that with a new year upon us, a Lucindaville abcedary of the things we like, loved and lived for would be a great way to start the year. Given that it is nearly February, it would seem that now is the time.

A

Alabama wins the BCS Championship. What more can one say!

B

Bohemian interiors. I am not a minimalist. I am a collector. I love obsessive clutter, especially books. So there is little doubt that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Oberto Gili’s Home Sweet Home. The pages are filled with color and books and dead things and paintings and so much more.

C

Cats. We lost Djuna this year. She had been my cat for 17 years. Halloween, we added Trick and Treat to the menagerie.

D

We love books about dining. We love dining in general, but we do love a great book on entertaining. This year our favorite entertaining book was both entertaining and historical. Dining with the Washington’s was published by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. It is beyond beautiful. The over sized jacket flaps feature Martha and George Washington. There are historical lists of people they entertained. There is garden information, cooking information, info on their china and cutlery and a recipes. Food, dishes, gardens, wine, oh my.

E

Edwardians. We really loved the Victorians but the Edwardians are growing on us. Between Downton Abbey and the new Upstairs/Downstairs, we are immersed in all things Edwardian.

F

Farro. This has been the year of the ancient grains. Farro has been one of our favorites. We loved it our warm beet salad with blueberries. This month in Food & Wine we saw an identical recipe for farro and beets with fish. We like blueberries better!

G

Gizzards are the offal of champions. After sharing several gizzard recipes, we found that there are many like-minded gizzard lovers out there. Look for new gizzard recipes in the coming months.

H

Christopher Hitchens lost this valiant battle with cancer. We will miss hanging out in his office talking about books. Agree with him or not, his essays always made us think.

I

ipad. I believed that there would never be an invention greater than the ipod. I love my music and I love my ipod with a devotion that is often reserved for a spouse. That being said, this Christmas I got and ipad. I see a plural marriage in my future.

J

Justified. My favorite television show of last year was the faintly western, Justified. I love Timothy Olyphfant. Margo Martindale was the best television villain in recent memory, and we are beyond happy that she won an Emmy. Justified is back this week and we are hoping that it will continue its winning ways.

K

Kitchen equipment. This has been a year of heavy kitchen equipment. Thanks to an extensive wish list of DIY tools we now have our own grain grinder and our own sausage stuffer. While it is often hard to walk around the kitchen, it is filled with great food.

L

little augury. We have been reading little augury for several years now. It is still as fresh as ever. While we procrastinate about a blog entry, little augury writes about it. And frankly, it kind of ticks us off that she is so together and that she has such great taste. But we will forgive her.

M

Mamacita. One of the great things about blogging is the people who comment. Sometimes the comments are better than the blogs. This would be the case with mamacita. When trying to identify a piece of Victorian cutlery, mamacita suggested it might be a tater tot fork. We laughed out loud. We still laugh, not to mention, we feel that it has opened the door to a whole new field of repurposing cutlery for modern times.

N

New Bob Dylan Tribute. We are fans of Bob Dylan but we are even bigger fans of Bob Dylan Tributes. This year Amnesty International compiled Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, features a full 75 tributes to Dylan. Everyone from Kronos Quartet to Miley Cyrus. For that reason alone, this is a keeper.

O

The Metropolitan Opera in West Virginia. The Metropolitan Opera broadcasts a live prefomance in HD in movie theaters around the country. Even in the backwoods of West Virginia one can spend an evening with Deborah Voigt's Brunnhilde.

P

Pigtown Design is another of our favorite blogs. WE just love the happenings in Baltimore and everywhere else the blog takes us.

Q

Quinoa. For my birthday last year I got a five-pound bag of quinoa. It was another of our favorite ancient grains. Cook it like rice. It is nutty and easy and good for you.

R

Lee Radziwill. As a child, my idol was Lee Radziwill. I read once that she was “sitting on the couch looking pensive.” So I looked up the word “pensive” and set out to sit on my couch looking “pensive.” Frankly, I looked like a child turning into a seial killer. I never masterd pensive, but I still think she is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

S

Smocks. Last year we got interested in bringing back the smock as a necessary item of clothing. We went so far as to order a vintage smock pattern. The year we are continuing our smock canmpaign and getting out the sewing machine.

T

Theatre of design of Olvier Messel. We have always been a big fan of Oliver Messel, so the annoucment that there would be new book featuring his work was beyond exciting. Oliver Messel: In the Theater of Design offers up the most complet look at Messel’s vast body of work.

U

Unity. As in Mitford. Hey, we couldn’t do a blog retrospective without a “Mitford.” This year we are looking forward to writing about a few of the lesser known Mitford girls. It may or may not surprise you to learn that are several songs about Unity Mitford from the rather twee Indelicates(shown above) to the skinhead band, Whitelaw.

V

Diana Vreeland. Rumor has it, Diana Vreeland is making a comeback. for us she never left. Want to know why she is so improtant? Check out Diana Vreeland The Eye Has To Travel.

W

Whole Beast Butchery. Now I know that most of you are not going to attempt butchering a steer in your kitchen. But if you care about how an animal gets to your table, check out Ryan Farr's Whole Beast Buchery. One will find that there is an incredible art to cutting meat.

X

Xtabay. The exotic singer with the four octive voice, Yma Sumac. She was the voice of Xtabay and an excellent addition to a party music mix.

Y

Yuzu Kosho. This year the kitchen has been filled with dishes amped up with yuzu kosho. A wonderful paste of yuzu, pepperes and salt that add a bright and sizzling heat to any dish. A bit in some oil makes a wonderfl marinade. A bit in soup gives it a bright warm kick. Food & Wine says it going to be the "it" ingrecient this year. Let'shope so as it is a bit hard to find.

Z

zippy definition

[ˈzɪpi]

1. mod.
   lively; active. : This is a real zippy number.

Zippy. Our descriptive word for the year. We are planning a very zippy blog in 2012.